Your personal A2K experience. Tell us about it.

Thats a nice thing to say pan, thank you.

coming at ya through the screen edgar.

Wow, me and MsO are leading parallel lives!

Arrived in the autumn of 2002, answered 3 questions and have racked up 44,000+ posts. And we're both pet lovers and teachers to boot!

What can I say that hasn't been said? I do miss moondoggy's farnarkling, but I also miss the hilarity of Gustav and Lord Elpus. There are others from the more remote past who have disappeared: Hugh Jass, Gosupta.....

And of course, those who have gone and can never come back - I miss them lots. Farmerman, "Hold your dominion" just means "Be strong". At least that's pretty much how I always read it.

Like the dog in Setanta's recent thread Dog rescued at sea after three weeks, I, too, am an Abuzz refugee, who stumbled onto the site many cycles after losing my way from the community.
http://able2know.org/topic/170169-1

a2k is an always evolving and active volcano. One has to hike around skyscraper sized pillars of political magma jutting out of the New Post page. Still on the periphery, beautiful and surprising individuals and friends are thriving.

Thanks, deej...

We're small in number - but Australians are everywhere - and we speak and write English!

Strange. I thought you guys spoke and wrote in the parallel language of Australish.

Nah! Some of us speak Strine sometimes; most of us can understand Merkin, (and have generally stopped correcting you on it), but English is gut, ja?

i speak canajun eh

I also joined in Nov of 2002.
Of course, I was gone for a while due to a military commitment.

I am also a refugee from the old Abuzz,and was invited to a2k.

Upon my return, I was greeted with some scorn and derision, mostly by one person.

Since I have returned, I have gotten into political discussions, religious discussions, silly discussions, and serious discussions.

Most of the people on here I like (at least their online personas), and would be more then willing to go out to dinner with any of them, especially the ones I disagree with.

All in all, I have had a good time on here, learned a few things, had my opinions changed on a few issues, and hopefully changed other peoples minds on a few issues.
I am usually on here every day, and even when I dont comment, I read others comments.

If you say so. . . .

I joined a few years back when I was between jobs, my wife was deployed, we were pretty new to this state as so I did not have many friends local to hang with. My wife is a struggling childhood sexual abuse survivor which always causes problems in our relationship, and I was at the time seriously considering leaving. I was lonely and confused and trying to make sense of things, so I posted some questions on the relationship forum. I stuck around because I found the debates mentally invigorating, which was very helpful to me to get through the lonely days. I was not out of work long, but my wife was gone for many months still, and by the time my real life got active again I had developed a habit of wondering a2K.

I love the energy here, and that there are so many smart people here, and that the PC laws are weaker here than most places so things that almost never get talked about are subjects of raging debates here. The main reason that A2K is so great is that in real life people generally self segregate and dont realize it, here we have lots of different kinds of people who actually interact. This is what accounts for the energy here, and for what makes it so interesting.

Well - I think so -although others obviously don't. You CAN understand me!

I've been on A2K for quite a few years trying to express myself in English.

I cannot say I was always successful..

However, I learned a great deal..

your posts are always clear to me

Maybe you are gifted with some kind of extrasensory perception, dj...

I've been here about forever, since late October 2002. I finally responded to Lightwizard's repeated promtings that I check a2k out. I've been here so long and so often that I even have dreamt about a2k, and I rarely dream about events or persons in a recent decade due to some sort of percolation system for my brain to extract nuggets of time to run on its dream screen. Or maybe it was something I ate.

I agree with hawkeye on this aspect - "The main reason that A2K is so great is that in real life people generally self segregate and dont realize it, here we have lots of different kinds of people who actually interact. This is what accounts for the energy here, and for what makes it so interesting." I could quibble about people in regular life self segregating in that some of my lifetime's best friends have been markedly different from me in their viewpoints. Even now that is true: Roger and I are personal friends and he's a . . . a . . . a . . . died in the wool old time Republican. Besides that, he's smart with money and about money and I'm the fool of the realm in that regard. I even married knowing that my ex would not be a wise choice re my financial future, in a kind of defiance, because he was a completely interesting person I loved. However, re self segregation, I'll admit that most of my friends are liberals of some sort or another.

I've learned an incredible amount by participating in a2k. I've even changed my mind on some issues, 'enlightened' by another a2ker's argument pro or con something. I enjoy the community, I enjoy the fun. The bad stuff by myself and others only shows me the humanity here. Excluding spam, of course.

