It is inevitable & at times quite sobering that we all have different views. Hell, we wouldn't find this forum so interesting if it weren't like that !
What I would like to see is the age & sex i.e. M28 / F35 of participants. I assume that most opinions are formed by experience however, there appear to be a lot of comments based merely on ideology. I believe it would be beneficial to be aware of the participants age in discussion as mentality varies enormously between age, sex, experience & ignorance. Would there be a greater difference of opinion in age than from experience vs theory ?
Ok I volunteer M58.

Why, so their opinion can be disregarded based on age and sex?

IF they give that then they've got to spend their time defending themselves from someone like yourself who WILL use age as an attack.

Age and sex is irrelevant, on the whole. Unless it's pertinent to a discussion, it's none of your business. Imagine the flak a 20 something female would cop here.

I agree StG
No need for age and sex but 55/M
Thanks
Dave

Stg,
I can appreciate your apprehension but I would not use my age to "attack" someone younger but I most certainly offer my personal experiences over the years to hopefully enlighten younger people. Come to think of it, what you refer to as attack is in the majority of cases on OLO an attempt to offer younger people an insight to others' experiences. To simply dismiss such explanations because they don't happen to echo one's mentality is in my personal opinion merely defending ignorance for the sake of ego. I'm by no means saying that older people are automatically wiser than young, not by a mile.
Look at some of our retired politicians ? Would you say that they were wiser in their younger days than many young people today ? I don't think so but they still cost us a lot of money to keep them, money that would be much wiser spent on projects for the younger community.
But, as long as the young are constantly fed perpetuating fables about those former politicians & others in authority then how can anyone expect the young to ever form a different & more enlightened view of things around them.

What about Political party, footy club affiliation and hat size?
Seriously merely reading the posts properly will give you a clear approximation, if that is relevant.
I was amused by the association with any of the listed criteria to the quality of the post.

intelligence, wisdom, wit, commonsense are neither age or gender dependent.

I would suggest I've met young adults that display more of the above than some of our more senior posters.
I have often come across individuals 40 years experience boils down to 40 X one year and vise versa.

Might I humbly suggest that if you can't tell then it's irrelevant and if you can tell it doesn't matter.

intelligence, wisdom, wit, commonsense are neither age or gender dependent.
You're right Examinator, they're not dependent at all. When no intelligent retort is at hand people of every age & tend to resort to ridicule.

Volunteer for Life Line or something like that if you want to offer life experience to younger people. Here, it would come across as patronising.

Dear individual,

With a name like "individual," I must admit
that I find it rather surprising that you
feel the inclusion of everyone's age along
with the username would somehow be a benefit.

I don't agree.

As you said yourself - this Forum is an
interesting one - undoubtedly part of the
reason is the fact that it is to a great
extent a level playing field.
Anonimity helps us from bringing forth negative
stereotypes about each other.

To have people include their ages would detract
from the level playing field as it now stands.
Because whether we like to admit it or not - the
belief that one age category is in some respects
inferior to other age categories does exist consciously
or unconsciously among many people.
Often individual differences are forgotten.

I would prefer that we continue to inter-act with
people according to the content of their posts.
And, I know that if I were to know some of the ages
of people - I may be influenced in the way I behave
towards them.
"Respect your elders!" or - "What does he/she know?"
"Never trust anyone over 30!" et cetera, et cetera.

Can't put old heads on young shoulders. can we?

Sean Moran, born in South Perth Hospital, Western Australia, 28th of December, 1967. Gender obviously of the X-chromosome deficient minority. 9-)

Honesty is the best policy.

StG
Certainly, some people see/saw it as such. However, I did that simply because I believe we have a responsibility to be informed (i.e. ignorance is no excuse under law.). Likewise society can only function properly if its citizens are informed and involved.

I look at it this way If I got bitter and twisted every time someone urged me to do something expanding or they thought it a good Idea I'd be stark raving nuts by now and more ignorant to boot.

In truth those who are defensive reluctant to look at the person or advice sensibly will over react defensively at the most minute provocation. The original Forrest Gump said it best "evil thinks evil sees" I'm not responsible for others failings only to help.

Even on OLO I've taken criticisms and ideas on board. No I'm not especially smart or wise just enough to know that wisdom, good points can come from anywhere and anybody. I am therefore beholden to be prepared and to take note. Anyone who doesn't only disadvantages themselves.

