5000 posts -- A camel lord's thoughts
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Wow.
Six years ago, I'd have never imagined that I'd be here, typing my 5000th post and reflecting on my time here at the Org. What's even more remarkable to me is the position in which I'm doing so: Moderator in the Citadel & Main Hall, recipient of 3 HoF awards, and apparently (although it's still hard for me to believe sometimes) one of the more respected members in this place. It boggles my mind.
If anyone had told me back when I joined in March 2002 that I was going to be where I am now, I would've thought they were nuts (or at least pulling my leg). When I first signed up here, I was just another newbie -- in every sense of the word. Not only was I still learning how to play Shogun Total War, but this was the first message board I'd ever been part of as well! I didn't know anything. I was a complete neophyte.
I'm a fairly gregarious & outgoing person in real life, but for some reason I felt strangely shy here....like a kid on his first day at a new school where he doesn't know anyone. (Indeed, I was such an introvert online that I hung around the Org for nearly a year before finally deciding to register as a member.) To my inexperienced eyes, people like Gregoshi, Kukrikahn, Mithrandir, Papewaio, Puzz3D, Ser Clegane, and solypsist were the "cool kids" everyone looked up to; they were gods in this place. I was intimidated by how they (and almost everyone else here) seemed so knowledgeable about the TW games and the historical periods that they covered. (I've always been an enthusiastic amateur when it comes to history, but nothing more.) I somehow felt....almost unworthy in comparison, and subsequently I didn't say or post a whole lot my first couple years here.
In late 2003, however, something happened that changed all that. I was playing a Viking Invasion campaign (as Wessex, I think), and I was having difficulties figuring out how to cross the North Sea and conquer the Viking homelands. I eventually grew frustrated enough with the issue that I finally did what I was so reluctant to do: I posted my problem in the Main Hall. I very much dreaded being frowned upon for asking such a horribly n00b-ish question (especially since I was sure the same question had been asked 100 times already), but that's not what happened. Instead, around 10-12 members immediately leaped to answer my question and help me out, all the while reassuring me that I wasn't a fool for asking about it.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
After that, I had a radically changed perception of the Org and the people who inhabited it. I discovered the members here were not only quite knowledgeable, but that they were actually friendly and personable as well. Suddenly, I realized I belonged here -- indeed, I had all along, but I simply hadn't been able to recognize that fact. I also quickly began to understand that the best way for me to repay the kindness everyone had shown me was to "pay it forward", and to help out other new members in turn. So that's precisely what I began to do. I started greeting new members, answering questions (at least the ones where I felt I knew what I was talking about), I became more active in the other areas of the forum (including the Frontroom), etc.
....And now here I am: The Total War-playing, Star Trek-loving goofball from Minnesota you've all come to know and love (or at least pity).It's been an awfully fun ride these last six years, and I sincerely hope I'm still around when another six have passed. You folks have made the Org what it is, and the reason I enjoy it as much as I do. While it's impractical for me to give a shout-out to every single person who's had a positive impact on my experience here (the list would contain literally hundreds of names!), I hope you all know who you are....and just as importantly, the esteem in which you're held by this mild-mannered camel afficionado.
Thank you, my fellow Orgahs. For everything.
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Congratulations on reaching that milestone, but more importantly, how you reached it. You've "paid it forward" many times over and the Org is a better place for it. Thanks for taking that chance back in 2003. 
Re: 5000 posts -- A camel lord's thoughts
Congrats Martok! To another 5000 posts!
Originally Posted by drone
#Hillary4prism 
<3 Martok.
Re: 5000 posts -- A camel lord's thoughts
) Like you, I try to "pay forward" the benefits, help, advice and welcome I've received through the site, because it does feel more like an "online community" than "any old place you can post stuff".
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