You know, I just realized I have a couple of posts here under a different username back in 2006, so I guess I made an account way back then too and forgot about it. So... happy 20 year anniversary too? 🤣

I hear you: I married my first date, and that I had to be set up for by a mutual friend (if that tells you plenty about my romantic track record growing up).

In an internet full of bots, social media and political\cultural idiocy from all sides, this is a safe haven for us to observe and reflect on our incredible hobby.

May it never change...

Congrats on 10 years!

Vogons is a great place.

Congrats, @keenmaster486, on the positive developments in your life, and may it only get better for you. 😀

Looking back at my own registration date in 2015, this was already after the most meaningful changes of adulthood happened to me. 😉

VOGONS is indeed one of the special places, both in terms of sharing useful knowledge, and absence of toxicity, as others have pointed out.
There aren't many like these left on the internet.

I'm still lost after (another) decade. Life seems to be just incredibly boring at best and full of pain and suffering at worst.

Thanks all. Can't respond to every single one but I will breeze through replies now.

UCyborg wrote on 2026-02-16, 21:25:

I assumed you were older.

Most people do. I've had people on the internet tell me they thought I was 40 years old lol.

st31276a wrote on 2026-02-17, 06:03:

I also at times wonder how that is possible in 2026. We seem to have a critical mass thing going on here.

It is quite the antithesis of the modern day "if something has scrolled by, it is old news." Some epic necroposts here have provided closure to matters more than a decade later, which is something I appreciate when I see it.

"Critical mass" is a good way of putting it. There is a dedicated group of tinkerers here who genuinely love the hobby and are willing to obsessively improve it.

Living wrote on 2026-02-17, 09:14:

40 here, i make a living from this hobbie and i dont see that changing any time soon. What changed its the will to spend time playing games, the time and the energy to do it are not the same anymore.

Making a living from this hobby would be a dream job for me. I'm slowly getting into game development, and I have an engine and an idea that might go somewhere... just need an artist now.

agent_x007 wrote on 2026-02-17, 09:32:

You registrated around a month after me, difference is I didn't even noticed I got my 10 years last month 😁

Happy 10 years to you as well!

badmojo wrote on 2026-02-18, 02:16:

Nice one @keenmaster, I've always enjoyed your posts.

Congrats on getting married and impending fatherhood - my kids are mid/late teens now and if I could go back and do it all again I absolutely would. Easily the best experience of my life.

Thanks man, I appreciate that. There are so many people who will tell you kids are awful, "just wait until..." etc. I choose to ignore those people. It's interesting how often their children seem to despise them! I wonder why.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-02-18, 09:33:

Oh wow, I'm about a month away from 10 years myself. […]
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Oh wow, I'm about a month away from 10 years myself.

Yeesh... it feels like just a couple years ago I picked up my IBM PC 5150 and started on my intentional retro computing journey. That was 2015!

Shortly after tinkering with that computer, which far far predated the hardware that I was experienced with, I realized that there was a whole community basically dedicated to the stuff I knew well from the mid-90s to the late 2000s. And here I still am.

I have learned so much, and developed lots of interesting (mostly repair) skills in that span of time. Thanks VOGONS. 🙂

Similar to how I feel. It's good to know there are people who have the same interests. When I was a kid nobody else cared about this stuff and I thought I was going to have to be alone in this hobby my whole life lol.

BaronSFel001 wrote on 2026-02-18, 16:37:

I hear you: I married my first date, and that I had to be set up for by a mutual friend (if that tells you plenty about my romantic track record growing up).

I didn't quite marry my first date, but on the first date with my now-wife, I knew I was going to marry her. Not worth fiddling around with women you don't have that experience with.

schmatzler wrote on 2026-02-18, 11:28:

I've only been here for nine years, but always had the impression that keenmaster486 had been here for ages. We are just one year apart!
The profile picture must've made you much older in my mind, now that's funny. 😄

Websites and social media platforms come and go, but vogons has also been a stable community I regularly visit. The moderation here is doing a solid job of keeping the board clean of spam, unneccessary necroing and flamewars. It's really nice here.

