Many of my family & neighbors don't understand the concept of posting to a discussion board. They think it's something done by losers loners who can't handle actual human contact or who have nothing better to do all day. Oddly enough, some of these skeptics are the same people who feel compelled to send me daily e-mails of important jokes and newly-discovered urban legends while they wish they could ER like that lucky guy Nords.
I've been using bulletin discussion boards since the days of 300 baud modems with acoustic couplers, yet lately I've been pruning back the number of boards I monitor. After a couple decades I doubt I'm going to stop but I'm not sure why I'm cutting back.
It makes me wonder about the life cycle of a board poster. Do we ever "get over it" and stop posting? We seem to come in many forms & durations. Anyone who's been here more than a month is aware of the new poster who comes on strong (20 posts in the first few days) and soon drops off to nothing. We moderators continue to learn advanced concepts from other posters in spam, phishing, astroturfing, and other unsolicited marketing campaigns. Still other posters dip their toes in the water with a question or comment, seem to be satisfied, and are never heard from again.
Some posters are here to raise a ruckus or to graciously accept their due of rightful worship after proclaiming their amazing wisdom, and they're usually swiftly dealt a Darwinian demise. (Others take longer, and then there's the special case of hokus.) There's also at least a 10:1 ratio of lurkers to posters, yet it absolutely astounds me that people can just continue to watch for months or even years without speaking up. I just can't be a spectator.
I'm intrigued by those of you who can come & go without feeling compelled to read each & every post. I don't feel obligated to contribute to every single thread (despite what some claim) but I can't seem to skip any of them. I can't just drop in, comment in a thread or two, and then wander off again for weeks. That's costing me a couple hours a day which could possibly be better spent on researching stocks or surfing or developing six-pack abs, but somehow here I am again. Maybe I'll get better at it now that TH is no longer sprinkling Vida Guerra images randomly through his posts.
I like to write and I like to read. Lately I've been reminded that this is one of the best boards I've ever seen for answering questions or solving problems, which perhaps makes the other forums pale in comparison and leaves me little reason to stay there. My nephew the Army Ranger pointed out last month that my face-to-face conversations are now sprinkled with phrases like "I know a lawyer in Minnesota" or "I've read about a doctor in Florida", and he wonders how in the world I met all these people. When I'm kvetching to my spouse about a problem, she's quite likely to ask "Well, what do the ERs think?" I'll smack my forehead and trot off here to find out.
Discussion boards have provided great drama over the years. A decade ago an "alternate lifestyle" board had a very popular poster professing to be a mid-20s dominatrix, and as one of the board's top contributors she obligingly supplied impressive amounts of vocabulary & content to prove it. A couple years later it was quite a shock to that board's faithful to discover that "she" was actually a 30-something male sociology professor with a huge pile of research to write up. Shortly afterward that board went paid verification and largely closed itself off from the rest of the world. On an investing board, participants were actually ejected if they didn't contribute their quota of links, and that board seems to have evolved itself to oblivion. Closer to home, I'm alternately repulsed & amused by the effect that hokus has had on both M* and Greaney. I was also quite surprised to watch another poster be hoist upon his own petard by his spouse. Not that he didn't have it coming or that he left himself logged into the board or even that it took so long to happen-- just that it was so totally at odds with the image he presented, yet so easily believable that he could stab himself in the back that way.
I think a critical ingredient to decades of posting proficiency is having a thick skin perspective that engages the issues without taking them personally. I used to be quite enervated by some of the religious or political threads (especially the politically religious threads) but I've learned to sit back and watch the axes pendulum swing. It can be annoying (and so can being a volunteer moderator)-- but all the drawbacks are more than compensated for by a great idea or a website link or even an awesome photo.
I sometimes wonder if I'll still be posting here in a year or a decade. I certainly won't be posting more often than I am now. I can't decide if less posting means that I'm more mature or more introspective or just less engaged, but right now I can't imagine another habit that'd be a more valuable use of my time...
