I probably lurked for a good year before actually joining, and I’m sure if I went back and looked, the important first-push-to-register post would seem horribly inane.
(…can’t help it. Must look…)One of the first was “What’s it got in its pocketses?”, wherein I described the contents of my pockets. (…yup. Brilliant start.)
I pretty well forgot the board in summer 2004, and my my post-per-day has suffered ever since.
Never really felt intimidated because I joined mostly for CS, MPSIMS, and IMHO. Occasionally I wander into the Pit when I’m pissed off, and read but rarely respond in GQ except when it is something in my limited list of thoroughly known subjects.
In other words, I am one of the community posters, not one of the intellectual ones. Showing others that you are smart is so much more work than self-satisfaction in the fact.
This board has led to a great online Thursday night poker game, and for a while, some online D&D. I’ve yet to get to a Baltimore/Washington dopefest, but it’s probably not too long before I do.
I remember my first post - I posted in some thread about toothpaste, I believe it was, and couldn’t find the thread that I’d posted in again. Posting my first OP was nerve-wracking; it’s like having a party and being afraid of no one showing up. How long until I was comfortable just yakking away? Maybe a year?
eleanorigby, I play around in the Pit a lot, and I don’t think the Pitizens would be that cruel. Most ass-handings are pretty well deserved.
I like posting in the Pit - it’s easy to stay civil when the rules require it, and more of a challenge in a free-for-all.
Good rule of thumb - if you’re posting a criticism, take it back one notch before posting. You’ll probably be glad you did.
I posted what quickly became obvious was a really stupid question back on the AOL boards, and was subject to a somewhat amusing smacking-around. I migrated to the web when AOL closed the forum, and was a regular if somewhat reticent participant. And then, in the real world, the dot-com startup I was at failed, and I found myself unemployed for the First Time Ever, which put me in the proper state of mind to write what would become the Infamous Telemarketer Rant. At that moment, the Blue Fairy touched me, and I became a Real Doper, and y’all’ve had to put up with my shit ever since.
I believe it’s more a matter of when your posts and threads gain acceptance by others than your rising to some level of “worthiness” or “acceptance” as a person. I continue to have duds of threads and often my posts where I comment on some issue pass with no additional feedback. I have learned to accept that not everything I may have to say deserves response. I have had a few threads go with no comment at all. At least one was closed as being ridiculous. On the other hand, I’ve had some go for 100 or more replies.
It’s hard to predict how others are going to react, or what will strike the chord of the moment. Otherwise stupid posts can trigger a landslide of hilarity.
Just be ready for replies that contradict you, ignore you or make you feel small. Just don’t let them spoil your fun.
I think it was in elementary school, 4th grade maybe, when I finished an assignment way before anyone else so I went and got a grammar book. To read. For fun.
I’m not sure either, but it still affects us some times. One thing I saw here that really stuck with me; someone mentioned something about getting upset about an argument here, and a real life person told them, “Why get upset? You’re probably arguing with 12 year olds.” Yup. That sort of snaps it back into perspective.
I remember feeling very proud when someone asked “What is an obistrip?” and midst all the hijacks about nekkid geisha girls, I could provide an answer and a cite. Killed the thread.
I think I really felt like a Doper when someone quoted a post I made.
Intimidated - no. Glad to converse with intelligent (and, okay, the occasional not-so-intelligent) people about things I do not know and things I do know - yes.
I watched my husband convert (to becoming a doper), then lurked for a while before signing up for the privilege of putting my 2 cents in, so I had gotten a pretty good feel for this board before starting to post.
This is the ultimate test as far as I’m concerned. It doesn’t take all that much to post (nor to start a thread). But once you’ve said something that others react to strongly enough to credit your post in the process, that’s a way of saying (in effect) “right you are, Doper.”
