15,000 Posts (Almost) 9 Years

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Just realized I have surpassed the 15,000 post mark. I will also be a member for 9 years this August 30th, which in it's own right is insane. The only other thing in my life I have been so connected with for so many years is my wife. :| Seems, kind of insane when I think about it. :laugh: Especially when considering the first 4 or so years I was a member, I used to write short essays as posts and only learned many years into being a member how to keep things short and sweet. So take those short essays, and some of them probably could have been broken down into 50 posts. Easily.

I have gone from Forum ? Mod to ? Global Mod to ? News Writer (or the ever so appropriately titled Senior Gaming Analyst) to ? Veteran To ? Forum Mod to ? News Writer with Mod privileges to ? Veteran.

While I can say my time on staff is probably officially over, I do look forward to picking up the gaming podcast once new releases start picking up again, so perhaps I will go back to a Newsie, unless I can just stay a Veteran and continue to do the news.

My time on staff has given me the opportunities to go to Seattle which included visiting Valve's Mean Headquarters and hanging out on the Northwestern Boat from the Deadliest Catch, which to this day are both highlights of my travels across the United States, to in 2009 visiting Texas and going to a whole lot of tech companies, to Las Vegas to cover CES for the site in January of 2009 (could not find any better articles I had written). So really to say that Neowin has provided me the opportunity to do things I otherwise never would have done is an understatement. It has truly allowed me to take some amazing, amazing adventures. Adventures I never, ever would have done otherwise, so for this fact alone, I am forever grateful.

So I could literally list about 50 people, minimum, that over the years since I have been a member, that have had some kind of affect on my life itself. Instead of doing so, I will just say you all (hopefully) know who you are.

I would like to thank Neobond directly though. Over the years he has always been very cool with me, and has indeed put up with me during some moments I am not all to proud of at the end of the day. In the most recent years, Barney as well. Both of these guys have always been there for me from a staff perspective, so I would just like to say thanks.

I will end this by saying it is my dream so to speak to see the forums return to a focus on technology first and foremost. I know the general discussion is what is most popular these days, but I am personally not a huge fan of all of the religion and politics that have infiltrated the forums over the past couple of years. Let's bring it back to technology and games. What I believe makes the community truly a special place.

Thanks for reading if you have. Here is to 15,000 more posts and 9 more years. (Y)

[Royalty]

Congrats mate!

[javagreen]

Do you live on here, my good man! :o

Just kidding... congrats bro ;)

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Congratulations, DL (Y)

[_neutrino Veteran]

congrats.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

Do you live on here, my good man! :o

Just kidding... congrats bro ;)

if you want to know someone who lives on here go talk to Rappy :rofl:

also congrats

[Decebalvs Rex]

Because of people like you,Neowin is my golden newspaper.Well news site.

[RadishTM Veteran]

Congrats mate (Y)

[Rappy Veteran]

congrats dude (Y)

if you want to know someone who lives on here go talk to Rappy :rofl:

also congrats

why am I mentioned in nearly every big milestone? :/

[Statikk]

Congrats DL! :)

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

It's about time you reached 15,000 posts. Congrats on the milestone! (Y)

[Hum]

Go Larry ! :laugh:

And why did you retire ?

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Because of people like you,Neowin is my golden newspaper.Well news site.

That's pretty damn cool. Honestly and sincerely. Thanks.

And thanks to everyone else, indeed a few of those 50 people I mentioned have already commented, so thanks to you all, and truly thanks to everyone. It may sound terribly cliche, but without the rest of the members here, I would have never bothered being a member. So I do very much view it as a community at the end of the day.

And why did you retire ?

Which time? :laugh:

In a nutshell, because as with anything people take too seriously at times, the fun winds up being sucked out of it. Especially when I was a Mod and my stomping grounds was just the Gamers Hangout, I really made it my mission to make it a place that was civil for all, yet any opinion could be shared. That was no easy task, and I eventually got burned out because I did take it so seriously.

As far as why I retired from the News staff, being completely candid, I never took it all that seriously. Do not get me wrong, whatever I wrote I meant it and I gave it my all, but I did not contribute on a frequent basis. I am fortunate to have a whole separate career that has nothing to do with writing, or Neowin for that matter (although I will say being a member of Neowin did help me tremendously), so at the end of the day my career/life has always been my focus. So I never felt it was truly fair to call myself part of the news staff when i know damn well how hard most of the rest of the writers on staff take it. With that said, I never took a payment for anything I wrote even though I technically could have. I did it just to do it, and as I said above, I felt it was already payment enough being able to do things I never would have otherwise.

