Venerable Shard Users - How Do You Deal?

[Kasimir he/him]

This question goes out to the truly ancient Shard users and the venerable Shard users, but I'm interested in hearing from the whippersnappers too  How do you deal with being venerable? Has the way you engaged with the Shard changed?

I first joined the Shard in 2014 in the wake of Words of Radiance releasing. I remember first starting Mistborn in 2008, but you know, for whatever reason, things in my life aligned nicely when WoR released and I was massively on the hype train and just wanted to engage in fandom, talk about it to people, that kinda thing!

And then I found 17S and the rest is history. (Seem to recall a question from Argent in my sign-up thread at that time if Kasimir was my real name, after which the disappointing response depressed him  )

At that time, I was super hyped to just hop all over the Shard and interact, including in the notorious Shipfather thread (if you know, you know, if you don't know, you don't want to.) I remember being in the Lords of Chaos at some point, which I think is a dead guild/social clan now, and we had...some sort of beef with the Newcargo Court?

Sometime in April I also discovered the Sanderson Elimination subforum, where I now spend most of my Shard time. I think I first joined a game there in May due to RL schedule stuff again, and made many RL friends, some of whom I'm still in contact with today.

I guess where this is leading to: I used to be all over the Shard, and to feel enthusiastic about just showing up wherever, including in theorycrafting threads and just joining in. These days I'm mostly in Sanderson Elimination (still, yes, I know  ) running/playing games for the love of the community and that's it. I'm on the Discord, but show up intermittently in books for 17S, and more with the SE community. 

Has the way you engage with the Shard changed for you, venerable Shard users? (I define venerable as those who joined years ago, and especially if you joined in high school or uni, and are working now. Ancient are those who are even older than us  ) I kind of feel a lot of mental barriers now when I look at other parts of the Shard and IDK if that's fair. I'm not super into hardcore theorycrafting and never was - the threads I joined were really more stuff like Adolin or Windrunner Fifth Ideal speculation. I've joined some Entertainment and General threads on occasion, but social clans and guilds just skews so young and sometimes something in my brain says it's silly and I've outgrown that, really. (Maybe some of it is fandom brain too - I've fallen out of love with fandoms, but around that period as well was a discourse that fandom wasn't for older members and we kind of needed to leave certain spaces to the young.)

I feel a little dissatisfied with how my brain doesn't feel cool freely engaging anymore, but I am wondering about everyone else's experience. Young 'uns who just want to chime in, do you feel like this might affect you in future? Or that you might outgrow/leave the Shard?

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

I haven't been here that long, but I figured I'd weigh in with my thoughts. 
I've been on the shard since 2021, both forums and discord. I joined while in 10th grade of High School, and I was definitely mostly involved in the RP's and forum games, etc. I was a bittt active on discord, but not as much. I felt more intimidated by the discord discussion to some extent, as I feel there's a slightly younger crowd on the forums, at least in the areas I hung out in. About a year later though, I got busier with school, so didn't have as much time for long RP's or general forum discussion, and moved over to discord a lot more. I've grown more active on the community-type channels over on the discord as I've gotten older, mostly in the you-people (18+) channel in the past year. 
 

On 1/24/2025 at 4:30 AM, Kasimir said:

social clans and guilds just skews so young

I definitely feel this is the case. I'm kind of in the middle, where I'm still quite young, so I can relate to HS-age folks a lot, but especially now that I'm in college, I do feel noticeably older than a lot of folks in some of the social clans/forum games/general discussions/RPs. I suppose I feel like a lot of my old shardbuddy friend group has also moved on a bit or become less active, or at least some of them, and a lot of people have already formed new groups while I was gone, so I feel out of touch. Like The Longest Thread for example, I used to be pretty active there, but ofc now I have no clue what's happening, or who anyone's characters are. Ofc I could put in that effort to catch up a bit and learn the context of where the story is, but also there's a big time commitment. When I was in high school, I had all the time in the world. But now that I'm in college, between a crazy schedule, moderation, etc., I feel like I won't be able to be consistently active, which makes me reluctant to join a new RP

[Kasimir he/him]

16 minutes ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

I definitely feel this is the case. I'm kind of in the middle, where I'm still quite young, so I can relate to HS-age folks a lot, but especially now that I'm in college, I do feel noticeably older than a lot of folks in some of the social clans/forum games/general discussions/RPs. I suppose I feel like a lot of my old shardbuddy friend group has also moved on a bit or become less active, or at least some of them, and a lot of people have already formed new groups while I was gone, so I feel out of touch. Like The Longest Thread for example, I used to be pretty active there, but ofc now I have no clue what's happening, or who anyone's characters are. Ofc I could put in that effort to catch up a bit and learn the context of where the story is, but also there's a big time commitment. When I was in high school, I had all the time in the world. But now that I'm in college, between a crazy schedule, moderation, etc., I feel like I won't be able to be consistently active, which makes me reluctant to join a new RP

Thank you so much

Ngl it's just nice to know someone else kind of feels this way. 

