And I'm sure this has been done before.....

Somewhere in our mini-profile or regular profile should be a place to list our age or even just age group (13-17; 18-25; 25-35 for example). I've seen many battles waged by members that I know are older against members that are obviously kids. It would be nice to know the maturity of the person that you're dealing with before you deal with them. And I realize that maturity doesn't always have something to do with age, but it more often times than not does. The merits of knowing someones age I see are:

1. You won't get as angry at an "ignorant" statement made by a 14 year old as you would someone thats 24, 34, or 64.

2. You won't waste a lot of bandwith and time arguing with someone that's just a kid.

3. You won't be as insulting to a younger person if they say something dumb.

4. With such a discrepency in ages here it's just nice to know who exactly you're talking too.

I do realize as well that some ATS members that contribute some great stuff are young, but this would just add to their credibility I believe. Plus, I think a lot of the members that detract the most are just "kids" (especially a lot of "detractors" I've noticed that have joined in the last two weeks).

Not trying to insult any of the real young members here, it's just an idea.

This idea would destroy the 'equality' that people have on this board now.

The only difference age makes is how much experience they have of the world but that doesn't mean that much sometimes. You say that

You won't waste a lot of bandwith and time arguing with someone that's just a kid.

A kid can be just as smart as an adult or in some cases even smarter.

That's why it would destroy the equality, for if a 'kid' could no longer argue with adults, how are they ever going to learn?

Young people are going to be the future of us all one day, so listen to them!

[edit on 8/11/04 by Hyperen]

A kid can be just as smart as an adult or in some cases even smarter.

Some younger people contribute greatly to the board - but I think that you're going to be much more likely to find someone saying (un)intenionally trolling/ignorant things to be younger. As I said in the initial post:

I do realize as well that some ATS members that contribute some great stuff are young, but this would just add to their credibility I believe.

It wouldn't destroy equality. It would make people that are quite young look that much more impressive, while ensuring that ones that are just trying to learn won't get verbally assaulted by someone that's older/more knowledgeable than they are subsequently turning them off from wanting to seek knowledge on ATS.

And to save someone the time, I do realize that age is just a number. You can read something into that number though.

And I also just found out you can find birthdays in the profile. Ah well.

I can't say that age has anything to do with intellectual maturity.

Yes, we have some sassy kids on the board who are poster children for parental neglect, but I can't say kids have a monopoly on childishness on ATS.

Ideally, we will discuss topics and our opinions about them.

When the discussion drifts off into who we are, such as our race, nationality, political affiliation, age, gender or whatever, we have gone off-topic.

Of course age has to do with intellectual maturity.
But because a lot of other things also have to do with intellectual maturity you can not just base it on age.

If you can't decided a person "maturity" without specifically knowing their age then the basis of your argument is flawed.

What you're asking for is an aid to discrimination.

If you need to know a members age before deciding if what they have to say has worth then can't you see the point is moot ?

Originally posted by Jakko
Of course age has to do with intellectual maturity.
But because a lot of other things also have to do with intellectual maturity you can not just base it on age.

If that is the case, then we have a lot of gifted young people posting to the boards these days.

experience holds relevance, i believe...

if you just gonna be judgemantal based on someones age, your in the wrong place ------ i agree....

but experience does matter.

mid twenties, btw

Many of you are misunderstanding pistolpete here. He's saying that IF.....(got that?)...IF a statement is made that is sort of inappropriate or unintelligable or naive etc by a young person, and if we actually KNEW that this person who made the statement is young, then most of us would not be as offended or more understanding when discussing issues with them, because, after all, they are still very young. He's NOT saying that he wants to use age as a way to measure someone's intelligence level or maturity, because we all know there are some brilliant young people. Only that, once again, IF a statement is made that is not backed up or whatever, we perhaps would deal with that person in a more polite and understanding way, since they are newer and may not yet fully understand how to express themselves in a good structured way. Again, this is not saying that ALL young people will have this problem. Got it?

whatever happened to just asking if you're curious?

how would you ever know if they were telling the truth anyway?

Originally posted by PistolPete

3. You won't be as insulting to a younger person if they say something dumb.

We don't care if we get called a f****n ***hole because we have a whole list of things we can call you!!!! Just kidding, I think its an idea that we should probably have a poll on. Anyway its important to use knowledge from all kinds of ages. different pieces of the puzzle. the three sides of the pyramid.

Sheee.

I'm not even 20 (quite) yet (3 months). This year was my first election ever.

But I'm sure most of you knew that.

You can tell most of the time when your replying to a kid on this board. The lack of maturity in thier thoughts and opinions are quite obvious most of the time. DiehardDemocrate is the only kid Ive seen to openly admit his age, and break the norm.

By the way, Im 29 and holding Ive even been 29 for 3 years now

Many of the kids would just lie about their age anyway on the profile anyway.

Originally posted by Kidfinger
You can tell most of the time when your replying to a kid on this board. The lack of maturity in thier thoughts and opinions are quite obvious most of the time.

Sorry KF, this is not true, I could point out a dozen teens 15 and younger and tell you their ages and you would say I was full of it. The youth here at ATS is quite informed and articulate.

Thats why I said most of the time I would say that about 35-40% of the members of ATS are under 18

Age shouldn't be a factor in this at all. There are enough 30-40 year olds who can act immature on this board. And a lot of those people just dismiss what a younger person posts because "they haven't had any experience yet."

NEWSFLASH!!!

There are many younger people that have already had more experience than older people will ever had in their lives.

And Furthermore!!!

Experience does not equal having an opinion that should be valued as more that of inexperience.

Ingenious and brilliant ideas very often come from young people that haven't been tainted by their experience. And don't you ever forget that.

I am 41 and can be as imature as anybody else and I have the posts to prove it........

Ive asked many a member how old they are......and MOST the time they answer me. Its a rare day when I ask that and they say "none of YOU beeswax" I dont think they lie when someone says, Im 14....or 22...or WHATEVER.
Age has never been an issue for me, MATURITY is. I think the magority of the young posters on this board are very bright and articulate.

I do agree though, that IF I knew someone was 12....I would find it hard to get as upsett at them than I sometimes do on this board. But that ALSO goes the other way to......if I KNOW someone is close to my age, yet they continue to behave unruly and chidish I would find myself MORE angry at them.

I think the issue of age would become ammunition for an older member looking to tower over the other person in a debate.

Ex:

Person1: But I don't think thats true...

Person2: Whatever, what do you know? You're only 13 years old. 'Nuff said.

It is something that should be thought about, however.

(For the record, I'm 16.)

Yeah those arguments are really stupid and closed minded. I wish they didn't use it here, but they do...