I've already tried 4 times to start off this thread in a witty way, and I've backspaced all of them. It's just not gonna happen. [u]And, as per usual with BNet threads, you will be absolved of your lack of desire to fully take in all that I'm about to present to you... with a TL;DR at the end.[/u] So we here at BNet must, at this point, especially in the community forum more so than anywhere else, address the fact that there are clearly defined generational divides between members of the community. Whether this results into a community member becoming the punchline to an infinite amount of jokes of one generation, or some members of the younger generation resenting ones of an older one because of their snarky manner and air on the forums, or it doesn't manifest itself directly in the mains at all and is just present as a number on our profile page that some people may use to subconsciously classify and categorize us, it's still there. These generational gaps are something that are, obviously, not just present in this community, but present in all communities. From the old stereotype of the elderly shouting at "yoots" to get off their freshly mown grass, to the dubstep-loving, Buddy Holly glasses wearing, loose beanie adoring, hipster twenty-somethings we hear complained about so much today, generational gaps have always and will always be there and different generations will always look down upon all the others. The teenagers will always think that the twenty-somethings have their -blam!- together and know how life is supposed to be. The twenty-somethings will always have dreams of "When [b][u]we're[/u][/b] in charge, things are going to be different(, man)!". The adults will always see the twenty-somethings as the generation that has everything handed to them on a silver platter and who have yet to experience the harsh, cold, unforgiving real world for what it really is. And the elderly will always look down on the young(er) adults in the way they're letting these twenty-somethings get away with all the mayhem that they're causing. Such is true in society, as well as on Bungie.net, thought not necessarily with the same feelings between the 4, well, really, 5 generations. [quote][/quote] On Bungie.net, there will always be the youngsters. There will always be those new people joining, perhaps having their first experience on an internet forum (this was mine). They will always need guidance from the more experienced users, and they won't always get it. They will always view things in a different light than those even a simple year ahead of them in the "account creation" category, and they will always be criticized by the older members for either their ignorance, or their ways of viewing how the forums should and will (in the future) work. [quote][/quote] There will also, in a perpetual state more certain than infinity, be the regulars. The people who've been here a year, maybe two, and are still posting at least somewhat frequently and, in their opinion, have got this "foruming" thing down-pat. This area of growth, however, does still seem to be fair game for the seasoned veterans to make fun of and ridicule (again either for their views on how the site should be run or what features should be added). Within this category (bans notwithstanding, the heroics), people begin to (if I may romanticize the process of posting fairly unsophisticated and sometimes witty remarks on an internet forum) make their own identity on Bungie.net. They can begin to get recognized (if they haven't been already for their posting habits as a newbie) and they'll have seen repeat threads enough to be able to get their opinion out there and have (at least a few people) become familiar with it and be able to form their own opinion of you based on those views you have. [quote][/quote] Then come the the beginnings of the old garb. The legendaries. The one to three year regulars of Bungie.net who've managed to not get bored of its inevitable repetitiveness as well as (most likely) bury themselves enough in private groups to not have grown immensely bored of the thing (especially in "dark times" such as those we're currently experiencing). This is usually the first generation (as I see it, anyhow) who can manage to have any sort of informal relationship (I.E. being addressed by name as opposed to "OP") with Mythics, employees, ninjas, etc. If they haven't established themselves enough in the community at this point to be viewed as legitimate non-waste of the memory necessary for the system to remember their existence by the veterans, then their title bar has done it for them. And, just as it is uncommon to see a high school junior making fun of freshman more so than sophomores do, the legendaries seem to (in my mind) ease up a bit on the name-calling and direct-calling-out-without-caring-about-whether-or-not-they're-banned that most of them seem to inevitably slip back into around year 4-6. [quote][/quote] Finally, the group that, let's be honest, should be two due to the huge difference between people like Halo53 and someone who made their account on June 14th, 2009 and is just now getting that blue bar, the Mythics. This is the generation where you can become semi-famous (a made up adjective of the highest prestige 'round these parts), or at the very least become a name that someone can look at and recall having existed before "just now". This is the generation Ninjas are pulled from. This is the generation people want to be. This is the generation so cool that they made a group about how cool they were and then had other generations make an inferior group so that they too could pretend to be cool whilst waiting on the roster in Scranton-Wilkes Barre to be called up to NYC. This is also, regrettably, a generation that gets a reputation both simultaneously undeserved to the last complaint thread, and at the same time fully deserved from all those unmistakably present threads in MM about "User X". The word "elitism" is thrown around a lot. Some might argue more than it should. I would agree with "some". I don't think the Mythics get a good rap considering most of them are just snarky and sarcastic because they're looking for a new way to respond to how they feel about a notification system or custom avis, having already done so fifty times previously. But that's just me. [quote][/quote] As promised, there's a TL;DR combined with a question to keep the conversation going: [b]TL;DR: What do you think about the different "generations" here on BNet and how they interact with each other?[/b] [Edited on 06.14.2012 8:20 AM PDT]