16 minutes ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

About a year later though, I got busier with school, so didn't have as much time for long RP's or general forum discussion, and moved over to discord a lot more.

I do feel like I'm experiencing this more and more. IDK if it's my own perception, but I do feel like I used to be ok with hitting other threads. Now I look at anything left and 80% of them feel like theorycrafting that needs a PhD in Realmatics, a PhD in physics, and a PhD in philosophy with an Aristotle specialisation to even begin to engage in, and I just don't have the time to keep up anymore. I think if Discord'd been big when I first started on the Shard, I'd've made the move you did earlier.

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

7 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

80% of them feel like theorycrafting that needs a PhD in Realmatics, a PhD in physics, and a PhD in philosophy with an Aristotle specialisation to even begin to engage in, and I just don't have the time to keep up anymore.

For sure. I feel like a lot of Cosmere book discussion is beyond me sometimes. Outside of the Shard, to your average fan, I might know a crazy ton, but when compared to a lot of people on here, I feel pretty ignorant. That's pretty much why I stay out of the book channels a lot, and just engage in the community channels like #you-people, #other, #arting, etc., because they feel more chill to me. I almost feel like nowadays I'm more on the Shard for the social aspect than I am for the book discussion aspect. Like even at Dragonsteel Nexus this past year, I only went to one panel that some 17s Staff were on, and mostly just hung out with people. 

Elaborating on the age thing because I had another thought: I'm kind of in the weird middle stage where I'm pretty young, and haven't been a fan for super long, so I can't relate to a lot of the older adults. (Also I'm the youngest staffer xD) But also I feel just old enough where I don't quite have the same vibe/energy as some of the even younger sharders

[Kasimir he/him]

3 minutes ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

For sure. I feel like a lot of Cosmere book discussion is beyond me sometimes. Outside of the Shard, to your average fan, I might know a crazy ton, but when compared to a lot of people on here, I feel pretty ignorant. That's pretty much why I stay out of the book channels a lot, and just engage in the community channels like #you-people, #other, #arting, etc., because they feel more chill to me. I almost feel like nowadays I'm more on the Shard for the social aspect than I am for the book discussion aspect. Like even at Dragonsteel Nexus this past year, I only went to one panel that some 17s Staff were on, and mostly just hung out with people. 

Fair, yeah. Maybe I needed to make the Discord migration for real, too - I do feel a bit like outside my subforum, I sometimes feel - strange posting even in forum games or some of the more relaxed threads because a lot of them are young 'uns and then there's that felt disconnect or "man what am I doing clouding their vibes" kind of thing  

4 minutes ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

Elaborating on the age thing because I had another thought: I'm kind of in the weird middle stage where I'm pretty young, and haven't been a fan for super long, so I can't relate to a lot of the older adults. (Also I'm the youngest staffer xD) But also I feel just old enough where I don't quite have the same vibe as some of the even younger sharders

Tbh I get this? I used to feel that way, but also because when I came to the Shard, I was in university so I first automatically assumed everyone was the same age, but there was a whole tier of clearly adult Sharders like Awesomeness Summoned and little_wilson, and younger ones like Lightsworn Panda, so sometimes I'd just struggle to relate. I was lucky to have a friend group to hang with, but now that most of them have aged out of fandom, in a strange way, the perceived gaps between me and my elders like Wilson have shrunk, but the ones between me and the next gen have grown.

I will agree some of that is personal mental barriers. Like yeah when I was in uni I felt chill engaging in silly clan wars like swearing to the Lords of Chaos, that sort of RP-lite thing, but it just somehow feels...odd/pretentious/"Hello fellow kids!" energy trying that now. Maybe that's a problem since you technically never should be too old to YOLO, but still.

I apologise that this has become a weird vent thread. But I do reiterate it's just nice to know I'm not totally kayana and that someone else has felt this way.

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

No need to apologize, it's really interesting to me to see how others perceive the forum culture, as I feel like it's pretty different from discord's. And even subforum to subforum it varies a lot. 

 

[Going_North_cal]

I've been here for almost 5 years. I figured out very early on that only spending time in the Stormlight discussion forums was not a very enjoyable thing for me, and soon after joining I had a several months hiatus.

After that, though, I came back and discovered the community forums side of the Shard, and the rest is history. I founded the Insanity Clinic, which quickly grew into the Shard's biggest RP. After Season One ended, we started Season Two, and the pride and joy of Insanity Clinic was how random and on-the-spot everything about it was. There was no set plot line, the plot line was uncovered in real time.

