When does one become an "established" poster?

I personally felt it when I started reading things like ,“WhyNot, as always, said what I was thinking.” It was a bit disconcerting. Also, the first time I was “paged” to a thread. Weird. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you’re just blabbing to a cloud of keyboards, but stuff like that…Oh, yeah. You’re all, like, real people. Who actually pay attention to what I say sometimes, and remember me as a unique individual. Bizarre.

This isn’t the place for people who “shun”.

When their cornerstone gets laid.

Mm. You remind me. I personally felt it when I said something snotty in a thread, and the author of the thread PMed me and said they’d always respected me as a poster, and kind of followed my posts, and did I really think so badly of them? It was clear their feelings were hurt and I felt really bad. That was the day, I think, I resolved to try to always be polite and civil if nothing else, and keep my posts - even my insulting posts - above a certain level. I can’t promise I kept to it 10% but I certainly did try.

When the initiation goat knows you on sight and immediately prepares for the ceremony.

I can be sharp and pissy and sarcastic and I have never been (seriously) pitted. I also don’t think I’ve ever been officially warned. I used to be an established poster but I no longer have the time to post as much as one needs to to be thought of as an established poster. That’s the secret, make a lot of posts in a lot of threads in many forums. It helps if you’re posts are either well thought out or batshit insane. You don’t even have to have been posting all that long, either.

Holy crap. I just finished reading this 3-4 weeks ago for the first time! I had bought The Moonstone to re-read it again, saw The Woman In White, got it and read it. Great book. Yeah Wilkie - you rock!

You become an established poster when

  1. You preview a post you’re about to make.
  2. You realize it’s a five-year-old zombie thread.
  3. You discover you already made the same point when the thread was fresh.
  4. You already posted your repeated thoughts two years ago, the last time the zombie thread was reanimated.

I hate how true that is.

:smack:

I agree with monstro. He knows what he’s talking about.

Yes, omg yes. :smack:

Aw, Biggie! You’ll always be established to me.

I think I non-seriously pitted you before joke pittings were banned. Ah, yes. Here it is.

LOL! For me, it’s reading a post and thinking “wow, that is EXACTLY what I was thinking! Who is that brilliant and well-spoken person?”

I got that joke. Maybe it’s a sign . . . :smiley:

Darn. They get me wrong most of the time.

How about when you answer questions in ATMB faster than the mods do? When you know what MMP stands for?

Make a lot of controversial threads and get into long knock-down, drag-out fights and never let the other side have the last word. Go out of your way to make friends and enemies and pair them off against each other in unrelated threads. The key is to get engaged personally with posters and insult/compliment them. Post lurid details of your personal life and invite others to comment/judge. That’s the fastest way to get established. I’ve seen it done in less than 100 posts.

I have 4200 posts since 2004 and I doubt many recognize me by name. Despite posting lots of non-mainstream political opinions or criticizing board culture I almost never directly insult anyone so there’s no reason for anyone to get a visceral reaction from seeing my name. I have one pit from a long time ago for an over the top devil’s advocate political position and one warning from a mod who I suspect was just having a bad day.

I’m pretty innocuous for most of the reasons others like me mentioned, and I have a long way to go on a lot of these requirements, but I have been warned!! I called someone a troll! At the time I didn’t know it wasn’t allowed. I was all offended at first, but came to feel like a bad ass. :wink:

I’ve never been thread-stalked or pitted, despite how intriguingly sexy and insufferably brash I am. I’m regretting I ever opted out of that goat ceremony 15 years ago :frowning:

Yup, I got all these, and I’ve been pitted 4 times!

Forgot #5. And you STILL go ahead and hit the submit button.

The second Wednesday of each month, between 3:30 and 4:00 PM Pacific.

I’ve met Quasimodem (now apparently Quasimodal) in real life. I think that counts.

Super nice guy, if you’re wondering.