Just to give some slight optimism in opposition to your friends, I am soon to turn 41. Its harder, but it’s not impossible. Whatever you pursue, form is everything. Poor form cannot exist post 40. Technically, I am stronger than I have ever been, and yet I’m still falling apart. Don’t consider the number, just do the work, and do it well. Good luck to you!

You say you’ll disable the ad blocker for sites that don’t push malicious ads? I’ve reported half a dozen deepfake “investment” ads on YouTube in the last couple of months, and they have done nothing about it. The ads YouTube pushes are horrible!

Got to admit, I had to check the map for Eppleby! It looks tiny, I can imagine that feeling very isolating! I’m still not sure I could refer to the residents of Darlo as “real” people, j/k 😆 I hope your subsequent years in the UK have been more pleasant :)

Oof! Darlington, or Mordor, as I used to call it, was measurably worse than Newcastle for this! I lived in Ferryhill for a couple of years, so I’m familiar with that area. Definitely low on the list of places I’d recommend moving to in the UK!

Having met one or two people from New Zealand, you guys strike me as a tough and hardy bunch. If anyone could survive there, yous would have a good shot!

As a born and bred Geordie, I apologise on behalf of the northerners. The early 2000s were a pretty shit time around those parts for intolerance. I used to dress “alternatively”, black fingernails, spikey died hair etc. And would get similar slurs thrown my way despite being heterosexual. I no longer live in Newcastle, but it seems a LOT better these days when I visit.

How very Christian of them… sickening 🤢

Ah well, this might explain things. See, I was 21 in 2004, still young with a head full of dreams, and a belief that I could change the world… If I found Linux now, at 40, then yes, I doubt I would have had a single year of advocacy in me!

I find that mighty impressive! I’d blame the folly of youth for myself, but I assume you were also quite young all the way back then. It’s entirely possible that I was/am simply an idiot 🤔

Not to alarm you, but you may have a period of 5-10 years where you really can’t shut up about it… it’ll pass, though, honest :)

Oh, hush now, of course I care! I’m just agreeing with OP that there is probably a little too much of it or, more precisely, not enough “other” topics of conversation yet. It’ll come.

Believe me, I get it. 20+ years of advocacy, though, have earned me exactly 1 convert, and that’s my old man. Who is arguably already a bigger geek than I am, and spending his retirement teaching himself x86-64 assembly “for fun” whilst doing a much better job of de-googling himself than I ever have.

All I’m saying here is that I can see where the OP is coming from. There is an awful lot of Linux talk (and Star Trek talk!) here on Lemmy. I can see how it might feel a little alienating to those who are from outside of that world.

That said, I agree with a lot of other commentors here that have pointed out that any new platform typically attracts the geeks firstly (reddit was no different). In time, I hope to see a much greater variety of peoples on Lemmy!

Hahaha, that’s very kind of you to say! I might have even pulled it off 20 years ago… Never say never, eh! ;)

Are you referring to those stripey sock wearers? Because I’m far too old to actually understand any of that. Plus, I wouldn’t even look very good in stripey socks anyway

Touche

I’ve exclusively used Linux on my computers since about 2001. At this point, I don’t care to see this much talk about it either.

It’s an operating system, it’s free (in both senses), it’s very powerful and ,frankly, it’s all I know how to use these days. However, I just don’t see the appeal of harping on about all the time. I use it exclusively, and I spend zero minutes per day actually thinking about it, the way a good operating system should be IMHO.

That time I came inside her while drunk. 19 years later, I don’t regret the daughter I have, but the child support payments haven’t exactly been easy…

Not enough rain