I have made lasting friendships here. I have found friends who I am 100% inviting to my wedding in 2-3 years. I have found friends who I can talk to about almost anything. I've met some of them in real life, something I don't think ever would've happened in any other fandom that I am or will be a part of. This website has absolutely changed my life, as have the books discussed herein. And while my activity over the past year has dwindled as I prepared to graduate high school and serve a mission, I still hold this website and all who are on it very near and dear to my heart.

I remember joining back when I was a freshman in high school, an absolute baby, and my first username here was a terrible misspelling of my real name (my first username was Kalb. why did I think that was a good name). I remember finding friends, finding people I enjoyed talking to, starting topics and threads, founding the IC, branching out to be friends with these people via Discord, and phone numbers, and coordinating meetups when I was at Dragonsteel 2023.

This site means so much to me. It always will. It's been amazing to watch it grow, to watch those I know grow, and to look back on those times with the fondest of memories. I see new people join, and I feel so happy for them. Because they are in for such an amazing experience.

[Treamayne]

On 1/24/2025 at 5:30 AM, Kasimir said:

Has the way you engage with the Shard changed for you, venerable Shard users? (I define venerable as those who joined years ago, and especially if you joined in high school or uni, and are working now. Ancient are those who are even older than us )

I'd guess that makes me an Ancient? When I started reading Sanderson (2011ish) I was in my thirties. When I joined the 17th Shard (2016) I was in my 40s. You can extrapolate from there. 

My first few years here I lurked much, and mostly posted to the Translation Thread and a few long-reach projects like that. Work (at that time) meant I had minimal time for surfing the web or being active in much. Since then I changed jobs which gave me a bit more time to participate (and read) and I found I mostly enjoyed answering questions and looking up references (Kinetic learner - looking the info up and posting it helped me to learn and remember the info, which helped me follow book discussions). So the next few years were Book discussion almost exclusively.

Around Covid, I started getting more invovled with the community aspect. I looked for other ways to contribute, such as the Sharder FAQ and Recommended Reading list. Around this time, I severly limited other hobbies (MtG), so as participation there dwindled, participation here increased. 

I've mostly ignored Forum games and 90% of the entire Community section, only making occasional posts. 

So, has my interaction with the fandom changed? Yes. . . ish. It's still 90% or so book discussion - but it now also includes other, slower paced things that I hope can make the community better as a whole. I also try to help in non-Book ways, such as answering questions by-pm for @Just-A-Stick, or helping @Koloss17 work on Mistborn-inspired Magic sets, or simply making my eBook Project thread in case anybody has CSS/XML questions (maybe that should have been a club/guild/clan?). 

3 hours ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

I feel like it's pretty different from discord's

Can I be honest? I do not like Discord. I have a couple communities I am part of there (DCC, MtG, and of course Coppermind Editors), but it always feels like if there is any volume of activity - it turns into two-three-four conversations happening on top of each other in the same channel, and keeping track of a "conversation" is difficult to impossible. Finding information (previous posts) is equally hard.

Maybe it's because I'm a FOG, but I really prefer 1 thread, 1 topic (even if replies are not "real time"). 

As always, YMMV. Hope that helps.

[Kasimir he/him]

26 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

I've mostly ignored Forum games and 90% of the entire Community section, only making occasional posts. 

So, has my interaction with the fandom changed? Yes. . . ish. It's still 90% or so book discussion - but it now also includes other, slower paced things that I hope can make the community better as a whole. I also try to help in non-Book ways, such as answering questions by-pm for @Just-A-Stick, or helping @Koloss17 work on Mistborn-inspired Magic sets, or simply making my eBook Project thread in case anybody has CSS/XML questions (maybe that should have been a club/guild/clan?). 

Can I ask if this is how you still feel engaged? Because ngl I often feel disengaged or lost, and IDK if it's because I'm not finding places to latch onto besides that one subforum. I've seen your ebook thread and actually have it bookmarked because I kinda have some projects I want in nicely ebook format

26 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

Can I be honest? I do not like Discord. I have a couple communities I am part of there (DCC, MtG, and of course Coppermind Editors), but it always feels like if there is any volume of activity - it turns into two-three-four conversations happening on top of each other in the same channel, and keeping track of a "conversation" is difficult to impossible. Finding information (previous posts) is equally hard.

