I’d prefer evaluation on our expertise but YMMV.
(deferring to kam who is much more padded with experience and then running away!:p)
I think in American culture it is considered inappropriate more than rude. While there are certainly situations where knowing the accurate age of someone will help with some decision, by-and-large how old a person is is irrelevant.
An example. I am an election precinct inspector (age 64) and my crew ages from 20+ to 80+. Do I need to know precisely how old they are? No. On the the other hand, when our county migrated to a laptop computer to hold our election roster I was pretty much required to let an elderly member lapse because “I’ve never had to use one”. When I recruit new precinct workers (usually by telephone) I now ask if they are conversant with a computer keyboard. Most are, but I’ve had some tell me they weren’t interested “if I have to use a computer.”
Right or wrong, anyone telling me something like that gets pegged instantly as a much older person.
“Dude” is not gender-specific.
I’m 329 years old.
“Dude” can refer to women, too, from my experience. Or at least that’s how it was 20 years ago. It obviously comes from a male etymology, but we would use it for women and I’d hear it between women even in the mid-90s, as “dudette” was kind of a stupid word (that was kind of used tongue-in-cheek back then, as well.)
ETA: I see that I’ve been ninja’d by Darren Garrison, but at least there’s some extra support that “dude,” at least in some circles, is not gender-specific. In the meantime, looking up the Wikipedia article on dude, it says the same thing: “The female equivalent was “dudette” or “dudess,” but these have both fallen into disuse, and “dude” is now also used as a unisex term.” Which is exactly how I know it.
Oh, and to answer the OP, I would guess the median age of people around here is somewhere around 45. When I first joined this forum, I was 24. I suspect that when I joined, the average age skewed much younger, like early 30s, and simply a lot of people hung around, more than new active members joined, but that’s just a theory and I simply might have just thought that when I first joined everybody was younger, because there’s a natural inclination for me to assume I’m talking to peers my age on relatively anonymous boards where we don’t know personal details.
I’m as old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth.
Glad to help.
That article must be seen, if just for the photo of the King of Dudes.
What’s rude is suggesting it’s a problem if the board trends to 50+, and introducing “babyboomer style” as an insult.
I like to think of myself as 36. Make of that what you will.
We have the finest cheese for your whine if you’re interested.
It tells me that, whether you realize it or not, you’re age prejudiced. When people ask someone his or her age, they do so because it helps them typecast a person. For them, it’s a vital data bit needed to put you in a slot, so to speak. No matter what your abilities, they are going to think of you differently if you say 55 rather than 35.
Mozart was writing music when he was five years old. My SiL has a friend who decided to start a new career at 80 years of age and then retire at 90. As far as I’m concerned, who you are and what you can do is far more important than your chronological age.
Thank you.
I refer to certain types of the female persuasion as a “dudette”.
I live in Israel. Here, it’s not rude to ask anything, and people do.:eek:
I have a birth certificate that ‘proves’ I was born in 1958. That’s all I’m saying.
And where is your own normal response?
Merry Christmas!
I consider it rude to ask a stranger’s age, weight, income, or most other personal things. Anything someone needs to know about me to be able to interact with me they can find out by interacting with me. Same applies to this board or IRL. It’s not that my age is some big secret, but why would you need to know? Same with any other personal information. The better you get to know someone, the more they are going to share. An anonymous name on a message board, not so much.
Then shouldn’t your name be Deciduous? 
Regarding the OP, when a new poster shows up and their very first posting is to start a thread asking a personal question, I just might be a bit skeptical. ETA: This thread began with their fourth posting; my bad. But still skeptical.
I had always thought you were in your 50s or a retiree, maybe it is your posting style
I am 44 but I have been here since I was 26. We have some high school (and younger people as members as well). The minimum age is 13 IIRC.
@ the OP. It’s not rude, but I would definitely want to know why someone asking the question, wants to know.
I’m 30.