I started posting on the Straight Dope in 2002. Actually, it was a little bit before my official join date, but the board had a massive stroke a few months after I joined and wiped out my old posts.
Sometimes I’ll dig up my old posts and shake my head in wonder. The monstro of the early Aughts seems so different from the monstro of today.
For one thing, I would let every racist on the board back in those days push my buttons. And there were a lot of them back in those days (racists and buttons!) I’d stay up all night arguing with the likes of december, the most polite bigot you’d ever not want to meet. I was kinda militant and indignant. Definitely more earnest than I am now.
Another difference: I was a Christian back in those days. My beliefs were shaky, but I was still down with the program. Or thought I was. Now I’m a proud agnostic. I don’t recall exactly when I “came out”. My posting history doesn’t provide very many clues, but I’m pretty sure I stopped with the “I’m a Christian” stuff by 2004. I blame grad school.
Speaking of which, I was in my second year of grad school when I started posting. All I could think about were nematodes and copepods. Since then I graduated, did my post-doc down in Florida, and now have a “real” job. I’ve traded my bike and roach-infested one-bedroom for a Subaru and a house. I am no longer poor. I don’t think 2002 monstro really thought things would work out as well as they have.
I have changed a lot since then, and I am glad that the SD has been with me through the years. It’s kind of cool knowing that a lot of ya’ll have been with me all this time.
How have you changed since you started posting here?
Joined in September 2002. I was two years into what turned out to be a very long transformation process. I’d quit my 17 year IT career 13 months earlier. I was married the month after I joined and that fell apart in late August/early September 2003. My house was for sale when I joined, it sold in January 2003.
I’ve become more liberal (ha! first in on that one!) and much better at researching things to prove a point, provide information, or even in some cases, to unexpectedly prove myself wrong and change my mind.
Better at arguing things in a more reasonable manner, less likely to take it personally. Have learned, from here and from the last days of Usenet, how to let the other person vent their spleen and not respond in kind. As I’ve said since then, knowing when you need to defend yourself and when silence is the best possible defense is a valuable skill.
I’m twelve years older. When I joined I was still an undergraduate, and coming from a long relationship with a much smaller, much dumber forum. For a long long time I had a pattern of posting a while, getting called out for youthful dumbassery and leaving with hurt feelings, then coming back months or years later.
Somewhere around 2009, maybe, I matured into a place where I mostly don’t post things that rile people up anymore.
I joined late 2001. I was single then (dating someone). Between then and now, I’ve gotten married, moved to Chicago, bought a condo, moved back to Michigan, bought a house. Professionally, when I joined, I was a reporter/editor at a newspaper. I then went to work for a union for 10 years. I’m now currently (as of June) a stay-at-home dad, but working on my next career. In the past six years, I’ve begun going to church again. I’m as liberal as I’ve always been, but I’m less mouthy about it in public. I don’t go out drinking anymore (not that I don’t drink, I just don’t waste my money doing it in bars and clubs). I have less friends now than I did then, mainly because my wife and kids are my primary interest these days.
Not a whole lot, I don’t think. But I haven’t been here all that long by the standards of the Dope. I’ve made some big changes in my personal life in the past 2 years but nothing that I see affecting my personality or online behavior. I still do the same kind of work, the same things for fun, have mostly the same close friends, and believe the same stuff as I did when I joined. In fact that’s been true since I’ve been about 18. 10 years ago.
I’m recently trying to annoy some people here less, by not bringing up the way I look even in relevant discussions. Mostly because it’s best not to be a one-trick pony.
I overshare a lot less than I used to. Public shaming really works! I had a lot of boundary issues ever since childhood, which spilled into my web presence… those have mostly since been resolved. Although that has less to do with the Dope and more to do with my wonderful boyfriend. I no longer depend on the internet for the entirety of my social life, and I no longer feel unlovable.
I’m less fired up about getting the rest of you to see things my way. Less firmly convinced that I’m even necessarily right about a lot of philosophical/social things.
Wow, I joined 14 years and 5 days ago! Back when The Straight Dope was about the first thing I ever discovered on a computer, on AOL. Back then I was a mother to a middle schooler and busy being a SAHM. I had a lot more energy and enthusiasm for life. Now, my kid is grown and out of the house, though not far away, and we are empty nesters. I am caregiver to two disabled adult relatives. Our friends and relatives are getting sick and dying more frequently. Life is not much fun, I’m resentful because there is a short span of time until it’s my turn to get old/sick/dead. I haven’t changed my politics or religious beliefs at all. I’m much more cynical and blunt, but I do try to go with the flow, let small things slide, and count my blessings. And I have learned to, sometimes, say ‘no, I’m afraid I can’t do that right now/tomorrow/ever’. Not afraid of people not liking me so much any more.
I am a Charter member. I think I’ve mellowed a lot. Things that I disagree with don’t bother me so much. I try to make it a point to not post things that are confrontational. Conversational is good, confrontational on a message board is not a very courageous way to make a point.
The longer you are on this board you realize that there are many very intelligent and educated people. So for this message board in particular, there is more to be learned than there is to teach. Don’t try to be an expert when there are experts that are willing to be more authoritative and can substantiate facts.
I did make a post that, in hindsight, was very poorly worded and I got called on it. Some private messages were exchanged and we were both cool about things. I think I learned from that.
I don’t think the message board has necessarily changed me but some events in my life have taught me how to be more accepting and to just avoid those things that used to push my hot buttons. It’s a life lesson I try to apply.
I haven’t been here very long but when I first started posting I was very “loud”—until I learned I didn’t need to be because people here actually listen.
I had had a stroke a year before and didn’t realize how much my brain was messed up until I had to stop, gather my thoughts and learn to present them in a relatable way again. I credit the Board as mental rehab…so far, sometimes…
From medical-type threads I couldn’t help but see how skewed my take on health has been since forever. That survival isn’t all there is, and that if other people can expect, and get, more, maybe it’s okay if I do, too. Now I examine some other beliefs I’ve held as well, as I can.
I’ve learned that occasionally I am “smart” in interchanges about a given subject, and move on to other interesting questions I can learn from.
I have changed so profoundly that I had to completely reset myself, and reregister on the board with a new handle to better reflect the new me.
Bu seriously, this board has dispelled quite a bit of my ignorance on various subjects, and provided a witty outlook on life. It’s an awesome place to be!
I’ve been here since the site was on AOL, but didn’t join until 2000.
At that time I thought most of my posting would be in GD. I had an opinion on everything, and loved to debate things I was sure of. Now I just have an opinion on maybe 90% of things, and am less sure about those opinions. And very recently, I have shifted from “atheist” to “agnostic.” I now accept the idea that sufficiently-advanced aliens may be, for all intents and purposes, gods . . . who may have had something to do with life on earth. But still, there’s no evidence for this, it’s merely a possibility.
At any rate, I now visit GD less than the others.
And politically, I have traveled the road from objectivist/libertarian to liberal/libertarian (don’t ask me to explain this).
And I think I’ve outgrown my screen name. Any suggestions?
