On Intellectual Participation

Retroactive deletion.

Good points. I probably won't, but I probably should comment more.

My reason? This isn't my primary forum. I participate in development of games at my home forum. In general, I only help out with games I have an interest in playing. This attitude is partly influenced by a lack of time and an excess of lazyness.

Let me answer a few questions.

1. I'm busy around this time. Yes I know, all you college and university kids know that AP and IB testing aren't All That!, but relatively, from my standpoint, they're kind of big.

2. I really am intimidated. This is because I don't really know my history like you guys. In fact I am done with history for the rest of my high school career as of now, because the History IB/SL test concluded yesterday afternoon at 4:30 PM, PST.

But that's not to say I won't contribute what few things I can.

I can envision Symphony telling me that it's not hard to go look things up on Wikipedia, and in fact I agree. However, my response is this: I already do! It's just that some time periods just don't interest me, or I don't know things well enough in depth (and Wikipedia doesn't really cover it either).

I'm lazy. That and I really don't have much to input that hasn't already been said in a much better way.

However, alot of the lacking input on my part comes from the fact I'm not that interested in many of the NESes that have started up. Really, Birdnes has been the latest one to grab my attention, and even for that I'm finding it increasingly hard to commit to anything. I did get semi-involved in the formation, as much as I truly could, with the discussions of the various culture formation and the construction of the rules. I had no interest in SINES (never posted there); and I honestly don't think my input is needed (or wanted) in the Guidenes- I'm afraid there isn't much of a chance that I would get along with the new people that well. As for the Ruleset review and the New NES Idea threads, I have lurked them intensely. I simply judged that my input wasn't exactly needed or required. For the record, I have been spending most of my NESing time for the last few weeks on a small project.

I guess the main reason that I don't post as much is that I'm increasingly anti-spam. Since most of my comments (in my mind) reek of spam, I've begun to attempt to limit how much I post a day. I'm still delighted to have retained my soul for this long, having yet to pass the 3k mark.

Honestly I'm too busy...I can barely be in one NES and run my own.

When me time begins to free up again, hopefully I can start adding more input like I used to.

Frankly, I'm rather busy; the time I spent writing this up could have been better spent studying for my AP US History Exam (want to get a 5 for sure) not to mention my other examinations.

I usually sum up my opinions in a few short and sweet posts anyways

I participate where I feel I can actually make my point and not be thrown down, thus I don't review rulesets or Alt-Hist very often. Just because people don't post ideas on the forums does not mean they are not active in making them or interacting with other NESers in discussions on them. As an example the amount of NES ideas thrown between Iggy and myself would be enough to put my name on the New ideas list.

To go with your poll, I'm intimidated.

I'm usually too ignorant. Other inhibiting factors follow that.

A combination of lazyness and a lack of time to keep up with most of these threads usually keeps me from entering any discussions.

Although I guess it depends on what NES or what aspect of NESing is being discussed as I did get a bit involved in the technology discussion for Bombnes when it was up but that was mostly due to my dislike of how technology is treated in most NESes.

Despite being rather busy, I do participate when I believe it is helpful. I did/do follow all the threads you listed (SINES excepted), and offered my help where I thought necessary. I try to reserve my comments to discussions to which I think I can effectively contribute (as opposed to just talking), and, in general, I am not the most prolific poster (>2,000 posts in 2 years). I used to comment more on Althistories, but mostly those centered around changes in the Ancient Mediterranean or having to do with religion.

Conclusion: I could participate more, but I do not know that it would necessarily contribute to efficiency.

I lurk intensely, but I tend to be too busy to write up any long articles describing my thoughts. The few short comments I could make on a subject tend to be summed up pretty well by other NES'ers.

I am very interested in a small portion of NESing, and barely or not at all interested in the majority of it. It is rare that I have a relevant opinion on a matter of concern that someone else has not already expressed.

I'd say that the healthy equally distributed combination of the first four options is my excuse.

I'm not much of an exhaustive writer. In fact, I'll be lucky if this post breaks the second line.

Honestly? I'm not big on commenting on stuff... Not so good at it too... Especially in English.

Even though I am in the top majority.. could it not be that most at happy as things are, and apathetic to futher improvement?

I have posted some in Devolopment. For GuideNES and NoobNES I thought I was just to inexperienced to give an opinion

Your right as far as I go, Symphony. I try to participate in Preview Threads, but I just don't feel like rule construction is my "area of expertise" at all, as you've seen

I honestly just forget about the Ideas thread, I need to bookmark it

For someone who has been here for 4 years I have not made the impact I should have. I am trying to participate more in things, but I have a flaky tendency I'm trying to buck (somewhat successfully since the beginning of the year, but you know how that goes).

Well to me it's lack of time basically. Also it's my lack of expierence and I don't know too well (English isn't my native language.)