Watching yourself evolve on the forum

[index]

It just occurred to me that I've been on the forum for nearly seven years now. Joined when I was 13 and I'll be 21 this year, which is quite a while for someone my age and around half of the forum's lifespan so far. Besides my posts increasing in quality and substance, and rate of posting to a small degree, my posting activity has also subtly reflected changes in my life. I've had occasional posts from long ago complaining about parents and chores but now it's about...stuff other than parents and chores. I've watched the same happen to others on the forum who were there when I joined, around my age.

What looking through my old activity on the Internet has taught me is that, no matter what I may have thought at that moment, I was *not* mature like I thought I was! Being able to use grammar, "big words," talking to adults, and being able to engage in discussion of at least moderate substance does not make you mature. I've been in a lot of spaces with people my age years ago, as a teenager, and it would always get thrown around how we were so mature were compared to the others. We were not. One of the universal rules of life, at least when you are young, seems to be that you will always cringe at what you did 2-3 years prior when you thought to yourself "nope, I'm not an idiot like I used to be." In other words, hindsight is 20/20.

[Rothman]

Given my participation on m.t.r., I'm looking at over 20 years of participation online, whether there or here, with something of a hiatus in there somewhere -- over the time I moved from DC to WI and then back to the Northeast, IIRC.  And others certainly have me beat in terms of longevity.

Been through a lot and am still going through a lot.  Certainly grown over that time, but can't help but think that some maturity is overrated.

[interstatefan990]

One of the universal rules of life, at least when you are young, seems to be that you will always cringe at what you did 2-3 years prior when you thought to yourself "nope, I'm not an idiot like I used to be." In other words, hindsight is 20/20.

Most people don't realize it, but that's just what getting older is. Natural part of life.

[WillWeaverRVA]

I was 24 when I joined the forum (not long after it was created), and honestly my posts don't seem all that different 14 years later.

[MATraveler128]

I've had my account since I was 18 and am now 21, but didn't really start participating here until the beginning of last year. I feel as if some of my posts have evolved from when I first started.

[webny99]

I was 24 when I joined the forum (not long after it was created), and honestly my posts don't seem all that different 14 years later.

Now try to imagine being 10 when you joined (or 13 if you want to meet forum guidelines) and 24 (or 27) now. 

Definitely a bit more meat on the bone for this subject for those of us who were younger when we joined. I would obviously include myself there, as I was 17, and I feel like it wasn't until about age 20-21 that the majority of my posts were non-cringe-worthy. That was around the time that I (gradually) stopped trying overly hard to sound smart and quit worrying that I wouldn't be taken seriously because of my age. It's been a few years since then and I'm still embarrassed reading some of the early stuff I posted.

[Max Rockatansky]

I don't think I've changed much since 2016.  My move to California was already finished by the time I registered on the forum.  I got married a couple years back but that really hasn't had a tangible difference on how much road stuff I do.  My wife is pretty independent like me, I don't think either of us have changed much due to being married. 

Also, it wasn't too long into the forum when I joined Gribblenation.  I've seen far more evolution of what I do on Gribblenation from 2016 to today than what I post on AAroads.  It doesn't hurt that I collaborate with Daniel at CAhighways frequently and a BART director gifted me almost a complete set of California Highways & Public Works.

[webny99]

That's why it's just best to lie about your age online, or avoid mentioning it at all.

I certainly avoided mentioning it, but I didn't see a need to lie about it either. My point is that I can tell how young and immature I was just by the content of my posts; like the way I worded things and tried to use big words and sound smart even when it wasn't doing me any good.

[webny99]

I don't think I've changed much since 2016.  My move to California was already finished by the time I registered on the forum.  I got married a couple years back but that really hasn't had a tangible difference on how much road stuff I do.  My wife is pretty independent like me, I don't think either of us have changed much due to being married.

From everything I've heard and/or seen others go through, raising a child/children tends to change a person a lot more than being married (although I can't speak for myself, since I haven't done either).

