It feels surreal

Exactly seven years ago, on January 25, 2015, I joined DDO as a thirteen-year-old. 

My life would be so radically different if I hadn’t. I would probably be in a different college, in a different country, and not know any of my closest friends (friends I made through competitive debate IRL, which I wouldn’t have gone into if not for DDO). It’s wild for a website to influence a person’s life trajectory that much, but I know there’s people who married someone they met on DDO, so maybe mine isn’t even the biggest case. 

I came there pretty uneducated and stupid. I like to think I gained maturity and grew both intellectually and emotionally on DDO. Some of it was from straight up copying people. I’m sure Spacetime has enough examples off the top of his head of me writing debate arguments that were pretty much rewritten photocopies of, among others, 16K, FourTrouble, and Bsh1. Honestly, though, that made me smarter too – I started reading the sources they cited, coming up with ones of my own, and started producing original arguments (first through the ~45 or so “God exists” debates I did, and then further in debates about torture and capital punishment). 

I was also quite a bad person, at many points, when I was active on DDO. I did one or two live debates and was... uh... pretty d*ckish, I ain’t gonna lie. I try to be kind to people now, and I don’t think this personal growth would have been possible without the community. 

It changed me too, not sure the website itself had a positive impact on my life or something but debating... If I grew up in an era before 'debating' was a thing, I think I'd feel insane in a world where nobody appreciated arguing as an artform itself like I do.

*cries in joining DDO right after it has been declared dead*

Late 2016 for me. 5 years ago for me. 7 for you now. And then there’s Danielle, who’s DDO profile says she joined the site 14 years ago. It’s kinda neat; this community is like a small town where just about everyone knows each other. Sure, not everyone may like each other, and users will come and go, but I like it here. I would love site growth, though, if it means more people to internet with. The greater amount of perspectives would be nice as well.

A toast to you for 7 years and a toast to the community for even longer.

Whenever people here post their age I feel like an ancient being. 

Good to see you around and doing well! So what's new in your life since DDO, what are you majoring in college?