Wow... Just wow. Its shocking how much things change.

[GamezRule]

Not quite nine yet.

 

[Dachs]

I have gone from a right-libertarian imperialist to a more compassionate pragmatic liberatarian.

No, no, no, you're doing it all wrong. You have gone from being a guy with a hilarious voice who likes furries and cares about politics, to a guy with a hilarious voice who likes furries and cares about politics more.

The rest is window dressing.

 

[Abegweit]

I have gone from a right-libertarian imperialist..

WTF is a "libertarian imperialist"? I have no clue what this might mean. To me, it is a contradiction in terms.

to a more compassionate pragmatic liberatarian.

Libertarianism, by axiom, is both compassionate and pragmatic. Good move.

 

[choxorn]

Only the leftist version. You right-libertarians need a bit of help on the "compassionate" part.

 

[trader/warrior]

Ooooooohhhh!! Civ3 Demogame II!

I had forgotten all about the Demogames! Those were the days.

Ah. I stay well clear of my old demogame posts. I cringe at the thought of how I must have looked like in that game. I actually lost an election to "abstain" once.

 

[classical_hero]

I have not changed one bit and I never will. So I am a five.

My first thread was in Civ2, talk about that being old. My first post was almost 1 year after I joined this site. MY first OT thread was about religion and which one you follow, but I think I started it out first I Civ3 Discussions, not knowing about OT and it got sent here and thus my journey began.

 

[Hygro]

Three years a communist. Three years a Randroid. Nine years a troll.

You started the thread I was referencing in my previous post

Also, in my user message to you I had you mixed up with Joespaniel. Apologies

 

[Tani Coyote]

No, no, no, you're doing it all wrong. You have gone from being a guy with a hilarious voice who likes furries and cares about politics, to a guy with a hilarious voice who likes furries and cares about politics more.

Hilarious voice?

I may care more about politics but I care about it differently.

I forgot to mention I have also learned how hard being a moderator is; well, a game moderator anyway. I can't imagine the stress an actual one would feel.

WTF is a "libertarian imperialist"? I have no clue what this might mean. To me, it is a contradiction in terms.

A right-libertarian who supports interventionism for whatever reason.

Whether libertarianism encompasses foreign policy or not, varies by person. Generally it's confined to economic/social views.

Libertarianism, by axiom, is both compassionate and pragmatic. Good move.

Not necessarily. For some people - as it was for me back then - libertarianism is an ideology to hide behind solely to enrich oneself.

Now some right-libertarians are indeed compassionate people, but you can't blame the stereotype that they're just in it for themselves.

 

[Dragonlord]

Nice thread idea

Personally, I haven't changed much, make that a 5. Stands to reason: I'm 49 now and was around 40 when I joined, so my opinions had had time to jell before i joined.

One of the funniest things about the CFC forums is how you find yourself in discussions with cocksure kids and even more cocksure teenagers, who, in the anonymity of the internet, feel free to throw their (nonexistent) intellectual weight around on subjects they have recently discovered from such infallible sources as Youtube, the History Channel or Wikipedia .

It's reassuring to see some of these young know-it-alls actually maturing a bit...

 

[Flying Pig]

My history articles have improved massively, can't speak for my posting

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

I would say I haven't changed all that much, just a bit more mature overall than I was 8 years ago. So maybe a 6.

 

[schlaufuchs]

Haha, I just perused my earliest OT posts. God I was terrible. OT wasn't too bad:

Spoiler :

Well seeing as I just graduated from an American High School 2 months ago, I can give my experience.

At my High School, taking two consecutive years in the same language was compulsory for graduation. Being the typical Californian kid, I took Spanish (Castellano, as opposed to the other 4 languages on that peninsula), figuring it would be useful to me because Spanish is practically the primary language at our school .

Anyways, I took a liking to it. The only problem, as I think most American students with a genuine interest in foreign languages find, there are few people in the school legitimately interested in learning the language for learning the language's sake. Most kids are content to memorize the grammar and struggle their way through speaking tests with atrocious accents and barely-passing syntax. On the other hand, I actually took a liking to learning languages, and, finding I was rather proficient at learning languages, went the extra mile because I found it engaging. I talked in Spanish whenever possible, I tried to watch at least some Spanish television every day, (although, if news and soap operas aren't your cup of tea, you're really SoL ). But I went on to take 4 years of Spanish, and I'd say while I'm not quite fluent in the language, I'm probably about as close as I'm going to get without having someone to speak to and hear speak on a regular basis (i.e. immersion).