OK, everyone, thanks for listening and now get to work: why do you post here?
I've been using bulletin discussion boards since the days of 300 baud modems with acoustic couplers, yet lately I've been pruning back the number of boards I monitor. After a couple decades I doubt I'm going to stop but I'm not sure why I'm cutting back.
It makes me wonder about the life cycle of a board poster. Do we ever "get over it" and stop posting? We seem to come in many forms & durations. Anyone who's been here more than a month is aware of the new poster who comes on strong (20 posts in the first few days) and soon drops off to nothing. We moderators continue to learn advanced concepts from other posters in spam, phishing, astroturfing, and other unsolicited marketing campaigns. Still other posters dip their toes in the water with a question or comment, seem to be satisfied, and are never heard from again.
Some posters are here to raise a ruckus or to graciously accept their due of rightful worship after proclaiming their amazing wisdom, and they're usually swiftly dealt a Darwinian demise. (Others take longer, and then there's the special case of hokus.) There's also at least a 10:1 ratio of lurkers to posters, yet it absolutely astounds me that people can just continue to watch for months or even years without speaking up. I just can't be a spectator.
I'm intrigued by those of you who can come & go without feeling compelled to read each & every post. I don't feel obligated to contribute to every single thread (despite what some claim) but I can't seem to skip any of them. I can't just drop in, comment in a thread or two, and then wander off again for weeks. That's costing me a couple hours a day which could possibly be better spent on researching stocks or surfing or developing six-pack abs, but somehow here I am again. Maybe I'll get better at it now that TH is no longer sprinkling Vida Guerra images randomly through his posts.
I like to write and I like to read. Lately I've been reminded that this is one of the best boards I've ever seen for answering questions or solving problems, which perhaps makes the other forums pale in comparison and leaves me little reason to stay there. My nephew the Army Ranger pointed out last month that my face-to-face conversations are now sprinkled with phrases like "I know a lawyer in Minnesota" or "I've read about a doctor in Florida", and he wonders how in the world I met all these people. When I'm kvetching to my spouse about a problem, she's quite likely to ask "Well, what do the ERs think?" I'll smack my forehead and trot off here to find out.
Discussion boards have provided great drama over the years. A decade ago an "alternate lifestyle" board had a very popular poster professing to be a mid-20s dominatrix, and as one of the board's top contributors she obligingly supplied impressive amounts of vocabulary & content to prove it. A couple years later it was quite a shock to that board's faithful to discover that "she" was actually a 30-something male sociology professor with a huge pile of research to write up. Shortly afterward that board went paid verification and largely closed itself off from the rest of the world. On an investing board, participants were actually ejected if they didn't contribute their quota of links, and that board seems to have evolved itself to oblivion. Closer to home, I'm alternately repulsed & amused by the effect that hokus has had on both M* and Greaney. I was also quite surprised to watch another poster be hoist upon his own petard by his spouse. Not that he didn't have it coming or that he left himself logged into the board or even that it took so long to happen-- just that it was so totally at odds with the image he presented, yet so easily believable that he could stab himself in the back that way.
I think a critical ingredient to decades of posting proficiency is having a thick skin perspective that engages the issues without taking them personally. I used to be quite enervated by some of the religious or political threads (especially the politically religious threads) but I've learned to sit back and watch the axes pendulum swing. It can be annoying (and so can being a volunteer moderator)-- but all the drawbacks are more than compensated for by a great idea or a website link or even an awesome photo.
I sometimes wonder if I'll still be posting here in a year or a decade. I certainly won't be posting more often than I am now. I can't decide if less posting means that I'm more mature or more introspective or just less engaged, but right now I can't imagine another habit that'd be a more valuable use of my time...
OK, everyone, thanks for listening and now get to work: why do you post here?
![:-\](https://www.early-retirement.org/sk/forums/images/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