I don't like it as a community format as much - I cut my fandom teeth on forums and the Shard will always be special to me for that. There's a mostly-dead forum for another fandom I still visit on occasion because I spent my formative years there. I agree with you on the searching; I'm ok with it for casual conversation. I've greatly liked it as a platform for DMs - most of my friends, I now keep in touch via Discord DMs. Sometimes I have to make a mental code switch back to Shard messenger. That one...does make me sad. I remember the days my friends and I racked up easily 7k+ messages between us on Shard PMs, just chatting about life and the latest stuff we were up to.

I like the chill element in that the 17s Discord does let me relax and just lean into conversations - I don't go to too many places beyond #books but I feel like there's always something interesting for me there, and I don't feel out of place just having Stover or GGK conversations with fellow fans

26 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

I'd guess that makes me an Ancient? When I started reading Sanderson (2011ish) I was in my thirties. When I joined the 17th Shard (2016) I was in my 40s. You can extrapolate from there. 

Thanks! Again, great to know there are more people out here  

Edited to add:

@Medium - Apologies, appreciated the reach out! I'm tired and missed yours on the scroll. Will get back tomorrow after some sleep  

Edited January 28, 2025 by Kasimir

[Treamayne]

14 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

Can I ask if this is how you still feel engaged?

It is. Partially because I find satisfaction in helping others. Partially because many questions I've been around long enough to know the answer and can (usually) easily find the WoB to post (recent example). Partially because I know having easy access to the ePubs on Caibre makes searching the books easier for me than it may be for most Sharders. Also, like I implied - this helps keep it all straight in my head. 

I don't theorize much (usually only things I noticed I had not seen mentioned before) because I don't enjoy trying to "predict" what Brandon has in store - I much prefer trying to understand what we have and extrapolate from that (rather than book specific - Bond Example). 

24 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

I kinda have some projects I want in nicely ebook format

Here's an example from my recent Dungeon Crawler project (before and after):

Spoiler

After:

 

30 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

I now keep in touch via Discord DMs

I can see that. The private message function is fairly easy. Not sure it has a multi-person version (like Forum PM) without going into a server channel though. 

 

 

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

Can I be honest? I do not like Discord. I have a couple communities I am part of there (DCC, MtG, and of course Coppermind Editors), but it always feels like if there is any volume of activity - it turns into two-three-four conversations happening on top of each other in the same channel, and keeping track of a "conversation" is difficult to impossible. Finding information (previous posts) is equally hard.

Maybe it's because I'm a FOG, but I really prefer 1 thread, 1 topic (even if replies are not "real time"). 

As a very young person, I definitely agree with you. Finding day old @s in a active thread is hell, and Discord never going back to the last message a read annoys me so much. I kinda enjoy being able to talk to a couple people in real time, but forums work well enough to make up for the negatives imo.

[Koloss17 She/They]

On 1/24/2025 at 5:30 AM, Kasimir said:

This question goes out to the truly ancient Shard users and the venerable Shard users, but I'm interested in hearing from the whippersnappers too  How do you deal with being venerable? Has the way you engaged with the Shard changed?

I first joined the Shard in 2014 in the wake of Words of Radiance releasing. I remember first starting Mistborn in 2008, but you know, for whatever reason, things in my life aligned nicely when WoR released and I was massively on the hype train and just wanted to engage in fandom, talk about it to people, that kinda thing!

And then I found 17S and the rest is history. (Seem to recall a question from Argent in my sign-up thread at that time if Kasimir was my real name, after which the disappointing response depressed him  )

At that time, I was super hyped to just hop all over the Shard and interact, including in the notorious Shipfather thread (if you know, you know, if you don't know, you don't want to.) I remember being in the Lords of Chaos at some point, which I think is a dead guild/social clan now, and we had...some sort of beef with the Newcargo Court?

Sometime in April I also discovered the Sanderson Elimination subforum, where I now spend most of my Shard time. I think I first joined a game there in May due to RL schedule stuff again, and made many RL friends, some of whom I'm still in contact with today.

I guess where this is leading to: I used to be all over the Shard, and to feel enthusiastic about just showing up wherever, including in theorycrafting threads and just joining in. These days I'm mostly in Sanderson Elimination (still, yes, I know  ) running/playing games for the love of the community and that's it. I'm on the Discord, but show up intermittently in books for 17S, and more with the SE community. 

Has the way you engage with the Shard changed for you, venerable Shard users? (I define venerable as those who joined years ago, and especially if you joined in high school or uni, and are working now. Ancient are those who are even older than us  ) I kind of feel a lot of mental barriers now when I look at other parts of the Shard and IDK if that's fair. I'm not super into hardcore theorycrafting and never was - the threads I joined were really more stuff like Adolin or Windrunner Fifth Ideal speculation. I've joined some Entertainment and General threads on occasion, but social clans and guilds just skews so young and sometimes something in my brain says it's silly and I've outgrown that, really. (Maybe some of it is fandom brain too - I've fallen out of love with fandoms, but around that period as well was a discourse that fandom wasn't for older members and we kind of needed to leave certain spaces to the young.)

