Age Poll, February 2015

[Fonidia and Osteyon]

I'm turning 18 next month, and even though most of the people here are around 15-19, I still feel like a kid.

[Forsher]

I is le 19.

Aye, 16. Can legally drive without cops getting on my arse lol

Tell me you're trying to say "aye" instead of "eh" (these rhyme with I and ay as in hay respectively)?

[Forsher]

So it seems.

I wonder what drove them to this site.

What drew you to this site?

I wonder what drove them to this site.

Perhaps there aren't many debate forums which are so easy to register on and have an age as low as 13 to start.

That wouldn't really explain the bulge at 15 or 16 years though. It's not just this thread, every age poll on General has shown more mid-teens than early-teens.

So maybe it's the game (or games, there being more than one way to 'play Nationstates') which attracts early teens, but doesn't entirely captivate them. How much better the world would be if I called the shots, this is great, oh wait. There are all these other players trying to rule the world, and they have more practice than I do. I'll just chill out for a while in one of these "discussion" forums.

And they get stuck on the forums, like mice in a glue trap. Stuck here until they finally knaw their own leg off to escape.

For sake of argument, let's say that 13 and 14 year olds aren't, in general, particularly politically active/aware. As a consequence, we should expect that NSG draws from a smaller pool and so there should be fewer of them in NSG (as we see). However, after one or two years mixing with older teens and stuff, the number of teens to whom a game like NS would appeal increases. As a result, we should see more of these.

Furthermore, the forums are populated by people who are young. This has two effects. Firstly, it doesn't discourage other younger people. Secondly, it probably does discourage at least some older members (especially if they get headhunted, as it were.

If we then argue that the forum model or the relative inaction of the game or both lead to a relatively low retention rate of players so that many make it a few years then tail off (if not months or weeks). This would help explain the bulges, I think.

[Forsher]

I'm nineteen since the first of August last year.

That's the thing with these threads. There is always someone who you think is older than they actually are.

Late 20s.
I remember the 90s. Apparently, the 90s are a thing now with the kiddies. '90s kids' can talk about 90s things. Like Vanilla Ice. Who ever would have guessed?
God I feel old.

I'm a 90s kid!

The term is meant to refer to those whose childhood memories are from the '90s. So, that's people born in eighties to, well, maybe 1992/3 (even 1994 is too late and speaking from being born in '95, that year definitely is).

If you're born in the nineties, your childhood, for better or for worse, happened mostly in the early 2000s. Which probably means more SpongeBob than Rugrats. Or, as an English teacher of mine put it, Pokémon.

It's possible I've misunderstood, but it makes more sense this way.

[Forsher]

For sake of argument, let's say that 13 and 14 year olds aren't, in general, particularly politically active/aware.

I spoke of interest not of activity nor awareness. I was talking about what might attract young teens to Nationstates. Interest in politics is quite different from activity in it, or even awareness of it. I was saying that this very easy entry, to play a game where you get to "rule your own nation, for better or for worse" is the bait. And the forums are the trap.

But for the sake of argument ...

I see interest, activity and awareness all being sides of a strange, perverted coin. Or, perhaps, a normal one where people count the rim. Interest is obvious. Politically aware is noticing that there's this whole world that, say, an eight year old doesn't register. Politically active means holding political opinions (I'm lazy, my standards of activity are, frankly, lax). But, yeah, I suppose you do have a point there.

As a consequence, we should expect that NSG draws from a smaller pool and so there should be fewer of them in NSG (as we see). However, after one or two years mixing with older teens and stuff, the number of teens to whom a game like NS would appeal increases. As a result, we should see more of these.

Furthermore, the forums are populated by people who are young. This has two effects. Firstly, it doesn't discourage other younger people. Secondly, it probably does discourage at least some older members (especially if they get headhunted, as it were.

If we then argue that the forum model or the relative inaction of the game or both lead to a relatively low retention rate of players so that many make it a few years then tail off (if not months or weeks). This would help explain the bulges, I think.

The bulges are more easily explained by Nationstates changing servers.

The head-hunting you mentioned could also be a factor. But let us speak no more of those sad emigres, mumbling to each other in dismal isolation from fresh blood, growing old together in their self-imposed exile. Nothing but their pride prevents them rejoining NS, just as nothing but their pride took them away.

But perhaps that has happened before. Cliques meaning to re-establish what they remember as the golden age of the forum may have left to some other place. Not as publicly or purposefully as the batshit evacuation, perhaps. Then when they suffered the slow exodus of establishing posters and lacked any recruitment of new posters, their outpost forum passed some tipping point of viable forum members and many of them returned to NS. That would cause a "bulge" of posters of a particular age.

Another explanation of the bulges is the "summer", a time dreaded by regulars but undeniably a time of recruitment of new posters. There could be time harmonics of that yearly event which combine to produce bulges.