Thanks again all. :yes:

[FMH]

Congratulations Larry!

[tiagosilva29]

You need to shave your beard, bro'.

[javagreen]

why am I mentioned in nearly every big milestone? :/

Because you're that cool :rofl:

And this is the first time I actually looked at your post count :|

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

Well done Laz!

Your certainly beating me when it comes to posts, but you have a LONG way to go to catch up to Rappy!

Glad to see your still around mate, and to also see ya every now on then on the PS3 ^_^

[Jimmy0]

Congratulations Larry!

And I hope it will continue for many years to come, because I do enjoy reading your posts, especially in the GH where I spend most of my time lurking (even though it has become quieter in there over the years).

[Victor Rambo]

Congrats! :)

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

It's about time you reached 15,000 posts. Congrats on the milestone! (Y)

Yeah, it was a slow steady climb the last couple of years. JimmyO touches on it below, the GH just has died down a bit over the past few years, and it will always be my stomping grounds so to speak. As I alluded to in my OP, not a fan of some of the other discussions that are prevelant. I would not want to be labeled a Communist for my political views even though I am the furthest thing from. :laugh:

You need to shave your beard, bro'.

I got worried when I saw you posted. :rofl: But beard is a part of me, do not feel like myself without it. I tried a few months back, and a coworkers did not recognize me initially. Was pretty amusing.

In fact I am going to go to the barber shop in a few minutes and see what they can do with my beard as I have a wedding to go to this weekend. Hoping they do not mess it up.

Well done Laz!

Your certainly beating me when it comes to posts, but you have a LONG way to go to catch up to Rappy!

Glad to see your still around mate, and to also see ya every now on then on the PS3 ^_^

Will never catch up to Rappy (sorry Rappy). :D

And I get on my PS3 whenever I can. Which is unfortunately not to often these days. Always see you on as well. (Y)

Congratulations Larry!

And I hope it will continue for many years to come, because I do enjoy reading your posts, especially in the GH where I spend most of my time lurking (even though it has become quieter in there over the years).

Thanks. Definitely much appreciated. I try to keep the GH active when I can, but it is almost like no one posts there anymore. It is kind of bizarre. I still every morning at work do my usual ritual of once I settle in and all of my work emails are checked and responded to, fire up the main page of the Gamers Hangout. There have been some days no one has commented at all on anything for a few days in a row. Definitely a big change from what it used to be. Not sure what that is either. We had a really good strong community there at one point. I think members just got bored of the same people defending the same positions perhaps. Not enough people playing games for the sake of playing games, at least IMO. Hopefully it picks up again once the next generation of consoles gets announced. (Y)

And again, thanks to all.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Do you get axx to a VIP club when you hit the decade mark? :fun:

[+DKAngel Subscriber²]

nice. ive been here a while to and my posts are no where near that :p

[Charisma Veteran]

Congrats, man :) Always a pleasure interacting with you and I am glad to see you'll still be around :)

[Razorwing]

I totally did not see this. Probably was too busy celebrating my birthday on the 10th. But Congrats Larry! You deserve everyone of you promotions, demotions, and posts. :laugh: We go way back so I'm happy for ya buddy. We should game again sometime.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I totally did not see this. Probably was too busy celebrating my birthday on the 10th. But Congrats Larry! You deserve everyone of you promotions, demotions, and posts. :laugh: We go way back so I'm happy for ya buddy. We should game again sometime.

Thanks man, very much appreciated, definitely.

And not even kidding, one of the last times I played an online game was with other people was with you playing Alien Swarm. It has been that long. I either have primarily stuck to playing SP and those rare times I did play a MP game I went because of the random times I get to play and the fact my time is limited to bursts here and there. I also do not game much on the PC these days. My wrist really hurts when i do. The PS3 has also been my console of choice for about 2 years now as I own two of them, so I pick games up for it as I have more opportunity to play those games since I also have a PS3 in my bedroom. I do plan on picking up Borderlands 2 though, but it may be for PS3. All of the above factors means I do not do much gaming with anyone these days, as no one seems to use the PS3 as much as I do. :/