Thoughts on the declines...

OK, then. Generally, I've found myself growing a bit tired of the early/middle-teenage set who comes here. There are more than a few people here in the middle of their teenage years who are really great and I consider to be friends - there's no need to name names here; Generally, you all know who you are and frankly can feel free to ask me if you want to know what I think of you . But it seems that every day we get more people who can't spell or don't try, create threads just because they love to see themselves post, comment on every other post in a thread, and generally create more work for the mods trying to keep the mature, intelligent posters from seeing garbage and leaving. It gets frustrating from time to time because I can't do anything about it, and many of them- I frankly don't want to see continue posting at the expense of members widely considered to be more beneficial to the community at a whole. After all, we've lost a number of members lately to that very reason.

That said, in a utopian BJP community I would love to see everyone be 18+ More preferable actually would be in the are of 20-25. Realistically, I wouldn't want to see everyone forced to be at least 18 before they can come here, because the forums are meant to be family-friendly. I'm happy accepting new members over the age of 13, provided that they can participate and fit in here without ruining everyone else's time - that'd be my sole reason to dislike them, really. Additionally, you really never can tell who will act like an idiot at 15 but by 16 will be an intelligent, mature asset to the community and hopefully the world at large. There are success stories to be found along those lines as well, and those people know who they are too.

So, to sum up, the best age, in my opinion to be at BJP is any (though generally above 13 until COPPA gets sorted out once and for all by the government). Physically. But in the way a user presents him or herself, the best age to be is one where we can't tell how old you are just from the way you post. The best posters are intelligent, well-spoken, humble, and interested in more than just their own opinions, and a person can be all those things at most any age, I believe.

In any case, I personally would like to see a larger number of mature users here on BJP, who act and post intelligently, who think before they act and consider others, who aren't just here to see their post counts go as high as they can, (who aren't emo-ing up their blogs... I'm kidding. ) Anyway, this isn't to say I don't think there are these people already, however I think more of these people would be the best way to revive BJP and bring it back to the high-caliber, enjoyable community it once was, instead of this tired, kinda fun site that the older members seem to want to leave in droves.

 

Me too!

lol, just kidding

 

I can't say I agree with this 100%. There's kids out there who post like 40 y/o's, smart witty and mature with interesting things to say bringing new light onto old topics.

Then you have 22 y/o's like me who post like thier two. Capping an age limit wont do anything. While it upsets me that people simply post to post, and many people post aggressively (posting just to flame or irritate others) there's not really much we can do to help that. There are no board "resumes" refrencing old boards they posted at that people can fill out to join, and frankly, that's not the correct way to go about it.

 

Yeah, I know. Call it expressing frustration. The one thing I can think of is to bring in people we already know from other boards.

I can;t say I'm 100% a fan of that idea though.