Bulges. I do wonder about the bulges. But there are so many possible reasons.

Forum design could help. I don't look at many forums it's true, but in general NSG's concept seems to be far more embracing of the general side than many. I don't like having to look at fifty different boards to find three interesting topics. It seems so much more natural to have things mixed into one bigger pot. This may be because NSG is attached to the gameside and the gameside's forums.

I've even read that many people see forums, as a model, as being old hat. That's sad because, frankly, they're far better than blogs, microblogs, Facebook style posts and reddit-style forums. I guess people would rather just see the most now stuff (whether this is determined by popularity or time).

[Forsher]

That's the thing with these threads. There is always someone who you think is older than they actually are.



The term is meant to refer to those whose childhood memories are from the '90s. So, that's people born in eighties to, well, maybe 1992/3 (even 1994 is too late and speaking from being born in '95, that year definitely is).

If you're born in the nineties, your childhood, for better or for worse, happened mostly in the early 2000s. Which probably means more SpongeBob than Rugrats. Or, as an English teacher of mine put it, Pokémon.

It's possible I've misunderstood, but it makes more sense this way.

I was born in 1997, which is in the 1990s. Therefore I am a 90s kid!

Yes, except no (see the argument above). It doesn't really matter (it's just a decade after all) but the term does need some consistency of usage and I maintain that describing myself (born in mid-1995) as a 90s kid is misleading. Therefore, describing someone younger than me as such is more misleading.

[Forsher]

That's the thing with these threads. There is always someone who you think is older than they actually are.

What? How old did you think I was?

Ne'ermind.

Hmm, I'd already learnt this.

The term is meant to refer to those whose childhood memories are from the '90s. So, that's people born in eighties to, well, maybe 1992/3 (even 1994 is too late and speaking from being born in '95, that year definitely is).

If you're born in the nineties, your childhood, for better or for worse, happened mostly in the early 2000s. Which probably means more SpongeBob than Rugrats. Or, as an English teacher of mine put it, Pokémon.

It's possible I've misunderstood, but it makes more sense this way.

I have memories of both (including music, cartoons, festivals, parties, Christmas, beach days!) and I identify as much with the city I spent my first 5 or so years as the one I lived most of my life and in which I live now.

You just envy my mighty precocious toddlerhood.

You're '94, yes?

At any rate, the 90s kid has more substantial memories rather than snatching ones (i.e. like you describe). But, at least, with '94 one has started school prior to 2000 (which is, obviously a Big Thing).

[Forsher]

I've never understood the obsession with the nineties. I like grunge as much as the next guy, but everything else I think kind of sucked.

The cartoons weren't as good as nostalgia blinded people think they were.

Part of it's because they're remembering how they felt about things when they were in the target audience for, frequently in comparison to things they're watching from outside that audience and with a dose of scepticism to start with.

[Forsher]

Are there seriously people over 40 playing this?

People play NS?

[Forsher]

23-29 seems like an excessively wide category, in my opinion.

The idea is to try and get all the categories to have essentially the same number of respondents. As you can see, 15, 17, 19-20 and 23-29 are over-represented (arguing that 12% matters) and 21-22, 30-40 and 41+ are under-represented (arguing that 9% doesn't matter).

People play NS?

Yes

It's part joke and part reference to Generalites not necessarily being gameside participants. But, then, I am not sure how many respondents are Generalites first and foremost.

[Forsher]

Yes, except no (see the argument above). It doesn't really matter (it's just a decade after all) but the term does need some consistency of usage and I maintain that describing myself (born in mid-1995) as a 90s kid is misleading. Therefore, describing someone younger than me as such is more misleading.

I was born in the 1990s, therefore I was a kid in the 90s. Therefore I am a 90s kid.

You keep saying the same thing. That does not a point make.

We get this. However, the challenge is that a 90s kid, as the term is used and understood, doesn't mean people born after 31 December 1989 and before 1 January 2000. Ideally you'd try and establish why 90s kid should refer to that.

You people and your 1990s. Everyone knows that 1890s kids are much better.

When you weren't dying of smallpox anyway.

I think your bigger concerns are being conscripted or otherwise affected by a massive global war with a disproportionate impact on you and your fellows. And then having, largely as a result of said conflict, having to deal with Spanish Flu. And the interesting thing is? Then 1895 to 1898 even is affected in the same way.

[Forsher]

When you weren't dying of smallpox anyway.

What's wrong with smallpox?

Would a disease feel any particular friendliness towards its rivals?

[Forsher]

Alright...


Considering both Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht were 1890s kids, I'll happily agree with this sentiment

Joseph Goebbels kinda drags the average waaaaaaaaay down though.

Good point. If you're lucky enough to survive the gap between the wars, you get another great big war. I'm sure being an 1890s kid was pretty fun in relatively less affected places, but, really, it shouldn't be seen as a very happy time to be born.

