"im new! im a teenager LOL!111! Cum c mi post cuz i r0xz!" Gah!

The BBQ Pit
1

I will be coherent.

Gah!
Why, why, why?!

sighs
I am a newbie. I am not proud of it, but hey, we all gotta start somewhere. Every journey has a first step and all that jazz.

So, in my short time on this board, I am gradually trying to make friends, respond to people’s views, provide information whenever I can, just generally be a happy, well-adjusted Doper.

However, I am a newbie. I cannot escape the millstone of shame hanging round my neck. I am a newbie!

And to make things worse, I recently found out here that I am very nearly the baby of the boards. I think there’s three or four people at the most who are younger than me.

So, it makes me a teensy tiny bit pissed off when people make posts like this!

To begin with, give the OP a decent subject.
I mean, look: “Why Taken is Shit.”

Not, “Why Taken is horrific/terrible/dire/mind-numbing/a crime against humanity/whatever.”

Just “Why Taken is Shit.”
And not even that!
It was actually, “Why taken is shit.” Does your keyboard have a Shift key?

Oh, for fuck’s sake. All you need is a flashing neon sign -
“im new! im a teenager LOL!111! Cum c mi post cuz i r0xz!”

And then there’s the content of the post itself, and what Eutychus (whom I suddenly feel is a kindred spirit) did about it, but I don’t feel the need to go into all of that.

In conclusion, I am a newbie. A very young newbie. And I resent the fact that some other, misguided-in-the-extreme young newbie seems to rejoice in giving me and my kind a bad name!

Gah!

2

The majority of posters here read what you say, and make their impressions about you from that. So far, I would not think you are so young, I don’t keep track of ages here so much. Maturity counts more than age, and makes the image of you people see in their minds. And immaturity makes a bigger, uglier image. If “your kind” posts like this, “your kind” has an OK name by me. We have adult, long term posters here with a lack of maturity. And young, new ones WITH maturity.

3

How old are you loneraven? Your grammar and spelling is good enough as to be effortlessly legible, which is generally all that matters to me. I think you’ll do well here.

4

Ah, thank you.

As of about five minutes ago, I am sixteen years and two days old.
Isn’t it pathetic that I actually know that?

5

BTW man, you should put post numbers in the link you give, so people don’t have to hunt through the entire thread to find the post which drew your ire. Just heads up, man.

Oh, and funny thread title. JeffK would be proud.

6

I’m 20 1/2, plus 12 days.

Of course, I only know that because my (late) grandmother’s birthday was exactly my half-birthday.

  • Ace309, back from lurking.
7

I joined this board when I was 17. Generally, don’t post in leet, and we’ll all get along (the only exception to that is Hamadryad).

And I know where you’re coming from. There can be a lot of anti-newbie, and anti-teenager sentiment expressed here sometimes. It drives me up the wall.

A word to the wise: if you are under the age of 25 and have a complaint about your parents, no matter how legitimate, you will get jumped on if you post it.

8

Nothing matters to me except the content of your posts. And from what I’ve seen of you, loneraven, you’ll be just fine here.

Also, you might want to read this old thread to see how people feel about teenaged dopers. Jester was not yet in college when he wrote it, FYI.

9

Everyone’s a newbie at some point, so that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Ditto being a teenager. When you can be a polite, well-spoken example of both, that’s a beautiful thing. Jester posted something to that effect a while back, in which he gave advice to other teens on the board, basically asking them to not act like morons. A belated welcome to you, and keep up the good work. :slight_smile:

10

And by ultrafilter’s post above, you see how I’ve kindly demonstrated the value of using the Preview Reply button to the newbie…

[sub]looks around to see if anyone’s watching[/sub] :smack:

11

Posters who write incoherently and are young often have their incoherence blamed on their youth. This is unfair, but the blame comes from an essential optimism that the general impression of brownout affecting a low-wattage bulb is merely a phase, that will pass.

I don’t have much optimism left in that area. Low-wattage is low-wattage.

On the bright side, that also means that posters who don’t write incoherently, should probably go a little easier on the public self-flagellation they can get into. Self-deprecation is all well and good, but it runs the risk of diluting the deprecatory energy best directed at the leet l8mrz hu suxx0r and ph33r u.

12

Don’t feel bad, dear. Had you not confessed your youth, I doubt anyone would have known. You seem mature, articulate, and polite-- three things which score points around here. Age is relative.

I remember my first post. I was 21, and nervous that my question would be pounced upon by rabid intellectuals who would flame me for every dangling participle and ending a sentance with a proposition.

However, I found that people around here are generally kind, smart, congeinal and funny. Your opinions on certain matters may be hotly debated, but rarely does anyone stoop to personal insults. (At least, not right off the bat.) Pointed sarcasm, maybe, but it’s all in good fun. Welcome aboard. Just don’t ask any of the Forbidden Questions, and you’ll be just fine. And remember: “Search is Your Friend.”

13

I still consider myself a newbie, though not “new” in the least. I unfortunately do too many drive-bys, mainly because I get to post infrequently, and then am unable to return to those threads in a timely manner. Needless to say, you won’t see my name in GD or GQ, as a result.

I feel I am still learning the lay of the land, and if I ever have the time to post the way I should post (i.e. no hit and runs) only then will I consider myself a “regular”.

It’d also help if I knew what the hell I was talking about every so often. I’ll have to bone up on those skillz…er, skills. :wink:

14

Well, I’d think it was pathetic if you didn’t know how old you were…

You sound pretty coherent to me. You’ll do fine. :slight_smile:

15

Happy Birthday, loneraven.

Don’t let them get you down. You will truly be judged by the content of your character here.

16

loneraven, I actually introduced a teenager to this board and they haven’t lynched me yet (at least, not for that!;)). As others have said, you post coherently and you even use capital letters. You’ll do fine.

Welcome to the SDMB!

CJ

17

What, that slipped by? C’mon everybody, help me string her up! :wink:

18

I agree with the OP on the issue. I am not a teenager, but I am a relative newbie here and am very annoyed by the streak of “why doesn’t anyone like me?” “Read my thread, its interesting” and “look at me look, I wanna pick up chicks”, “I accept your apology, etc.” It’s not bothersome enought for me to open a pit thread, but I do agree that it has slanted my view of teenage posters a bit towards the negative side. On the other hand, loneraven seems to have the same views I do, so not all of them are the same.

19

Two of my favorite people on this board are Jester and agentfroot, both of whom are referred to above (agentfroot is CJ’s younger friend). Both are teens; both have a level of maturity that many of the chronological adults who do drive-by posts here would do well to emulate.

I’m very happy to have you become a part of us, loneraven, and you will find that your posts are judged on the quality of their content, not on the age of the poster – which nobody would have known had you not brought it up here, anyway. I’m looking forward to reading what you have to say on other issues than this, based on the attitude you have presented in this thread. :slight_smile:

20

It is not your actual age but the age you convey that will be more telling in how you are treated on this board. As has been said already several times (but, obviously, bears repeating), if you hadn’t said you were a teenager many of us would not have known.

I joined this board when I was 18, FWIW. My fiancee joined when she was 17 (we have different registration years). There is not much simpler a truism on this board than the following:

You will be treated as you treat others. There are exceptions to this generalization, of course, but it is pretty consistently on-target.