I feel a little dissatisfied with how my brain doesn't feel cool freely engaging anymore, but I am wondering about everyone else's experience. Young 'uns who just want to chime in, do you feel like this might affect you in future? Or that you might outgrow/leave the Shard?

idk if I count as venerable  but here I am. I joined the Shard in checks pfp 2019, which doesn't seem that long ago, but I guess its been 5 years. And yeah, it's been interesting to see a shift. My eager theory crafting days are largely over, but that's mostly because I'm only mostly theorizing with each new book release instead of based around the entirety of the cosmere when it was new to me. I still try my darnedest to make appearances around the theory forums, but like you, I've mostly relegated myself to the RP side of the Shard. As the currently only active mod of the Alleyverse subforum (that you should all check out!) and the main reason for the revival of it last year, it has become a passion project that I am incredibly proud of. I don't know if I'm someone that people outside of the Alleyverse forums see as someone to be venerated, but I do know that in my first few years I really wanted to be someone that was known and respected on the Shard. And honestly? It wasn't a good time. That sort of thing comes naturally, and it happens when you find your niche. For me, that was originally hailing the powers of F-Tin (which I absolutely still do, just not as vigilantly) and now being the head of the Alleyverse.

Actually, I don't really know the overlap between SE and Alleyverse RPers. I'm 90% sure that there are more SE players, but the formats are just different enough to attract different crowds. Maybe we could do a joint advertising campaign at some point, where you advertise SE on the Alleyverse forum, and I advertise the Alleyverse over on the SE forum. I've been thinking of ways to grow the Alleyverse community, and that sounds like a pretty harmless way of doing it. But I'm getting off track.

[Kasimir he/him]

14 hours ago, Medium said:

This site means so much to me. It always will. It's been amazing to watch it grow, to watch those I know grow, and to look back on those times with the fondest of memories. I see new people join, and I feel so happy for them. Because they are in for such an amazing experience.

Thanks for sharing. I feel like maybe that's a healthy and grace-filled attitude to ageing out of the Shard a little? It's like Cavafy's Ithaka - Ithaka has given you the journey, even if you outgrow Ithaka and you can be grateful for that. Maybe that eases the struggle.

Quote

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

 

11 hours ago, Treamayne said:

I don't theorize much (usually only things I noticed I had not seen mentioned before) because I don't enjoy trying to "predict" what Brandon has in store - I much prefer trying to understand what we have and extrapolate from that (rather than book specific - Bond Example). 

I do remember encountering you on the TLM sub-forum at that time. I think I mostly hard-bounced off WaT so that's another reason I have felt a bit burned out with regard to discussions. (It isn't a WaT thing, it's a me thing.)

11 hours ago, Treamayne said:

I don't theorize much (usually only things I noticed I had not seen mentioned before) because I don't enjoy trying to "predict" what Brandon has in store - I much prefer trying to understand what we have and extrapolate from that (rather than book specific - Bond Example). 

Oh, sweet. I really need to swing by that thread again. It's on my to do list at some point  Some fanfics are cursed and I was really hoping to fix their formatting so I can read on Kindle.

11 hours ago, Treamayne said:

I can see that. The private message function is fairly easy. Not sure it has a multi-person version (like Forum PM) without going into a server channel though. 

It does, but the downside is you have to be friends with everyone to make the message. I think there's a variant where you can drop a link to join the DM to people you haven't friended but I've not tried it. I really liked Shard PMs in the day, but there's a reason everyone jumped from them to Facebook Messenger eventually after a while I guess. Discord kind of has that. And I think my younger self was a lot more gung-ho about exchanging IRL contacts with a bunch of relative strangers. I'm lucky the Shard is pretty nice in that regard

11 hours ago, The Unknown Flame said:

As a very young person, I definitely agree with you. Finding day old @s in a active thread is hell, and Discord never going back to the last message a read annoys me so much. I kinda enjoy being able to talk to a couple people in real time, but forums work well enough to make up for the negatives imo.

Shhh, your soul is old and evil >>

4 hours ago, Koloss17 said:

idk if I count as venerable  

Welcome, welcome to venerability!

4 hours ago, Koloss17 said:

My eager theory crafting days are largely over, but that's mostly because I'm only mostly theorizing with each new book release instead of based around the entirety of the cosmere when it was new to me. I still try my darnedest to make appearances around the theory forums, but like you, I've mostly relegated myself to the RP side of the Shard.

