My first several months here....

[Bouncy Ball]

I thought I'd share my own experiences to hopefully...I don't know why. But it might help.

I've been here longer than my profile shows, I had a different screen name. Not important what it was, but the point is I've been here for quite a while. Not since the beginning but a couple of years now. (About two and a half.)

I found the lounge completely by accident and thought it was wild. It was like watching a big party going on. This was before the "fun was over" so you can imagine.

But....I couldn't figure it out. Matcom with his big purple spanking thing and ass climbing the stairs and his completely confident attitude sort of intimidated me, believe it or not. Sounds kind of silly to me now, but it did. (I hope it's ok to mention you matcom!)

Why was there an option on every poll for "Robb is a dingbat?" Who was Robb and why was he a dingbat?

What was MLS??? (No, not multiple listing service and I may have it wrong, it might have been MSL.) What did all these things mean? Were they inside jokes? Why were people saying "ask me anything?"

I noticed some people seemed to know each other very well. Ok, I figured that was to be expected.

So I read the lounge for a while, laughing a lot, and trying to get a "feel" for the atmosphere here. I finally started posting and they sunk like a stone. No one knew who I was and I didn't know anyone else, either.

There were a few people whom I thought were intentionally ignoring me. I never got any responses from them when I posted in their threads. And I almost always posted in their threads, because they were funny and interesting. Then one day one of them responded to me and I was shocked. I sort of snapped at them, taking out my suspicion of being ignored on them and being bitter towards them. They were completely gobsmacked, had never MEANT to ignore me or do anything malicious. It seemed completely out of the blue to them.

I felt kind of stupid for assuming that. And bad for snapping at them. And I'll admit this: I did that to three people here, not just one. Eventually it was all straightened out, in one case by PMs. People certainly don't have to respond to every single post in a thread (that's kind of hard to do, anyway--I try to and that's part of why my post count got so high so fast). I had to realize that and realize that they just didn't "know" me yet.

Anyway, that was my experience of it. It took months before I really felt comfortable in the lounge and before I got a handle on the atmosphere, people, etc.

I suck at remembering names. Usernames, real names, all names. I often go by people's avatar. But over time, I do notice people that I see repeatedly. The lounge moves fast and it's not always easy to catch everything.

I just thought it'd be helpful to hear peoples' experiences with their first weeks and months in the lounge. Anyone else?