For those who have been posting here more than 10 years, how does your old you compare?

I think I avoid 90% of the threads here, since they are all basically the same thing about religion or politics. I wish there were more art threads besides the "guess my painting from my description of it" threads.

I read a lot of threads more than I contribute. A2K has introduced me to several other lines aboout the outdoors, farm equipment maintenance, plein air, and geology.

Thats good enough for me.

Ive pretty much given up deep water piloting. I spend time piloting other peoples deliveries through the inland waterway qnd ply the East coast.
Ive given up the big boat and have a couple of small ob's and a C Dory with what we need it for.

Its way safer

As you and long term members continue to drive away those that differ from the liberal blood flow of this forum, I'm far less interested in this place then I was 10 years ago. Right now the only engaging topics involve the battle between Sanders and Clinton supporters.

I revisit from time to time, but I doubt I will ever participate as frequently as I have in the past. Liberal or conservative, no one likes an echo chamber.

The liberals have just as many complaints about moderation etc, being suspended etc.

There's no reason to mold the site with only particular viewpoints , controversy generates lots of engagement and activity on the site and a monolithic membership is not desirable, as you note yourself, to either side.

There is, however, plenty of motivation for individuals to ascribe any actions taken against them to cosmic injustice or partisan favor instead of any of their behavior and you appear convinced by their claims.

The people who were "driven away" seem to validate the observation that we all hang around with those of like minds.
I dont get called "libtard" a lot any more since most of those folks with the conservative based vocabulary have gone. Nobody likes name calling and I think most of the name calling started on your side of the aisle.

I was one of those guilty of attributing my suspension to cosmic injustice or personal partiality or partisan discrimination. I am a little less prone to do so now, after discovering that during my recent enforced break from A2K, others with whom I was locked in polemical sparring were locked out as well.

One of the downsides to the policy of not divulging suspensions to others is that everyone assumes it's only them. I suspended myself too recently, it sucked and I wanted to reply to a bunch of things that I instead had to put on a list to reply to when I got back.

Some conservatives suspended recently decided that their suspensions were due to political reasons and vowed not to return but they were treated no differently than I was and the claim that they are being mistreated is not accurate when they are merely reacting differently to the same treatment.

Reflecting on 10 years ago.
Re: the Liberal vs Conservative thing - Meh... Who cares anymore..

I think name-calling can be in the eye of the beholder. I remember using the term liberal, and many here swore that was name-calling.

Almost everyone referred to Bush as shrub, and several spelling affectations were in vogue against conservatives and their political figureheads...

Conservatives were roundly insulted re intelligence...and I wait to see it joked about on this thread now that I've mentioned it.

Ox ownership and all.

I don't mind sharing the forums with conservatives. For the longest time, I did not even like, say, georgeob1, but I have learned to get along with him. We don't agree on much, but ya can't have everything.

yup. more important things exist, like who can say "**** you" in middle latin, or who has the best recipe for cous cous and bacon.

ooohh that sounds good!

Liberal and "libtard" are two exponential orders apart.
I AM a liberal, (with ome conservative views on specific matters , like guns, taxes, and over regulation -although I lean back on that last point because NO REGULATION has never shown to work like the Kochs make believe it will)

yeh, georgeob is pretty much a reasonable arguer. His thinking , like McGentrix, is mostly well reasoned and I have ta dig deep to come up with my own arguments. I find that fun, orta like doing word jumbles or Sudoku

I have a feeling there used to be a lot of travelling questions which I either did not answer or felt I had to be nasty about.
"Can I walk from Buckingham Palace to Eiffel Tower"
There seem to be very few and when clever travelling questions.
Now there are so many about spoken or written English and some of the answers are wrong. Also questions about religion which are so weird.
Somehow I do not feel like anymore to be nasty - just to ignore.

that's risi a bisi you showed there. I saw some peas

Sorry, I just googled "cous cous and rice" and grabbed the first picture that was manageable sized.

I deny ever having had any semblance of personality.

Very wise words


The balance of poster outlooks here has shifted demonstrably to the left since I first joined. Probably a reflection of general trends. That said, the most tiresome posters are those (across the belief specrtrum) who appear to be seeking some kind of victory or reassurance in every exchange. Appearing to confirm a point one has made or triumphantly finding a fault in another argument is too often the apparent goal, instead of a mere exchange of different viewpoints, which is usually more interesting and satisfying.

I was a bit put off by Edgar's apparent anger on political & economic matters, but realized we have similar tastes in music and pithy sayings. I focused on that and found that he improved a lot. There's probably a good general rule there. It's impossible to stay angry with Farmerman. I suspect it's because he's a goddam geologist - they're all that way.

Robert I found your musings about your own actions, drive and motivations very interesting, and recognized several familiar things in them. I suspect the fact is that any achievement in life involves a cost for someone, and that perfect balance is a fleeting thing, though one can approach it in a life, but only if considered over time.

I post less now.

My anger in political and economic matters has been fed by events beginning with Kennedy-Nixon and has had 56 years to grow.