As you are surely aware, this forum is for people who are fifty years old or older, with no exceptions. Of course, I am not checking anyone's drivers license at the door so, for the most part, I have to take someone at their word when they register for an account here. I do try to enforce the fifty or older policy, however. The forum is set so that if someone gave an age younger than fifty when they registered an account here, they will be unable to post. People can lie about that, of course. Most often, when someone creates an account here, they don't know that they will be unable to post if they gave a birthdate that would suggest they were younger than fifty. Then, when they try to make their first post, the forum will tell them that only members fifty or older are able to participate in forum discussions. When they go back and change their birthdate, the forum keeps a change log so I will still know that they registered with a younger age. In such cases, I don't automatically ban them or remove their accounts because they might have entered their birthdate wrong when they registered, or perhaps they are used to pretending to be younger than they really are on Internet forums. Instead, I ask them about their age and they will usually admit that they aren't really fifty years old. At other times, their postings make it obvious that they are far from being fifty years old. Most often then, one of you will catch it before I do, and let me know about your suspicions, and I appreciate that. So far, I haven't had to remove anyone who insisted that they were fifty or older but, if it came to that, I suppose I'd have to make a judgement call. Otherwise, if someone says they are fifty, and there is nothing about their posts that would give anyone reason to suspect they are anything other than fifty, they're not really doing any harm, so if I am looking into their age, it is because they gave someone a reason to suspect they were younger. I'm not looking for any witch hunts or anything, nor am I interested in investigating anyone who signs up for an account here, but if someone's conversation makes you suspect they're much younger than they are, it doesn't hurt to let me know. I'm not sure why someone would want to participate in a seniors forum if they are younger than fifty. I suppose, perhaps, if someone were forty-eight or forty-nine, they might feel as if they have more in common with the rest of us here than on another forum, and I can understand that. Still, there had to be a line drawn, and I chose to draw it at fifty. Most often, when someone younger than fifty creates an account here, they are here to spam the forum, and they would have been removed for that anyhow. This has not occurred very often, by the way, but it does happen every now and then.
Well Ken...much as I'd love to lie and tell you I'm 49...actually I'd prefer to tell you I was 21......unfortunately for me..and in the words of a famous American President...I cannot tell a Lie....I am way old enough to be a member of this great forum
Does using "young" avatars make you wonder about our age? ... hope not, because pretending to be older than you are just doesn't sound like a fun thing to me .. I did have my own old picture on here a while back ..... < I brought my Sassy Texan moderator avatar out of mothballs that I've used for years on football forums... she was always a good listener...
Darn it, me too @Holly Saunders. @Ken Anderson , I have the opposite thing going on. I'm old and trying to convince myself that I'm not 'that' old. But yes, it is weird that some one would want to join our discussions. I wonder what they think they'll learn. I have a 16 y/o friend that tells me, "Old people know so much stuff". I am one of the few "adults" his parents will allow him to go off with. He comes over and try's to teach me Mine Craft (?). He really has some insightful questions and ideas. He's 16 and in his Junior year in college, with a 19 y/o girlfriend. For the life of me I can't see what attracts him to me.
No, and to be clear, I don't sit around wondering about anyone. If you are fifty years old or older, I don't see why you would need to concern yourselves with it one bit.
It's usually pretty easy to tell when someone is not over 50 by the questions they ask, lack of answers to their own questions, etc. I'm glad our forum is keeping tabs on this... I consider it a safe haven. I'd never considered myself a "senior" until I got here... the word struck horror in me and now I'm kinda proud of it. Thanks, guys and gals!
I agree and the only reason someone under 50 would join a senior forum is to scam or spam or troll. What's the position on someone who is 49 and 11.5 months? Should they wait?
Well, im older than dirt and not ashamed to put my age out here for everyone to see.. just click on my avatar and look how old that silly little red heart really is Anywho, I am what I am . and I love to have a good time , love to laugh and make other people laugh if I can. it joys my heart to do so.. I can get silly as a kid here sometimes but ive always been this way and will no doubt will die laughing someday.. at least that's how I hope to leave this old world when my time comes.
I'm glad you're old and silly Louise! Come to the regular posts more often, now that the game section has been set apart I miss your humor,
To avoid a crawl downward, I'd prefer they wait. Anyone who enters their birthdate honestly won't be able to post until they reach fifty anyhow. Among the reasons that I started this forum was that another seniors forum was allowing people of younger ages in although it went against the rules of the forum.
@Ken Anderson , We do appreciate your efforts to provide us a place that we feel comfortable enough to talk openly about the things that concern us. Yes it would make me feel uncomfortable to think that younger people would be scamming or even ridiculing us for their own amusement. What else would be their propose? I wasn't trying to be flippant in my earlier post, but I am trying to lighten up a bit, and learn to enjoy all of you, and sometimes it is hard to think of you as just the administrator.
I think that works better than being anonymous, it gives a more informal feel to the forum which if respected as it is here, helps prevent the behaviour you can get, where the absent administrator/moderator is treated like a schoolmaster and the members subsequently behave like naughty children. Thanks Ken for risking mixing with such a motley collection as us.