[Forsher]

It looks to me like some players are puppet voting in options #2 and #6.

Which of course renders the poll meaningless. I could ask a Mod to investigate, but I doubt they'd make the effort since puppet voting on a poll isn't a forum offense.

Really bloody annoying though.

we are winning

... and here's a suspect.

You may as well ask them to have a look. It can't hurt to, after all.

[Forsher]

What drew you to this site?



For sake of argument, let's say that 13 and 14 year olds aren't, in general, particularly politically active/aware. As a consequence, we should expect that NSG draws from a smaller pool and so there should be fewer of them in NSG (as we see). However, after one or two years mixing with older teens and stuff, the number of teens to whom a game like NS would appeal increases. As a result, we should see more of these.

Furthermore, the forums are populated by people who are young. This has two effects. Firstly, it doesn't discourage other younger people. Secondly, it probably does discourage at least some older members (especially if they get headhunted, as it were.

If we then argue that the forum model or the relative inaction of the game or both lead to a relatively low retention rate of players so that many make it a few years then tail off (if not months or weeks). This would help explain the bulges, I think.

I wanted to play a political simulation game after I had been playing a life simulation game called Stick RPG.

Probably something similar, then. I suppose it's possible that the forum attracts some people but the idea of the game is probably the big draw, I reckon it was for me. Mind you, I cannot remember how I found the site but I do know that the idea was appealing (even if the game itself never really grabbed me). On the other hand, I was also 16 when I found NS.

[Forsher]

You're '94, yes?

At any rate, the 90s kid has more substantial memories rather than snatching ones (i.e. like you describe). But, at least, with '94 one has started school prior to 2000 (which is, obviously a Big Thing).

I'm from late December 1994.

Granted, I completed two grades in 2000 due to moving to a different city, so I always studied around older people (I was by far the youngest in class when I started high school). Started Jardim II in March, started Classe de Alfabetização (now 1º ano do ensino primário) in August. (And had the best grades, 100% 100%, until the third grade.)

Does kindergarten count as school? I took it as seriously.

Depends. If you mean kindergarten like in Kindergarten Cop, kind of because it's the K in K-12 and, therefore, is the same as new entrants (but, apparently, way more focussed on playing... but, then, I am literally using what happens in kindergarten cop to describe this). If you mean proper kindergarten (a kind of pre-school option), then no.

Born July 12, 1995

I'm technically a 90's kid, but I was a child. I didn't even know what the 90's were, so whatever.

You should've been in my core class. We'd have had 12, 13 and 14. But, that would've killed the nice pattern of sorts with 13, 14, 22, 30, and 31.

But, yeah, I reject the idea of 1995 being included in the 90s kid thing because it's just too young to have meaningful memories of the 90s. If you want to talk about children's programming from the 90s... yes a lot of it ran into the 2000s (and therefore within the child period of a 1995 child) but parents were also likely to select the films of the 90s and late 80s for such children to watch, as well as more recent things.

[Forsher]

Someone should come up with the....

average, median, range and mode. And while they're at it create a box and whiskers plot. I love graphs and statistics...I'd be happy to create and publish one if someone gave me the raw data.

I would try finding the average, but I'm so bad at basic algebra that I don't know how to find the average of multiple people, only single people (i.e Timmy is 13, Johnny is 14, Suzie is 15, Betty is 16...). However, I did find the median, mode, and range.

(Based on Ailiailia's latest bar graph)
Median: 40
Mode: 16
Range: 54

Going by the poll the median is 18 (422 respondents, therefore the 211th response is one for which 50% are above and half below), and the graph doesn't look so different so I find 40 quite unbelievable.

If, say, you have a range like 19-20 you take the average of that and input it when finding the mean.

[Forsher]

I'm 15, you can tell by my shitty comments.

If you're 15 and people think you're 15, you're posting on an internet forum wrong. In general, even forum old hands struggle to pinpoint ages accurately and, provided your posts aren't totally insane, people tend to estimate up.

[Frenline Delpha]

I am suprised to see most people are my age. Just look at the poll to figure out my age.

[Frenline Delpha]

got me at... 24. sorry, had to think about that one. i still feel nineteen, and people seem to think im even younger than that.

I look like 13, even though I am actually 15.

[Galmarch]

Last time I posted was in December I think with the nation Allmann.
I am still 22 years of age.

[Geanna]

23 just last month xD

[Geilinor]

I turn 18 in three months.

[Geilinor]

I turn 18 in three months.

Mmm you might be younger or older than me.

I thought you were older than 17, but age is a strange thing to guess on the Internet.

[Gradea]

I turned 20 in December.

Man i feel old saying that.

I'm older still at 23.

Are you still alive at such an age ?!