While taking Spanish, I began to develop an interest in linguistics and started plodding my way around other languages to get a grounding in them. I studied a little latin on my own time, a little Welsh here, a little Italian there, really whatever caught my interest. My 4 year in High School, just for fun, and because I had an extra slot, I decided to take French I (Our school only offers Spanish and French, as the German department closed the year after I started school...darn California budget!!). I find taking the second language, especially when both languages are related, is great fun. Comparing words and syntax and the like is to me one of the most fascinating things in the world.

Anyways I would probably consider me on the exterior of the norm. As I said before, most students have no intention of actually gaining fluency in the language (we are American, after all), although, with the major demographic changes we are experiencing here in America (especially in the Southwestern/Western States) That outlook on language may experience a rapid change.

As for me, I'm pursuing linguistics as a minor, and am itching to get the chance to study other languages at University (I at least want to learn Latin and Greek! ). And then I'm also hoping to study abroad in a year or two, most likely I'll go to Spain.

Well, I hope you find that helpful.

Well those plans of mine are in the crapper!

Surprisingly the first person to respond to my first ever OT post was...Dachs, if only I knew then how much shame and embarrassment his responses to my subsequent posts would bring me...

I also went ahead and looked up my WH posts. Here's my very first lolpwn!

Spoiler :

If he was there as an option, I would have voted for Ulysses S. Grant. Good general, but definitely one of the worst presidents ever. To be fair, it wasn't entirely his fault, he wasn't at all a bad guy. He just associated with the wrong people and tended to side with the wrong groups.

Now, as for the rest, I really don't think they are the best choices.

Buchanan: I've never understood why he is vilified. People don't like him because he didn't make an effort to prevent the South from rebelling. But that's what I don't understand. The South had been talking about rebelling, since the Constitution was signed (and before that they didn't want to sign the thing in the first place). So, I think the fact that he didn't take the threats seriously doesn't necesarily make him a bad president (maybe an inept one, but not a bad one.)

Nixon: Only really vilified because he got caught for doing, what, doubtless many Presidents did before him (cheat, extort, etc.) in a more subtle way. However, there were a lot of other things which he did that were good for the Country. If not for his skillful negotiating with the U.S.S.R and Communist China, one could argue we'd be in a much different political situation today. There's also the fact that he got us out of Vietnam. He also founded the EPA. So, much like Clinton, a decent presidency which was soiled in the last few months. (And mind you, I'm a democrat!)

Hoover: Once again, not a terrible president. He's been vilified because he failed to act immediately after the Stock Market Crash to stop the ensuing Depression. But, I mean you really can't blame him. The Depression had been building up over 10 years of an unregulated market run by rather unspectacular presidents heading a corrupt government. Hoover really only tried to perpetuate the policies of his predecessor on the assumption that the economy would correct itself. Remember at that time laissez-faire and Smithian Economics were really the only model (I suppose you could adopt socialism, if you wanted to be despised by the people, and, if The Soviet Union at that time was what was to be expected from Communism, run your nation in to the ground). I'm not saying Hoover was a great president, but certainly not among the worst. He's like LBJ; he got blamed for something which really wasn't his fault.

Bush: One can argue all day about the ineptitude of his economic policies, and how his nation lied to us, sent us into war on policies that weren't exactly clear, and sent us into the worst recession since the Great Depression. But I think, as others have said, it's much too early to pass judgment on him, although the fact that he left the office with the worst approval rating in the history of the Presidency (worse even than Nixon in the depths of the Watergate scandal 8-O ).

God I was stupid. Masada beat me into the ground over it, I think it was the primary reason why I didn't post in WH for 6 months. Then I posted:

Spoiler :

Been reading The Guns of August these past few weeks, and it's very true. It consistently astounds me how idiotic the whole thing was. The book says that von Moltke himself said that the war would probably last several years at the least, that the war would not be a repeat of 1870, and it would continue until one side's resources and manpower were totally expended, and yet as soon as he was put in charge, he seems to have thrown all of that out the window.

Oh, and I don't feel a need to mention le cran.

Shaaaaaame. The lolpwning I got from Masada for this probably was the single most depressing experience I've ever had on the boards. As I recall I almost quit over it, and probably would have if it wasn't for #nes...

Oh well, I like to think I'm much more informed now.

 

[Dachs]

Damn, but you're hard on yourself

 

[Dumanios]

I looked at my old posts, and thought "Dear God, I was an idiot back then..."

It was so bad, I felt actual pain.

 

[Masada]

Shaaaaaame. The lolpwning I got from Masada for this probably was the single most depressing experience I've ever had on the boards. As I recall I almost quit over it, and probably would have if it wasn't for #nes...

That makes me a sad hopefully more considerate poster.