Good morning, all.
Wonderful to wake up & find so many thoughtful posts on this Sunday morning.
A2K has been an important part of many of our lives, that's very clear ....

I'm really hoping for some input from some of the newer members, too. Though many of you are quite "old" & established by now.
And would definitely love to hear from the folk who first set up A2K. You know who you are!

Earlier I suggested posting links to threads that were important to you. For whatever reason. I'm going to have to jolt my memory a bit, but one of my very favourites was Roberta's Hebonics thread (I hope I spelt that right, Roberta!). Very, very funny. A few times I laughed so much I almost wet myself! I will find the link & post it here, later on.

I just looked up my own "My Topics" ... & realized I have 16 whole pages of topics I've started in 9 years!
I have been busy!
Some of my earlier requests for technical help make me blush. Was I really that dumb?
Yes I was.
And I started a thread about rain on the 25th of November, 2002 ... and I am still raving on about rain in 2011! Who knew that the subject of rain & drought could be so fascinating?

Anyway, here's a link to just a couple of the threads that meant a lot to me at the time. This one's about living alone, started when I had just ventured into a solo life myself:

ME MYSELF I - The pros & cons of the solo life:
http://able2know.org/topic/11302-1

Some terrific posts here. (Well, I thought so.) From a number of different A2Kers.

Another of my own personal favourites. Fascinating reading.

How did you become politicized?:
http://able2know.org/topic/141146-1

I hope this encourages you to post of few of your own!

OK, I'll leave it here for now.
Please do keep posting. Even if you've only been here for a day or a week ...
This is good stuff to read.

This question got me looking back at my first posts from November of 2004. I found A2K while doing a search of websites where I could help people with math and science questions. It's funny to read my first posts in threads like L'hospital's rules are rocking my world and Why is rust different colours? For a while I did Yahoo Answers as well, but I always liked A2K even though I never saw the rest of you because I linked directly to the Science and Math forum. I honestly didn't know the rest of you were here until I started exploring months later. At the same time, my political childhood was being crushed by the Bush administration. I kept saying things like "the US would never attack a country that was no threat to us" or "the US would never condone systematic torture", etc only to be repeatedly proven spectacularly naive. A2K became a place to vent where the shrill, hyperbolic voices that are so prevalent elsewhere on the Internet were somewhat muted. I also appreciated the more mature and considered opinions at A2K when compared to the youthful and frankly ignorant posts elsewhere. Today A2K is one of my top news aggregaters. A quick scan here shows me most of the interesting news topics and provides links where I can drive down on any given topic. I probably have far fewer posts than many of the regulars here ( but over 4000 now to my surprise), but I follow many of your topics for weeks quietly learning from your comments. I'm always amazed at how many of you know each other. I have mental images of many of you formed from years of reading your posts - seeing you in person would completely blow my mind. Maybe one day I'll make one of those events I see periodically. Until then, my mind and mental images are safe.

I joined as a refugee from Abuzz (can't find my a2k stats). Followed the people as much as the place.

I've made friends here--in the flesh and online friends.

I've been quite sick for a long time. There are times when I don't leave my apartment or see another human being for days and days. The people here are my only contact. My lifeline. My human connections. I truly believe that I would not have gotten through the worst of it without the wonderful people here. I'm forever in their debt, and they're forever in my heart.

I avoid political and religious discussions. I've got enough aggravation in my life without going out and looking for more.

I read more than I post. Sometimes I just don't have anything to add.

There are many wonderful continuing threads here. I have to admit that my favorite is one of my own. The Beautiful Animals thread was a simple idea that has taken hold with the community (and beyond it). It got its 400,000th view a few days ago! I love that thread because of what others contribute and the pleasure I get in looking for pictures and finding what I think is just the right one.

Do I think that everything is wonderful here? No. Lots of annoying people. Trolls. Arrogant blowhards. People who don't read or listen or think.

But mostly this place is home for me.

Thanks to Robert and the hamsters for keeping it going.

You joined November 12, 2002. That's fairly high seniority.

I have several threads, of which I am proud. Two of them:

Spontaneous Poems
It got off to a shaky start, but it refused to die. Began on Nov. 23, 2002, it was followed by cav, letty, colorbook, BBB, gelisgesti, drom et reve, and several other wonderful folks. I have long since run out of poetry to write, but the thread continues, due primarily to spikepipsqueak, The Professor and a few other talented individuals.

http://able2know.org/topic/1332-66

Another was
Before we Had TV
A lot of great reminiscing done there -
http://able2know.org/topic/3163-1