Thanks, it's nice to see yet another person feels that way too  

4 hours ago, Koloss17 said:

Actually, I don't really know the overlap between SE and Alleyverse RPers. I'm 90% sure that there are more SE players, but the formats are just different enough to attract different crowds. Maybe we could do a joint advertising campaign at some point, where you advertise SE on the Alleyverse forum, and I advertise the Alleyverse over on the SE forum. I've been thinking of ways to grow the Alleyverse community, and that sounds like a pretty harmless way of doing it. But I'm getting off track.

I actually want to ask you some questions on Alleyverse. Archer recommended I DM Ene, which I have, and he's been very helpful, but he also suggested I talk to someone a bit more recent in Alleyverse. Some of it is we want to understand your generational transition. There's definitely an overlap in our playerbases, though maybe not as big as it used to be, and I guess I should feel bad we poached Archer and Ash from you but they're great GMs and players, and their RP quality has left me a healthy respect for Alleyverse

I'll add I remember Voidus's initial posts - I saw the cookie memes when I first joined the Shard but always felt a bit intimidated in terms of joining Alleyverse at that time. Anyway, I don't want to derail the thread, so I'll drop you a PM in a bit? I'll likely be looping in @little wilson in it because I'm just a venerable (not ancient!  ) Sharder and community member, and I think she has had enough of me dropping sudden surprises on her.

[Going_North_cal]

11 hours ago, Kasimir said:

Thanks for sharing. I feel like maybe that's a healthy and grace-filled attitude to ageing out of the Shard a little? It's like Cavafy's Ithaka - Ithaka has given you the journey, even if you outgrow Ithaka and you can be grateful for that. Maybe that eases the struggle.

One of the things I've learned in my lifetime thus far is that nothing-- or at least, very very few things-- lasts forever. This is one of those things. We age out of things. We move on to other things. But the memories remain in our minds. The feelings remain in our hearts. That part stays with us, even if everything else doesn't.

[Kasimir he/him]

13 hours ago, Medium said:

One of the things I've learned in my lifetime thus far is that nothing-- or at least, very very few things-- lasts forever. This is one of those things. We age out of things. We move on to other things. But the memories remain in our minds. The feelings remain in our hearts. That part stays with us, even if everything else doesn't.

I agree. I think the healthiest part of my return to the Shard (I was sporadic between 2016 to 2019) was accepting what I had was gone. I could make new memories or I could just keep chasing things that didn't exist any longer. I think that's a bit at the back of my head on the second round: do I try again? The barriers felt less high the last time. Treamayne gives me reason to believe it's maybe worth a shot. But I don't believe in recreating experiences. Experience is by its nature impermanent. Anything else is dukkha.

[dannnex male]

I don't know if I'd consider myself "venerable" but I have been here since 2017. I still get mentioned occasionally when people are talking about what they consider the "good old days" of like 2019ish, and it feels good to be appreciated I guess.

It's interesting, since I joined the shard when I was very young, about as young as you can be with the age limit. So even though I first joined 8 years ago, I'm only in college now. So I feel a bit strange when people mention me while "reminiscing", since in my mind I was just a dumb kid back then. You can see that in my post history too, every so often I'll stumble across an old comment of mine that makes me cringe so bad I want to nuke this whole account lol

I heavily agree with you that it feels like the "social/community" areas tend to skew towards younger users, even I in my relative youth feel like I've largely grown out of those spaces. Even before I stopped being active I was feeling like that, which is why most of my "social" activity came in the form of posting and replying to status updates. So when the Shard updated and we stopped getting status update notifications, it kinda killed the dying social bubble I had here, and so I moved on.

These days most of my shard-related interaction does actually come from discord, and I still play games and things with people I first met way back then, we've just all kinda moved off the shard for the most part. Now I just find myself here every couple of weeks to browse around for a minute.

 

I have found myself thinking about SE lately, maybe I'll start playing again.

[Experience he/him]

33 minutes ago, dannnex said:

I have found myself thinking about SE lately, maybe I'll start playing again.

Do ittttt

[Kasimir he/him]

On 2/12/2025 at 11:47 AM, dannnex said:

I heavily agree with you that it feels like the "social/community" areas tend to skew towards younger users, even I in my relative youth feel like I've largely grown out of those spaces. Even before I stopped being active I was feeling like that, which is why most of my "social" activity came in the form of posting and replying to status updates. So when the Shard updated and we stopped getting status update notifications, it kinda killed the dying social bubble I had here, and so I moved on.

Hey, haven't seen you in a while  It's actually interesting to me you feel this way, because yeah I didn't realise the effect was pretty much this pronounced.

On 2/12/2025 at 11:47 AM, dannnex said:

These days most of my shard-related interaction does actually come from discord, and I still play games and things with people I first met way back then, we've just all kinda moved off the shard for the most part. Now I just find myself here every couple of weeks to browse around for a minute.