Individual,
Sorry if I offended , that wasn't my point or intention. I simple fail to see that the information you advocate is helpful or necessary. Intelligence age gender etc. are real criteria for census planning etc. but useless in conversation amongst adults. As suggested many surprisingly young, otherwise dumb people can and do come up with amazing insights. To exclude them on the basis you indicate is IMO counter productive and only makes me the poorer.

IMHO My self image doesn't depend on respect for either my age or gender but rather what sense I make to the reader. Often the same post can illicit polls apart responses. That is as it should be. I think I could with some leeway predict the ages/genders of most of the regulars but that is hardly relevant. What they say is.
Simply reading what and how they express themselves over time reveals that.
Your wording seemed to link all the criteria .
Beyond that I can't contribute.

I am with StG on this one. It is bad enough at times to be identified as a woman on these pages without telling one's age as well!

I think that if you want everyone to know your age, then by all means write it with your post.

At the end of the day, we could all write ourselves down at any age we would like to be anyway.

I will start the ball rolling by saying that I am 21, blonde and buxom! (:

I am offended true by the whole idea indy.
No not age, but it does not matter.
But the idea our age has impact on what we say.
Who we are.
Why do you think that?
So very many do but why?
64m
There it is out.
Do not however look for me in a bowling club.
No walking stick, I think youth always should lead.
But do we come here for social contact?
Do we need to know?
Is age in any way related to IQ?
Each of us is part way down a path we all must walk.
That track ends for every one of us.
Some will get to the end with less pain than others but each step has to be taken.
Todays teenager is tomorrows old man.

Dear Belly,

I coudln't agree more.
Today's teenager is tomorrow's old man.
My mum used to smile and tell me,
(when I'd say - he/she's so old),
she'd say, "Well my dear, you're only
temporarily young!"

And how times change. When I was in my
twenties, I thought anyone over thirty
was "old." When I was in my thirties,
I thought anyone over 40 was old.
Now, it simply doesn't matter. As Suze
and Belly said - it's how you "see"
yourself (and how fit you feel) - that
really matters.
And as far as having the ability to converse
or discuss anything - that's an individual
ability anyway. Take David F, on this Forum.
He's in his eighties - and is truly awesome
in his ability to debate any topic that would
leave many younger posters finding it difficult
to keep up. And he's only one example.

"A man's as old as he feels and a woman's as old as
she looks" - so the old saying goes.
Personally, I think age is merely a number. It's
who you are that really matters.

Very true as usual Foxy.
Being content in who you are is happiness.
Knowing who we once had been too matters.
But in truth we judge one another differently here.
If age truly mattered, if we judged by it, I think we would see people my age ,both sex's saying they are 21m/f

Volunteer for Life Line or something like that if you want to offer life experience to younger people.
I feared I'd get comments like this but at the same time expected it. Actually I expected more than one but would rather see none.
Firstly, why should a "great" Country have a need for Life Line in the first place.
Secondly, because OZ isn't the "great " Country so many try to believe although it hasn't yet reached the absolute insanity of others but we're importing it at a great rate.
Thirdly, the reason for wanting to know age/gender of OLO posters is to see what group is actually trying to positively contribute towards improving the present mass mentality of "the country owes me" i.e why doesn't somebody do something ? How about being that somebody yourself & identify that something ? The reason why we have street kids, poor, victims of crime ets. etc. is directly attributable to everybody thinking to know what should be done but everybody expects it to be done by that elusive "somebody".
Unfortunately, unlike I had hoped, this mentality is indeed not age or gender related but is fuelled by idealistic, cheap off-the-shelf philosophy. Now I'm not accusing any of you lacking integrity. Definately not ! But why not sit back & think hey, philosophizing is well & good but, how does it help help those who are persecuted because we're always looking at our sparkling dishes but never bother to check the sump ourselves ? No, we prefer to get "somebody" to do that.
That was my point of asking for age/gender. You're right, it doesn't matter !

pontificator,

'I would have thought that my ego isn't determined by OLO but what I do in the real world. '

'My self image doesn't depend on respect for either my age or gender but rather what sense I make to the reader. '

I knew it.

Your other ramblings only prove how much younger people's opinions would have even less currency if age was known. Individual is openly patronising, but you sound like 'yeah, most young people seem dumb and stupid, but sometimes they come up with something really worthwhile.' A backhanded compliment if ever I heard one. I fear for all the young people you've patronised over the years in your counselling sessions.

Foxy,

'"A man's as old as he feels and a woman's as old as
she looks" '

I always thought it was 'A man's as old as the woman he feels.'

