As a former forum moderator and frequenter, I seek forums that inspires other people. i stumble upon this website while on research writing assignment about ageing and senior life. I am struck and become interested upon finding out that most members were seniors like me. The instant feeling of belongingness with other quinquagenarians like me made me stay and experience further the forum. I suddenly have that confidence that approaching retirement age is not at all something to be afraid of. As you all know, I have lots of things I need to protect with: first by being a handicap and a stroke patient. I tend to shoo away from socials that could make me compromise my condition and be vulnerable to different kind of abuses. But, I need a boost in my morale and be confident for me to continue healing from my own life experiences for me to get well and avoid negativities. Believe me, not everything in this world is all about money. God has given us talents to share and participating in a forum like this one and share those talents, knowledge and lessons in life. It is my responsibility to ripple the goodness to others and continue the cycle, as I believe that each one of us have those inherent gifts from God and we just need to use it to make this world a better place especially to us seniors who need a legacy driven life for the remaining days of our lives.
I think I look for what most people look for in a forum. A place of exceptance. A place that when I say, "Do you remember 40 years ago when so-and so ... ?" , and everyone can relate to it. A place where we can exchange ideas concerning living conditions that apply to most of us. This forum gives us a place to wake up and greet friends that we most likely would never have gotten the chance to meet in the first place. My father was bed ridden his last five years, and as I took care of my him in those years, the lack for people his own age seemed to be the greatest cause for his loneliness. He died in '93, and senior online forums just weren't as available as they are now, even if I could have gotten him to touch a computer. But I see the difference in his confinement and mine. I have you guys to count on each day.
Please remember that you can always start your own topic here if you don't see anything that interests you. If you'd like to discuss something that isn't reflected in one of our topic areas, post it in Off-Topic Discussions. If I see a lot of threads on one topic in the Off-Topic area, I might create a topic for it. You never know what people might be interested in discussing until you bring the topic up. Also, you can invite people who are fifty or older.
One thing that I have found is that when I am busy with other stuff, sometimes I'll only look in on threads that I receive alerts on, which are ones that I have participated in. There are times when it seems like things are awfully slow, because I'm not receiving very many alerts, but when I view new posts, I find that there are plenty of threads that I haven't participated in yet.