 

[Mango Elephant]

Here's an old thead of mine (my first!)

I didn't really change that much, just that I used to try too hard. Now I don't try enough.

I remember I posted something a long time ago really fast and didn't really think about it, and some guy disagreed with me and posted the longest reply I've ever seen explaining why I'm wrong. I just went and said he was right without understanding half his argument.

I may be a fool, but I'm 14 so NEEENER NENER NEEEENER.

 

[schlaufuchs]

Damn, but you're hard on yourself

Meh, I chalk it up to self-diagnosed Atychiphobia.

 

[Whiskey_Lord]

My early posts on OT are far too embarrassing to dig up. I consider my previously held philosophy (you know) to be the biggest moral and intellectual failure of my life, and man does it show.

 

[Cull]

Owen those posts>my current ones.

 

[Mango Elephant]

Here is what I remember about some specific posters.

Yared: Back when I was a lurker, he was always the one who made the biggest impression on me, and I couldn't think of anything better than to be his friend, so naturally the first post I made on the OT was something really obscene directed at him in this one thread which made him respond to me and made me super happy. I hope he doesn't remember what I said, because that would be embarrassing :x. I didn't get infracted for that post, but I think I contributed to the thread's locking. Opps.

Tanicus Fox: I don't know if I spelled his name right, but he seemed like a nice guy, so he became my first friend when I wrote on his wall and had a conversation with him. That made me super happy because he was a regular and I was a nobody, so yeah, my first friend.

Ekolite and Arakhor: I used to be tight with both of them, Arakhor because of his wisdom and sarcasm that was funny and Ekolite because he was like me except he was older and blonde and English, but still, like me! Amazing, right? Ekolite doesn't come on anymore, and Arakhor is still around but I haven't seen him post regularly in a while, but still, awesome people.

Dachs: I remember I was still new when I saw in the rave thread/coming and going thread that 'OMG DACHS IS BACK!' and 'yay dachs has returned' and a lot of really cool comments about him that I was thinking 'wow, this guy must be like an OT god' and sure enough whenever I read his posts they were all really wise and insightful, and I thought he was the most amazing guy on here. Then one day he posted in the music thread that he was listening to Michelle Branch, and I gave him a thumbs up because that is a really good song whichever one it was and Dachs told me something about how Michelle Branch is an obsession of his and for some reason after that Dachs has always been really nice to me even though I don't deserve it. He's an awesome guy.

ZeletDude: The first time I came across this kid (who's a year older than me) was in the Europe's Burning IOT game. I was Trøndelag (Norway!) and he was Sweden, I remember claiming a couple areas in Jutland and he was like 'um, I said I wanted Denmark, incase you didn't notice, so I'm going to take Southern Norway unless you give your Danish provinces to me' and I was like 'punk, you can't tell me what to do, you take Southern Norway, be my guest, but I'll take the rest of Sweden and there ain't nothing you can do about it neither' and Zelet, being the nice guy that he is, decided to have a comprimise with me where I take Denmark (Norway-Denmark, get it? lol) and he could take the low countries, which showed how awesome he was since some guy joined the game as the Netherlands a little bit later and he didn't even get to have any of the low countries and he didn't demand some of Denmark from me. He's one of my main buds on OT.

West Indian Man: This guy posted some really Brazilian things, so naturally I assumed he lived there, and when he posted a picture of himself on the members photos thread he looked like he was in his 20s, so I attributed his teenage-esque posts to the fact that he probably couldn't speak English very well. Well, he lives in England and he's my age about, so that's why his posts were teenagerish, not because he couldn't speak English well and he's a young adult. I'm a fool . Anyways, he's one of my best buds too.

Owen Glyndwr: My first impression with him was avatar-related. I posted something on his wall, and I think I freaked him out a little but after that he was really nice to me and helped him with NESes and all that which was really nice of him. Also, the first time I saw him post in the members photo thread with his sister and I thought he was kinda hot LOL.

Dommie: I don't know why, but I've always liked him. Even though politically speaking he was a bit weird, he was always nice and polite (which is more than I can say about some people, including myself). I always attribute CivRev Lincoln with him. Speaking of Lincoln, have you ever noticed what a weird word that is? Lincoln? I never noticed until just now spelling it out and I was like 'that can not be how it's spelled' but it is how it's spelled.

Cynovolans: He's a new guy, but he's JUST LIKE ME. He's about my age, he lives in my state, he likes the same music as me (which is amazing since no one else here does pretty much). Isn't that weird? It is. Also, I'd never say it to his face but Ke$ha > Kelis. hahahahahahahaha

Love you all. <3

Owen those posts>my current ones.

This too