Not too surprised. I think that's how I now interact with all the friends I made when I first came to the Shard - we keep in touch via Discord, game off-Shard. They mostly don't come back anymore.

[Just-A-Stick she/her]

On 1/24/2025 at 5:30 AM, Kasimir said:

This question goes out to the truly ancient Shard users and the venerable Shard users, but I'm interested in hearing from the whippersnappers too  How do you deal with being venerable? Has the way you engaged with the Shard changed?

I first joined the Shard in 2014 in the wake of Words of Radiance releasing. I remember first starting Mistborn in 2008, but you know, for whatever reason, things in my life aligned nicely when WoR released and I was massively on the hype train and just wanted to engage in fandom, talk about it to people, that kinda thing!

And then I found 17S and the rest is history. (Seem to recall a question from Argent in my sign-up thread at that time if Kasimir was my real name, after which the disappointing response depressed him  )

At that time, I was super hyped to just hop all over the Shard and interact, including in the notorious Shipfather thread (if you know, you know, if you don't know, you don't want to.) I remember being in the Lords of Chaos at some point, which I think is a dead guild/social clan now, and we had...some sort of beef with the Newcargo Court?

Sometime in April I also discovered the Sanderson Elimination subforum, where I now spend most of my Shard time. I think I first joined a game there in May due to RL schedule stuff again, and made many RL friends, some of whom I'm still in contact with today.

I guess where this is leading to: I used to be all over the Shard, and to feel enthusiastic about just showing up wherever, including in theorycrafting threads and just joining in. These days I'm mostly in Sanderson Elimination (still, yes, I know  ) running/playing games for the love of the community and that's it. I'm on the Discord, but show up intermittently in books for 17S, and more with the SE community. 

Has the way you engage with the Shard changed for you, venerable Shard users? (I define venerable as those who joined years ago, and especially if you joined in high school or uni, and are working now. Ancient are those who are even older than us  ) I kind of feel a lot of mental barriers now when I look at other parts of the Shard and IDK if that's fair. I'm not super into hardcore theorycrafting and never was - the threads I joined were really more stuff like Adolin or Windrunner Fifth Ideal speculation. I've joined some Entertainment and General threads on occasion, but social clans and guilds just skews so young and sometimes something in my brain says it's silly and I've outgrown that, really. (Maybe some of it is fandom brain too - I've fallen out of love with fandoms, but around that period as well was a discourse that fandom wasn't for older members and we kind of needed to leave certain spaces to the young.)

I feel a little dissatisfied with how my brain doesn't feel cool freely engaging anymore, but I am wondering about everyone else's experience. Young 'uns who just want to chime in, do you feel like this might affect you in future? Or that you might outgrow/leave the Shard?

Ooop hello!

I wouldn't begin to call myself ancient, but I was mentioned here, so here I am!! I love the shard and wish I had as much time for it as I used to... to be honest, it's a great community but to fast-paced for the season of life I'm in right now. I hope to be more active in a few months/years. ^^

[Kasimir he/him]

7 hours ago, Just-A-Stick said:

I love the shard and wish I had as much time for it as I used to... to be honest, it's a great community but to fast-paced for the season of life I'm in right now.

I get that tbh. Sometimes it's just too high-energy for me among all the other things I want to be doing.

[AquaRegia he/him]

I’m venerable in one sense: I graduated from high school in 1985.  Not so much in the 17S sense - I joined this forum in 2021.

I have enjoyed Sanderson’s works for many years; I think I started looking things up on the Coppermind during the pandemic and eventually that led me here.  I immediately loved the feeling of community, the enthusiasm for the Cosmere, and the depth of knowledge demonstrated by the folks here.  It’s a very welcoming, positive, and fun ecosystem, reminding me of some of the game forums I was part of during the infancy of online BBSs way back in the late 1900s.

I got a chuckle out of

On 1/28/2025 at 11:45 AM, Kasimir said:

theorycrafting that needs a PhD in Realmatics, a PhD in physics, and a PhD in philosophy with an Aristotle specialisation

because that’s the part of the Shard that I loved the best in the beginning!  As a science nerd, I really respect and appreciate Brandon’s worldbuilding and hard magic systems, and I really dig exploring the ways the magic “rules” can interact with real physics to generate cool story mechanics.  I also love discussions about characters - motivation, emotional reality/believability, values, and consistency.  Like @Treamayne, I much prefer explaining and understanding what's already happened, rather than predicting future events.

