Hi! This is my thousandth “official” post, after three-and-a-half years at the SDMB. (Of course, this ignores posts lost during the Winter of our Missed Content, as well as posts made on the temporary Best Boards site during the spring of 2002.) I’ve not been tremendously prolific compared to many, but have contributed a fairly steady output of generally well-thought out posts (IMHO). Since joining, I’ve never left the boards for any significant length of time.
Considering that this is only my 23rd post in MPSIMS, it’s obvious that I don’t hang out in this forum too much, as compared to my 737 posts in GQ. As befits my list-making tendencies, here is a complete summary of my posting stats by forum:
[ul]
[li]GQ: 737 posts[/li][li]BBQ Pit: 79 posts[/li][li]GD: 52 posts[/li][li]CS: 51 posts[/li][li]IMHO: 32 posts[/li][li]MPSIMS: 23 posts[/li][li]ATMB: 20 posts[/li][li]CoCC: 9 posts[/li][li]CoSR: 5 posts[/li][/ul]
[sub]Note: numbers add up to slightly more than 1000 posts, apparently because the hamsters are confused about either the official post count or the number of posts returned by the search function by forum, or perhaps they (or I) simply can’t count.[/sub]
Why am I still a member of the SDMB? It comes down to the fact that I have never come across such a remarkable group of intelligent people online outside this board. I find it fascinating that such intense well-reasoned debates can take place online in our GD forum, and I find some of the mathematical discussions in GQ to be comfortably over my head. Both give me the opportunity to stretch my brain. I enjoy hearing in the Cafe what others think about books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen. The Pit can be a real hoot, though it needs to be taken in small doses.
All that being said, however, what really grabs hold of me at the SDMB is the chance to fight ignorance in those subjects that I know something about. I started my tenure on the board while I was still a U.S. Navy submarine officer teaching physics at a military school (after having taught chemistry for 5 years). Like all good teachers, I enjoyed sharing knowledge with others (both online and off). Now two years out of the service and working as an engineer, it’s truly rewarding to have the opportunity to keep things fresh and my mind active.
Particularly considering the board’s new business model, here’s hoping the SDMB continues to be a strong, viable board. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here, and I thank you fellow members, mods, and admin staff for it.
–robby
P.S. Crud. Upon going over to MPSIMS for the first time in months to post this, I see that post-count threads are now discouraged (though apparently not explicitly prohibited). Having gone to all the trouble to write this, I’m going to go ahead and post this, but feel free to lock it if you must, mods. Besides, after taking 3.5 years to reach 1000 posts, I don’t think anyone would accuse me of trying to pad my post count.
