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A few people may get banned, I got banned from a car forum. They have a system where people can give you negatives and after a certain amount you automatically get banned. They had a off topic forum and I said political things that made people mad. I never checked and was totally surprised.
When I joined CD I was already retired and waiting for my future husband to be allowed into the country though immigration. It was a long arduous waiting period, to say the least. I entered CD to get my mind off the worry and was drawn in by the politics. Got out of THAT forum when someone messaged me that the people in there don't really listen and discuss things; they just eat you alive!
So I came here. There weren't as many members here as there are now. I wanted to get ideas for things like movies to watch that were good for people our age. Ideas for places to live.
The biggest change I have seen is the arrival of a lot of younger people on this forum. I had thought it was for retirees--a place for us to talk about what we do and to exchange ideas. To be honest, I used to resent the younger people and wished they would go away. But now I see that this forum is for pre-retirees too and it's okay. In fact, they need to be thinking about retirement so it's totally appropriate for them to be here.
I love hearing about the lives of other retirees all over the country, especially when they talk about their interests and the things they do. I even wish we could talk more about books, favorite recipes, our artwork & other hobbies, concerts and museums we visit, animals, our gardens, travel, day trips. We can read about those things in the appropriate forums but I love to hear it from my peers. I guess the only place for that is in Chat. (any other ideas?)
Although there's sometimes some mean spiritedness here, there's a lot of compassion and empathy too. Everybody's fighting some kind of a battle and it helps when you get input and support from others. At one time I participated in parents who were estranged from their kids--(dh's adult kids) and thank goodness that issue was resolved for us. But I practically lived in that thread for a while and I'm glad to see it's there for those people who still, unfortunately, need it.
And lastly, I'm very appreciative of the fact that the super mods finally saw fit to post a sticky for the other mods to see. It says that we are a close knit group and we want to hear the thoughts of our peers. It says that when one of us posts a thread in here, we usually know what we're doing. So, mods, don't keep moving threads out of this forum! That was happening way too much.
I like how we often go and post in other forums but we almost always come back "home."
A few people may get banned, I got banned from a car forum. They have a system where people can give you negatives and after a certain amount you automatically get banned. They had a off topic forum and I said political things that made people mad. I never checked and was totally surprised.
Mods ban people but it's not based on negative reps. In fact, negative reps are frowned upon and if you give a mean negative rep, it can get YOU temporarily banned! No one gets automatically banned as if by a robot.
Permanent bans are loosely based upon the number of temporary bans the member has had (i.e., their history), and crazy people who come on CD and their first post is a page of nonsense, advertising, or obscenities are immediately permanently banned, as are people who have more than one id going at the same time.
Last edited by in_newengland; 01-03-2017 at 01:11 PM..
I have been around for more than 10 years now and retired since the tail end of 2008. I agree about seniors becoming more into things like social media and forums than they were 10 years ago. A young 20something friend told me the other day that FB was for old people! For grannies sharing pictures! I laughed at that one!
I was a tekkie so I go back to IRC and BBS. But this trend will continue and I can't help but think it will improve the quality of life for most seniors in general. One thing I look forward to is finding more free education online for everyone. I also wish there were virtual tours of all the museums and sights I would like to see. I am sure it's coming. MIT has great classes online for free.
I have been around for more than 10 years now and retired since the tail end of 2008. I agree about seniors becoming more into things like social media and forums than they were 10 years ago. A young 20something friend told me the other day that FB was for old people! For grannies sharing pictures! I laughed at that one!
I was a tekkie so I go back to IRC and BBS. But this trend will continue and I can't help but think it will improve the quality of life for most seniors in general. One thing I look forward to is finding more free education online for everyone. I also wish there were virtual tours of all the museums and sights I would like to see. I am sure it's coming. MIT has great classes online for free.
Escort Rider asked a question a few weeks back in the Chat Thread. He named a few of us old timers around here if we had noticed any differences since our early days. I responded with a perspective but now realize there is a lot more change around here then I noted then.
January 1, marked the official end of nine retirement years and we are now working on ten. I was reflecting on those nine years and realized all the change that has occurred regarding the thinking and feeling about retirement since then.
When we retired none of the baby boomers had yet collected Social Security and now we are increasing yearly the numbers of Boomers receiving benefits and the number retired. Since I joined the forum 11 years ago the changes are more significant. Few Boomers were retired and now many of us are and our opinions on have evolved considerably.
The Great Recession had not occurred and the rising housing equity market was spurring many to take their equity and retire elsewhere. It has become much more of a norm and has helped to transform many areas of the country.
Portfolios had not yet crashed for those nearing or in retirement and the outlook moving forward was much better.
