20 years on DU, as of this morning. What a long, strange trip it's been! I'm so grateful for the wonderful company.

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Fri Oct 4, 2024, 07:00 PM - Edit history (1)

(EDIT: Please see reply 60 for my response. Apologies for not posting individual replies.)


I have never come close to staying with an online forum as long as I have with this one, but I suspect that's true of most of us oldtimers. There's no other forum like DU.

I was years late signing up. I couldn't even tell you when I started reading DU, exactly, after learning about it from one of the liberal websites I was reading during Dubya's first term. I very nearly didn't register, but not because I was usually a lurker and almost too shy to post. I'd found out running a forum on politics and tech back in the 1980s that I could get way too involved in online discussions. But 20 years ago, I finally signed up.

I've been so thankful for everyone I've met here, most of whom I got along with, but all of whom I learned from, even if we didn't get along. Thankful for the friendships. Thankful for the emotional support, whether on the board or in DU mail. (Which reminds me... Thankful for the friends who suffered through discovering my emails can be much longer than my board posts.)

Thankful for the admins who put up with me even when we disagreed, even when I was being a pain. My first online experience was two years moderating that '80s forum where I had much more autonomy than DU's mods ever had, and I've had about a dozen years' total experience as a mod or admin with my own forums, which in a way has been helpful, but has also left me too likely to offer suggestions. I need to apologize for the times I've made the admins' lives more difficult. Especially EarlG's. 40 years ago when there was a disagreement among mods on that old platform, the sys admin - a very nice, easy-going guy - told us he wished he had a go-to-your-room button. I'm sure DU's admins feel the same way at times. I'm thankful for their tolerance.

DU is extraordinary for the range of subjects it lets us talk about, while still keeping this a very caring community with a shared purpose.

I know some people consider message boards oldfashioned. I consider them classic, in the same way classic rock is classic.

What works very well and enhances individual expression should always be celebrated.

to all of you!