Suze,

I always think, who people want to be is more revealing than who they actually are. Oh, and don't get like Fraccy will you. When people disagree with you, it may be that it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you are a woman.

I am afraid Individual, it seems your idea has been flawed.
I do not think an older human can always pass on wisdom to the younger. I also don't see any reason why we need to make clear what gender we are, these things should not matter any more. This is a forum where people discuss matters close to their heart and things that interest of anger them. I just see no benefit in knowing how old someone is or what sex they are.
Sorry.

Houellebecq, < "...and don't get like Fraccy will you. When people disagree with you, it may be that it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you are a woman."

You could have a point there, although I certainly don't intend to 'get like' anyone else! I intend to be myself, and I still don't believe our age has anything to do with it.

Then again, maybe the anti-female feelings I have had leveled at me are probably due to the topics I choose to comment on.
I am just so over the climate change topics though......

I'll give you a hint- Male in his 20s.

I also know better than to judge by age;

Considering it's not too hard to gauge maturity by the content of one's post- regardless of how old that person turns out to be.

I've become quite good at knowing if a post is going to contained reasoned arguments, emotional rants or poorly-articulated philosophical waffle in less than a second, without needing some form of labeling to assist me.

And I might add, I've reached the point where I can tell these beyond spelling and grammatical errors (very intelligent arguments may come just as often from choppy sentences with spelling mistakes as the person might just be bad with a keyboard or speak English as a second language).

Why stop at age and sex, what about place of birth, education, religion, body shape, hair colour and all of the other likely suspects that can be used to stereotype and make an argument out of an otherwise illuminating and fun discussion?

Well said, Cornflower.

I'm totally against the age idea. Seems to be totally counterproductive IMHO.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like if we were each just assigned a new number in each thread, purely for the purposes of referencing someone's argument. That way, people would be utterly anonymous. Arguments solely based on content.
All too often, we see a poster's moniker and forget their argument.

I can say I try at times to take each argument as it comes. There have even been a few occasions when I've found myself agreeing with people who I've shared rather venomous arguments with.

Though at other times, I've gotten in stoushes annoyingly quickly.

Alas however, I fear my number idea wouldn't work. People are too used to arguing with set names, and I think many would get bored quickly and leave OLO in the event it was reduced solely to arguments based upon content.

But ages or any other identifiers would be a step in the wrong direction.

Cornflower, TRTL,

Tangential to this discussion, have you, or anybody else for that matter, been getting the little OLO pop-up survey recently?

It isn't terribly intrusive, and does offer an 'I prefer not to answer this question' option in most cases. I forget as to upon what thread I encountered it, but it was within the last 24 hours.

I imparted little that could not be deduced from my posting history, as I prefer to maintain my anonymity for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is to prevent easy labelling by the labellers amongst the denizens of OLO, a labelling that in my case could perhaps be greatly facilitated by any knowledge as to my real name.

Given that, of self-evident necessity, many of the discussions on OLO are political in nature, I see the anonymity that is to an extent possible on OLO as a means to the overcoming of 'party discipline' in debate on any matter. The merit, or lack of it, in any proposition should derive from the quality of the argument presented, rather than the reputation or connections of the poster that may be involved.

Got a laugh from Cornflower's reference to, amongst other things, hair colour, being used in any postulated poster profiling. There are connotations in any name, Cornflower. Please tell me you're not blonde. On the other hand, don't.

Some surprising stuff in this thread, never knew suzeonline had been insulted because she is female.
And Indy no offense but you tied a knot in the threads tail surely?
We do talk about a better fairer world.
We put our wants and wishes out there daily.
Age sex beliefs , have no impact on my thoughts.
Now forest, my comments are often political, sometimes sharply against the dills running NSW, my party.
But afraid they know me, put my open condemnation of their dreadful treatment of my party in the too hard basket.
If we want to be honest, truly honest, in the history of my time here I often had no idea of some posters age even sex but knew if they had anything to contribute after a few posts.

So, it seems that there really is no hope for the age and sex issue. Individual, is there anything else you could add that might change are views? I am genuinely intrigued as to whether you still think it's a good idea..

I do not think an older human can always pass on wisdom to the younger.
Robby22 & others,
I didn't state nor imply that ?

"We don't grow absolutely, chronologically.
We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not
in another; unevenly. We grow partially.
We are relative. We are mature in one realm,
childish in another, the past, present, and future
mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in
the present. We're made up of layers, cells,
constellations ..."

So wrote - Anais Nin.

I can identify with that!