I enjoyed being a (very small) part of the 17S puzzlehunt team for a few years; unfortunately, the mechanics of using Discord seem to evolve too quickly for me to keep up.  Every time I think I have it figured out, something changes and I’m bewildered again.  I agree that Discord in general is a bit chaotic and distracting, and I much prefer text.  I also appreciate the fountain pen writers topic here!

One of the great features of a text-based forum is that the age of the participants doesn’t have to be a natural barrier; anyone can participate in any conversation, at any level, with any other users, regardless of the actual calendar ages involved.  I’ve found that I tend to assume anyone I’m interacting with to be a young adult (say, 25), and I’m occasionally surprised to find that someone is instead 15, or 60.  Certainly in other kinds of social media, it’s weird or even creepy for old guys like me to be chatting with 17 year olds, and I agree that young people benefit from having their own spaces in which to interact without “old heads” butting in.

As the years have passed, my participation in the 17S forums has declined, not so much because of anything here, but because I’ve been somewhat disappointed in the recent books.  Other than that, I don’t think my “ways of engaging” with the Shard have changed, mostly due to the fact that I was already old when I joined.  I don’t expect to “outgrow” or permanently leave this forum, I simply check in less frequently and spend less time.  I think it’s likely that your experience has more to do with just how much a person changes between ages 15 and 30 than with anything else.

[Kasimir he/him]

On 4/21/2025 at 2:22 AM, AquaRegia said:

I’m venerable in one sense: I graduated from high school in 1985.  Not so much in the 17S sense - I joined this forum in 2021.

I'll take it

On 4/21/2025 at 2:22 AM, AquaRegia said:

One of the great features of a text-based forum is that the age of the participants doesn’t have to be a natural barrier; anyone can participate in any conversation, at any level, with any other users, regardless of the actual calendar ages involved.  I’ve found that I tend to assume anyone I’m interacting with to be a young adult (say, 25), and I’m occasionally surprised to find that someone is instead 15, or 60.  Certainly in other kinds of social media, it’s weird or even creepy for old guys like me to be chatting with 17 year olds, and I agree that young people benefit from having their own spaces in which to interact without “old heads” butting in.

I'm curious why you feel that way on other social media but not on a forum?

On 4/21/2025 at 2:22 AM, AquaRegia said:

As the years have passed, my participation in the 17S forums has declined, not so much because of anything here, but because I’ve been somewhat disappointed in the recent books.  Other than that, I don’t think my “ways of engaging” with the Shard have changed, mostly due to the fact that I was already old when I joined.  I don’t expect to “outgrow” or permanently leave this forum, I simply check in less frequently and spend less time.  I think it’s likely that your experience has more to do with just how much a person changes between ages 15 and 30 than with anything else.

Appreciate that perspective, tbh  (Sorry if it's short, I just ended a brutal work roster and have been sleeping but my brain has not recovered yet.)

[AquaRegia he/him]

12 hours ago, Kasimir said:

I'm curious why you feel that way on other social media but not on a forum?

Simply because most "modern" social media involves images, or video.  If I - a 58 year-old dude - am on snapchat or instagram engaging with the content posted by (or interacting with) 17 year-old girls, a) that's creepy AF and b) my wife is going to have some opinions.  In a text forum like this, we talk about literature, or religion, or philosophy, or fountain pens, and the age/gender/appearance issue is pretty much eliminated.  I imagine there might be other social media platforms where people mix freely and it's not weird, but I don't know of any.

[Kasimir he/him]

6 hours ago, AquaRegia said:

Simply because most "modern" social media involves images, or video.  If I - a 58 year-old dude - am on snapchat or instagram engaging with the content posted by (or interacting with) 17 year-old girls, a) that's creepy AF and b) my wife is going to have some opinions.  In a text forum like this, we talk about literature, or religion, or philosophy, or fountain pens, and the age/gender/appearance issue is pretty much eliminated.  I imagine there might be other social media platforms where people mix freely and it's not weird, but I don't know of any.

I guess my question would be: do you not feel some forum segments are the same here? I find a lot of the Social Clubs (i.e. socialisation) section to be that way: if it's kids talking about their first date or school lives, I don't really want to go in that thread either for similar reasons. And that's where I kind of feel the disjoint appears more.

Some of the Gen threads are 50/50 in that regard.

Edited May 5, 2025 by Kasimir

[AquaRegia he/him]

11 hours ago, Kasimir said:

do you not feel some forum segments are the same here? I find a lot of the Social Clubs (i.e. socialisation) section to be that way: if it's kids talking about their first date or school lives, I don't really want to go in that thread either for similar reasons.

Oh, absolutely.  I've never even looked at those forum subsections.  I stick to Cosmere, Coppermind, Brandon, and a few General topics that catch my eye, like math/science, puzzles, fountain pens, and this one!