[Max Rockatansky]

I don't think I've changed much since 2016.  My move to California was already finished by the time I registered on the forum.  I got married a couple years back but that really hasn't had a tangible difference on how much road stuff I do.  My wife is pretty independent like me, I don't think either of us have changed much due to being married.

From everything I've heard and/or seen others go through, raising a child/children tends to change a person a lot more than being married (although I can't speak for myself, since I haven't done either).

I suspect at this point that would be more of minimal impact considering my wife and I are long tenured government employees.  Most people I know who have kids had them during much less financially stable parts of their lives.  My observation as the outsider in that regard is that it tends to define people more when they have children at younger ages.  My wife and I have tried but considering our ages the likelihood of us even having one kid now is not very high. 

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I remain the certifiably dumbest person on the board, just as I was when I joined.

[roadman65]

I have learned a bit of dealing with my lost train of thought. I used to be horrible at expressing my opinions as I would leave my original point and wander off leaving some wondering what I'm saying. I still occasionally do that like with my question in Alaska leaving out Kodiak Island in my sentence about GSV not being there.

I've gotten much better since and after meeting some folks on here I learned how to control my anger. When I first joined this as at first I would often explode at the aggressively blunt bullies on here who love to point out mistakes.  Now I move on to trolls and bullies when they get overly critical.

[Roadgeekteen]

If anyone remembers interacting with me back in 2017 you will know how much I've grown. I can barely read my 2017 posts without wanting to bang my head against the wall. And my typos... I'm still only 19 so I will likely change even more going forward on the forum.

[index]

I don’t think I’ve changed much since 2016.  My move to California was already finished by the time I registered on the forum.  I got married a couple years back but that really hasn’t had a tangible difference on how much road stuff I do.  My wife is pretty independent like me, I don’t think either of us have changed much due to being married.

From everything I've heard and/or seen others go through, raising a child/children tends to change a person a lot more than being married (although I can't speak for myself, since I haven't done either).

I married last year at 19, primarily for financial/other reasons such as bringing my spouse and I's incomes out of the Medicaid gap so we could get subsidized insurance through the Healthcare Marketplace, since I cannot work full time, and better student loan offers since neither of our families are willing or able to support postsecondary education or our expenses outside of their house. I don't see that alone as having changed much about me.

It has allowed us to keep our healthcare and to keep me in school, so I see it as a win-win for the both of us. Had it not been for a number of pressing life circumstances (many of which I have not detailed here due to their personal nature for us), we would have not done it so early, and for a number of other deeply personal reasons, I was confident that it would also work out in the non-financial side of things, and I still am today. I did the research and the other alternatives out of our situation were not viable or guaranteed. Being married from such a young age has definitely gotten us judged, but I don't dwell on others' opinions, I've gotta do what I've gotta do to make sure my ducks are in order.

I will say that being on my own financially and in nearly all other matters at this point (my father still pays for my car insurance, but that's it) has taught me a lot about why my parents did the things they did that I took for granted or complained about as a teenager. I am now the one who thinks "we have food at home" whenever I pass a restaurant or think about getting take out. I am a stickler about the lights being on when nobody is using them.

I remember complaining about my father not liking it when I did my own laundry on this very forum when I was 14 or so. The washing machine might only cost a few cents an hour in electricity to run, and I tried to tell him that, because I knew everything, but I failed to consider...That shit adds up. I learned that fast with my own electric bill. When you are constantly broke, 20 bucks makes a difference.

[Scott5114]

I am a stickler about the lights being on when nobody is using them.

If you're trying to minimize your energy usage, there are a lot of things that you should probably focus on before the lights, because modern LED bulbs only use–

I remember complaining about my father not liking it when I did my own laundry on this very forum when I was 14 or so. The washing machine might only cost a few cents an hour in electricity to run, and I tried to tell him that, because I knew everything, but I failed to consider...That shit adds up. I learned that fast with my own electric bill. When you are constantly broke, 20 bucks makes a difference.

Uh, never mind, I guess.