However the biggest change in this forum is that more Seniors are comfortable with and using social media to engage and discuss. Not sure how many at, near or over 70 were active in City-Data a decade ago but I know when I ever I started in the retirement forum the average age and retirement status seemed different than today and that makes sense.
In hindsight it seemed inevitable that politics would cross from the political forum into this one as many of us were first involved in other forums as retirement was perhaps not as high on our social media agenda. As the political forum heated up it heated CD enrollment up and it was inevitable that as those folks aged they would begin to come to this forum.
Yes this forum can seem cruel at times to those who are not as fortunate as others in here. Perhaps in hindsight that was inevitable. Why? Because at one point in recent years those of us now in our 60's were looking at retirement as a theoretical future and now it is our practical reality. There is competition in this reality to acquire and retain resources. One person's tax payment becomes another persons benefit receipt and this can create much of the turmoil we are feeling.
Those who have been preaching and advocating one positon on aspects of retirement may now feel in retirement that they tried to warn others and if you didn't listen that's not my problem. I remember those conversations over the years not just in City-Data but elsewhere. Those future projections have become or not become reality.
With all the possible changes ahead and anxiety on the part of many, how will we as a collective group of seniors respond? Or will our responses not be aligned with other seniors or perhaps just individual or small group thoughts.
Thinking about this made me somber in a number of ways for as the world changes and communication, which now is often a tweet limited to 144 characters, how will we stay competitive and be able to be heard.
Perhaps this forum has a much larger role to play than we realize.
I highly doubt that it has much of a role to other retirees as you think it does. I think of C-D as a big lonely hearts club of people who are lonely and like to write, but in real life have nobody to write to. Hence, they ask crazy questions about millions of topics with little true worth, just like this on started.
I use C-D to find out going rates of childcare or rentals etc and that's about as useful as I ever find it. With 10,000 boomers per day retiring you might have a whole new audience to write to soon.
When people stop posting in other forums we don't assume the worse. I suspect with time we in this forum will be starting to worry more about the worse. That was a great question you asked in the Chat thread and it still has me thinking
Bad things sometimes happen to good people and that includes people that post on internet discussion forums.
I have been very active in various fitness forums the past decade. One person at one of the forums is someone I had gotten closer to even though he lived in Colorado and I live in California. He was actually a guest blogger at my blog once when I was on vacation. We had a real neat cyberspace friendship and I referred to him as my middle-aged man fitness brother from a different mother.
Several years ago, national news reported on him. One of his younger sons shot and killed him, his wife and injured several of his siblings in what had to have been one of the more bizarre cyberspace experiences of mine. His name still pops up in memorial discussions at one of the fitness forums. It was very very sad.
I highly doubt that it has much of a role to other retirees as you think it does. I think of C-D as a big lonely hearts club of people who are lonely and like to write, but in real life have nobody to write to. Hence, they ask crazy questions about millions of topics with little true worth, just like this on started.
I use C-D to find out going rates of childcare or rentals etc and that's about as useful as I ever find it. With 10,000 boomers per day retiring you might have a whole new audience to write to soon.
So since you like to find out about childcare does that suggest you are the mother of a younger child? So your thoughts on retirement and retirement living and participants in this forum who are close or in retirement is based on?
Also I reviewed your posting history on here and some of the topics you enjoy posting on might be of interest to other forum participants. I found a number of them interesting so thanks for the resource.
I wil note that in reflecting on your words and now realizing your apparent age I realize that your path has followed that of a number of us in here. I like you started out purely in the local forum where we lived and like you progressed to asking questions about where you were considering transplanting to. Like you we found NC to be up there on our list and like you we I started to participate in NC local forums. Like you I began to progress to other forums most notably the political and after the 2008 elections I gave that up and was pretty much local and some retirement. Eventually the local got old and it become more retirement and pretty much just retirement. If it was out of being lonely don't you think many posters would spread themselves out into more forums?
I wonder what the relationship is between posting in the retirement forum and where we live? If we live around and with other retired or near retired folks we are more than likely to probably engage in age related conversations there. If not we might find a forum to be more of our liking. For me it is easier to discuss retirement issues that I like (which are limited) without stepping on toes. I have found my new neighborhood to be a mixed bag when it comes to talking about retirement. Where we came from it was easier and more natural as folks were more homogeneous in their planning. In fact it was our old next door neighbors who made sure we got LTC insurance prior to age 55 and boy are we glad we listened to the husband who had a background in along with each of them having older parents.
I still get ideas from folks in forums. Perhaps not as much as 10-11 years ago but still some golden nuggets. Not sure where you get yours but good luck as the wisdom of others can often be a hidden gem that you don't have to dig real hard to get.
TuborgP,,,,,,,,,,I joined in 2009 and agree with your remarks on all the changes
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That was happening way too much. 
