Poll. DCUM regulars. Who are you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Attorney
2. Massachusetts
3. 18, for university
4. Sometimes but not usually
5. Yes, planning to

^ oops, switch the answers for 4 and 5. I am planning to retire here and the tone occasionally bothers me but not usually.

[Anonymous]

1- healthcare consulting
2- PA
3- 30-ish, when I married DH
4- maybe, hope to have a second home or boat though
5- sometimes- I realize how blinded people can be…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been active here for about a month. Lots of fascinating topics.

Wondering stuff like:

1 What field are you in? Seems to be a lot of attorneys
2 Where did you grow up?
3 At what age did you move to the DMV and why?
4 Did you or are you planning to retire here?
5 Does the tone on here bother you?

1. Psychotherapist, Consultant
2. DC
3. I was born here. My parents were born here. My grandparents moved to DC as young adults.
4. That’s the plan.
5. Yes. I don’t mind, and even enjoy a bit of snark. The gratuitous, mean-girl middle school nastiness gets to be a bit much.
The casual racism is disgusting. The false innocent-seeming questions that consistently parrot Tucker Carlson’s talking points are
noxious.
I idealistically had thought that this type of forum could provide space for different types of people to have different types of
discussions, including topics that are often difficult to discuss in real life. That does happen quite often, but, for me, the positives
frequently get overshadowed by nastiness, and I take a DCUM break. I keep reminding myself that the healthiest way that I
can use DCUM is as a resource — rather than as a community.

Resource versus community. That is smart. I’m keeping that in mind!

[Anonymous]

1. I'm a college professor
2. Ohio
3. 34 for my job
4. Probably not, I'd like to retire wherever my son ends up
5. Some posters are unnecessarily mean. I try not to take it personally when it's directed towards me, since it is after all an anonymous forum. I can be snarky sometimes myself, I really should do better. Some posters are quite helpful and compassionate, and I really appreciate them.

[Anonymous]

1. I'm semi-retired
2. California
3. 22, moved with my GF at the time after college
4. God no. I don't live in DMV anymore. Can't imagine retiring in such a stressball place. So much traffic!
5. I find it entertaining

[Anonymous]

1 TV news
2 Ohio
3 23 for a job. Now 39.
4 I am probably stuck here. Because of my child and divorce.
5 No. You get used to it. Put on your big kid pants and deal. Ignore tha haters. Use the good parts. DC is also full of jerks. Not for the faint of heart.

[Anonymous]

1. Physician (but still in training)
2. CT
3. Interned in DC but never moved back
4. N/A
5. Some people are super mean on this forum and I tend to stay away from some topics esp around race

[Anonymous]

I'm probably in the minority here as a childless person, but here I am...

1 What field are you in? Seems to be a lot of attorneys - Consulting
2 Where did you grow up? - MD (Montgomery County)
3 At what age did you move to the DMV and why? Grew up in MD, left for college, came back and settled in Nova
4 Did you or are you planning to retire here? Yes, just hope my salary can continue to meet the rising COL here
5 Does the tone on here bother you? Sometimes, but I've found people are really supportive in actual difficult situations (vs. the trivial problems that sometimes get posted)

Side note - I feel like I've kind of 'grown up' as a young adult in DC on this site - found it when I graduated from college by googling something totally unrelated to parenting, when I was single, starting my first job and had just moved back to DC. Now ~8 years later, I'm getting ready to get engaged! Maybe after 10 years on the site, I'll finally have something to add to the parenting forums lol.

[Anonymous]

1. Manage at team of 6 at a Fed agency
2. Philadelphia suburbs
3. 22 moved here for an internship post college
4. Havent thought that far.
5. I gloss over the snark (those people seem to show up early in threads makes me think they have nothing better to do). Anytime I post I let it marinate for a while to get a range of responses.

[Anonymous]

1 Attorney
2 down south
3 age 25, for a job
4 too far way to really know, guess it depends on where our (now small) children go off and settle down … or if we decide we’re done with the winters
5 not enough to stop reading! Plus I realize everyone has their own spin so to take things with a grain of salt

[Anonymous]

1. Nonprofit communications
2. CT
3. 23, boyfriend (now DH) is a fed
4. Hell no. Current retirement plan is to move to Maine.
5. I hate most everyone here, but it’s hard to quit.

[Anonymous]

Policy wonk
Tri state area
Early 30s
Yes and hope to travel a lot too

There seem like a lot more trolls than there used to be. Guess our adversaries have discovered the website. I write off everything I disagree with to enemy action.

[Anonymous]

1 Field: Network and Computer sysadmin, now lots and lots of Cybersecurity. Federal contractor
2 From: Pittsburgh
3 When: Came to college in Baltimore (so 18)
4 Retirement: yes, will retire here
5 Tone: Not really. If I don't like the tone, I just skip the response and move on. Anonymous posters on DCUM are not that important to me. If they want to be jacka$$es, it's more a problem for people who know them IRL

Adding in the additional Q's I saw:
I'm male, in my 50's and have been on DCUM about 11 years now.

[Anonymous]

I've been around since 2005. Oof.

1 What field are you in? Education
2 Where did you grow up? A part of VA that used to have a 703 area code but no longer does
3 At what age did you move to the DMV and why? Worked in DC 2006-2013, lived in the waaaaay exurbs and later in Alexandria. Now in another VA city.
4 Did you or are you planning to retire here? No effing way. I don't work in DC anymore. Thank God.
5 Does the tone on here bother you? Not really. I appreciate that most posters are intelligent (given their writing skills). There's occasionally a whole burst of posts / posters who jump into OPs with tons of negativity and derail the thread and that's a bit annoying. Worse to me are the thread police.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been active here for about a month. Lots of fascinating topics.

Wondering stuff like:

1 What field are you in? Seems to be a lot of attorneys
2 Where did you grow up?
3 At what age did you move to the DMV and why?
4 Did you or are you planning to retire here?
5 Does the tone on here bother you?

1. Psychotherapist, Consultant
2. DC
3. I was born here. My parents were born here. My grandparents moved to DC as young adults.
4. That’s the plan.
5. Yes. I don’t mind, and even enjoy a bit of snark. The gratuitous, mean-girl middle school nastiness gets to be a bit much.
The casual racism is disgusting. The false innocent-seeming questions that consistently parrot Tucker Carlson’s talking points are
noxious.
I idealistically had thought that this type of forum could provide space for different types of people to have different types of
discussions, including topics that are often difficult to discuss in real life. That does happen quite often, but, for me, the positives
frequently get overshadowed by nastiness, and I take a DCUM break. I keep reminding myself that the healthiest way that I
can use DCUM is as a resource — rather than as a community.

Resource versus community. That is smart. I’m keeping that in mind!

+1

Very true.