I think the power bill is a situation where knowledge is being able to minimize usage, and wisdom is knowing when minimizing it starts to become a negative quality of life issue. (Not saying you're having a problem with this, just speaking in general.) Sure, my wife and I combining our laundry loads probably reduced the power bill a decent amount, but it led to conflict between us (she doesn't bother to get the clean laundry out of the dryer for weeks, so I'd be late to work because I had to pick my work uniforms out of the giant combined mess of clothes in the dryer). So it's worth paying more in electricity and water to run separate loads and just not have to worry about that. Likewise, I could probably save a great deal of money setting the thermostat to 60° in the winter and 80° in the summer, but I value being comfortable more than I would having the extra money.

What does rankle me is that apparently, as long as I live in Oklahoma, I get to be subject to never-ending OG&E rate hikes, because the relevant regulatory agency is so thoroughly captured that their approval of any rate hike is a mere rubber stamp. My power bill has gone up $50/month year-over-year compared to winter 2021/2022. We are now paying kWh rates on par with those of Southern Nevada, but without the much higher Nevada salaries.

[formulanone]

I'm not quite sure how much I've evolved in posting style; probably very little. Age sets in and keeps me in a comfort zone of sorts. If anything, I make more and more spelling and grammatical errors or just type stuff out in a stream of consciousness which needs a lot of re-arranging after I've submitted it.

Personally, just before I started out here, my focus was just on what was going on in Florida, because that's like 99% of what I knew and experienced. I'd lurk, but a lot of it was over my head. Or I just didn't care because there was no existing frame of reference to compare it towards.

When I really started travelling and broadening my horizons, I've felt a lot less of a reaction to judge places until you've actually been there. That all places are some sort of compromise, that ideals are rarely fully met, and people just make the best with what they can and what they have. There's also been a lot of interesting people and ideas that have also distorted my stodgy notions and make other negative concepts vanish. I don't agree with everyone but I can see where most of your viewpoints all are coming from and why you have them. Because of that, I think twice before posting...usually. There's not a lot of need to just pile on if it's not a different idea.

Oh, and I've gotten better at road photography. Some of my early work makes me shake my head.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Cleansed my life of a LOT of weirdness from the MTR days.

At some point, I found my shift key, though I still use it inconsistently.

[hotdogPi]

10 when you joined (or 13 if you want to meet forum guidelines)

This forum doesn't have that rule, unlike most websites. We've had someone join at age 10 (noelbotevera) without issue.

[webny99]

10 when you joined (or 13 if you want to meet forum guidelines)

This forum doesn't have that rule, unlike most websites. We've had someone join at age 10 (noelbotevera) without issue.

I know you can set your age to whatever you want, but don't you still have to say you're 13 or older when signing up?

ETA: Yes, I just confirmed this. If you log out and go to "Register" you have to agree with the terms and say whether you're 13 or older. If you say you're younger than 13, it gives you a pop-up that says users below age 13 are not allowed to register.

[hotdogPi]

Is there a way to remove the age requirement on the registration page?

[jeffandnicole]

Is there a way to remove the age requirement on the registration page?

Not without ticking off the FTC.

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule-six-step-compliance-plan-your-business

Is this a business? Since I believe there's ads on the non-logged in pages, yes it is, regardless of who's earning the money from those ads.

[Takumi]

My posting style hasn't changed much, but I go through phases where I'm interested in the hobby and then not. That said, I mostly post here in Off-Topic since I live in an area where there isn't much of note going on road-wise in recent years.

[Max Rockatansky]

That's why back in high school when I created an email account I just set the birthday at 1989 instead of 1999, so had no trouble downloading M rated games, watching "inappropriate" stuff, and little did anyone know you were now going to have to be 18 for sites like YouTube lol.

Problem is when you use "lol"  in sentences you tend to date yourself to Millennial or Z era.

[Roadgeekteen]

That's why back in high school when I created an email account I just set the birthday at 1989 instead of 1999, so had no trouble downloading M rated games, watching "inappropriate" stuff, and little did anyone know you were now going to have to be 18 for sites like YouTube lol.

Problem is when you use "lol"  in sentences you tend to date yourself to Millennial or Z era.

Max ur a millennial as well

[triplemultiplex]