My friend,

First sending you love.

Second, keep on keeping on. The questionnaire is long, but totally worth it. And you don't have to be a scientist. It seems more like a tool for one to be more scientifically minded in the forums so as to weed out and prevent too much nonsense, like what can be found on many other forums on the net.

Sometimes, you'll get no replies or they'll take a while to come through. It means nothing about you. I actually have a post that's been up for a few days with no replies. It's all good. Sometimes people who see just simply have nothing to add.

I feel for you as well. Being one who has been relatively misunderstood for much of my life, even when I'm around those who appreciate me, I still feel off... it's okay, just the mold that some of us (un)fit. There are a great many people to connect with here. Don't be surprised if you find your tribe here.

You got this, even if it takes a little time. Two things we can never have enough of: patience and discipline.

One love

Don't worry too much about the promotion, it will come eventually. I understand your concerns of course. Everyone here has had to wait different amounts of time. You definitely don't need to be a scientist to be a full member either just give it time. Best of luck friend.

This also reminds me - fledgling membership need not be a limitation to participation.
Here's an example (you may have already noticed) of how to respond to a thread in an area where you don't yet have posting rights:
https://www.dmt-nexus.me...;t=96417&find=unread

Where do the answers go though?
I feel like posts contributing to the community give a sense of achievement and beneficence, taking the time to work on something, explain to, and enlighten others. When you are answering questions that go into the ether and are only skimmed by those who have read thousands of responses before doesn't quite have the sense of satisfaction or achievement. It feels like answering the questionnaire is entirely self-serving which, for me, makes it un-interesting.

Perhaps a compromise... Expand the number of subforums that are open to new members. And I totally get the you're-not-in-the-club vibe, whether intended or not, to do with having no chemistry background.

You are able to see everyone's answers when you become a full member. You can also view answers on individual profiles. The questionnaire, if I recall correctly, are FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS that get asked quite often on the boards. The moderators felt that maybe educating new members through the questionnaire would lead to less repeat questions asked. Critical thinking is a HUGE deal and pet peeve of mine (and obviously others regarding the attitude of this forum) There are no elitist vibes I have gotten so far..and if they came from me Shamanisticvibes can tell you himself, we are friends and I'm glad to have made their acquaintance.

Regarding the expansion of the Welcome Area...that's a whole other topic for discussion.

Since he was brought up, and is an exemplary example to point to, let's point at Loveall for a moment. He joined new member just like anyone else, but he jumped right in with an incredible knowledge base and immediately started making extraordinary contributions to the community with his research and experimentation. This is why he was able to leapfrog to senior membership faster than most people will get a promotion to regular membership, but it's not the extraordinary contributions or the incredible depth of knowledge I want to point to, it's his attitude and approach.

Post #1 was a thoughtful and well written intro essay. He then immediately started participating in the welcome area and research sections of the forum engaging the community and participating where he could, unhindered by being restricted to those areas, even though he clearly had much to contribute outside them as well. Even now as he is pushing the research forward with novel ideas and experiments, he remains actively engaged in the community, setting aside time to give new members a friendly welcome, answering the questions of others where he can, and asking poignant and relevant questions in kind that help broaden our collective thinking. These are things all of us can do and the things that really keep the community vibrant, active, and dynamic.

If you want to know how to get promoted quickly, or what you need to do to get past the proverbial waiting room and enter the infinite depths of hyperspace, that's it, that's how it's done.

Now regarding the questionnaire. Yes it started off as an April Fools day prank. At the bottom of the screen was printed the words "Just type Smoalk Moar" in a font that got increasingly less transparent with each question you answered. After about 20 questions or so it was pretty clearly visible, but you kinda had to be looking for it. Simple really, but subtle enough to be maddeningly frustrating if you didn't catch on. As an aside, we did build in an escape clause for those in the know by making one of the first few questions "What is Kikker's legendary life advice?".

Once the holiday was over, Trav recognized that after cleaning up some of the sillier questions, the questionnaire could be repurposed as a helpful tool to orient new members to the community attitude, challenge their willingness to do a little independent research, and maybe provide a bit of practical information along the way. The real question as to the value of doing the questionnaire is whether or not you learned anything? If so, it did it's job.

P.S. - We are now cooking up a little something special to be awarded upon completion of the questionnaire. Thanks for the idea!

This is true, we have developed a friendship through all of this. I almost wish I had not posted this, because I do not want to guide more people into the head space that I was in when I originally posted this. I was letting my insecurities get in the way. It is a bummer that you can't send a private message, but that is not an impassible barrier. You just have to work harder, find the posts and speak to those people through the posts. I have had several good interactions with people here, and have already benefit quite a bit from the very small amount of knowledge I have learned in the last few weeks. The elitism that I feared may be at play here seem to be just paranoid thoughts of my mind, as everyone has been very helpful and welcoming. I hope this helps anyone who feels left out.

Stick it out if you can. I rode the whole questionnaire with the idea that it was a practical joke that I was the butt of. I have a bit of an issue with challenges and completion (luckily for me in this case at least). I answered to the best of my ability and used google where needed and gave an honest opinion to the political questions (though its easy since I ride the center and get my news from Reuters, assuming reality is even real lol). see you in the future hopefully.

I disagree with your wish to have not posted this thread. I don't think you are guiding anyone to feel a certain way, I think you have lucidly expressed what a lot of people probably feel whenever they join the forum and then find they are being held in a proving grounds. Even if the intention of the membership is genuine and kindhearted I believe that many people would have the same kind of reaction as you when they first join. I think this thread serves a valuable purpose to partly allow people to express their frustration at not being immediately accepted and also to have the purpose of this welcoming cage explained.



I think a lot of the things explained in this thread could serve a valuable purpose by being added to the somewhat brief welcoming material

Well, it looks like your thread did the trick, SV.


Congratulations on promotion to full membership!