Maybe it's because I post a lot lol. Agree about the moderation.

dr_st wrote on 2026-03-02, 07:57:

Congrats, @keenmaster486, on the positive developments in your life, and may it only get better for you. :) […]
Show full quote

Congrats, @keenmaster486, on the positive developments in your life, and may it only get better for you. 😀

Looking back at my own registration date in 2015, this was already after the most meaningful changes of adulthood happened to me. 😉

VOGONS is indeed one of the special places, both in terms of sharing useful knowledge, and absence of toxicity, as others have pointed out.
There aren't many like these left on the internet.

Thank you and same to you. Yes indeed. Niche forums like this are where it's at.

UCyborg wrote on 2026-03-08, 17:43:

I'm still lost after (another) decade. Life seems to be just incredibly boring at best and full of pain and suffering at worst.

I'm sorry to hear that, man. I fully believe you have the power to change that about your life.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2026-04-07, 16:05:

BaronSFel001 wrote on 2026-02-18, 16:37:

I hear you: I married my first date, and that I had to be set up for by a mutual friend (if that tells you plenty about my romantic track record growing up).

I didn't quite marry my first date, but on the first date with my now-wife, I knew I was going to marry her. Not worth fiddling around with women you don't have that experience with.

🤣, I probably should have phrased that more properly is "I married the first woman I ever dated." She knew after 3 dates, and we had about a 7-month engagement. It is something to have no history of break-ups or any of that kind of baggage, and probably no sense dwelling on how it was not for lack of trying but rather an inherent lack of charm on my part...but it affects my employment too: I seem utterly unable to make a good impression until people offer the benefit of the doubt and get to know me first.

Happy 10 years! 😀

I agree, this forum has been here for me for a very long time. After so many years of Google searches landing me here when I went looking for something, I finally decided to join the community 3 years ago. This is the only forum I'm active on. I post sporadically on some others, but I here almost every day just seeing what's new. I guess you could say VOGONS is my social media becasue I don't have any social media accounts, they're just not my thing. I guess I'm just too old to see the point.

When you mentioned "eternal September" I had to pause for a minute. I had heard that before, but it's been so long I couldn't remember. The joys of age. I do indeed remember those times very fondly. I'm in my 50's, so I was lucky enough to live through the 80's and 90's and see computer technology take off, including the World Wide Web! Those were the days!

Anyway...I'm rambling now. I better stop. I'm going to be one of those old guys who sits down to tell stories of those wonderful years in my rocking chair and annoy the kids. Hopefully my lovely wife will be kind enough to stop me. 😜

BaronSFel001 wrote on 2026-02-18, 16:37:

I hear you: I married my first date, and that I had to be set up for by a mutual friend (if that tells you plenty about my romantic track record growing up).

I was considering cancelling my first date with my now wife becuase I was tired. Glad I didnt . It was an amazing first and it led to having a now 4 year old son. I hope he eventually takes interest in the old computers and games I have around the home.

I don't know how I even got the job. But somehow got it at the first company that would even consider me. Shocking, didn't have much to write. I've read horror stories before about how many applications other people send and get nowhere. So got invited, the boss told me what it would be like, I don't remember saying much beyond OKs. Got some hardware to play with to take home, it was part of the test. I think he intentionally "forgot" to send me one of the programs they have, I snooped after it (asked about it). 😜 The other day, I got a test (echoes of school days) at the company to set some things in the software. About the week later, I got the mail that I'm in.

Congratulations on 10 years.

I think I've known about this forum for about 10 years, but I didn't register.

I really suck at talking to people, and it seems like there's some event about every five years that results in me not having any social life for a couple years.

UCyborg wrote on 2026-04-08, 20:14:

I don't know how I even got the job. But somehow got it at the first company that would even consider me. Shocking, didn't have much to write. I've read horror stories before about how many applications other people send and get nowhere.

I was one of those people who had to send tons of applications. I got my current job by having the phone screening and first interview with an engineer instead of HR. Before that, I spent two years being told that I had the skills they were looking for, but they wouldn't hire anyone with my degree.

Being stuck looking for a job, this was one of the worst periods. The uncertainty, the random positions. Maybe it looks less horrible if you're useful for various things. As is often the case in life, you're on your own.

I suck at talking to people too and what little social life I had died few years after having been employed. My mind is bipolar / conflicted on social aspect. I just ramble and shout at the clouds on forums.

I don't remember when I came across VOGONS specifically. Interesting how much more websites I came across back then.

Congrats!