to wish it stated how long a person has been posting here beside their nickname

[ssd]

eg. ssd(13)

then I would know to avoid new posters who seem to be ready for a fight at every turn

maybe if it had the date joined next to our name then and we could work it out for ourselves?

I know this sounds awful and I'll get stick for it...but in my case I've been here years and seen lots of things happen, recently I've felt like some of the posts I read and immediately think what?? must be made by newish members and if it had "ssd joined Dec 2015" next to it it would sort of make sense to me...if it was a what?? post and it was an older poster I'd just assume they were having an off day or I hadnt came across them before

does that make any sense?

am honestly trying not to tar all new posters with the same brush, but I just notice a different sort of poster joining recently.. I dont mean any one in particular just in general

No, I don't think that would help anything. It'd be fostering a lack of trust in new posters, the majority of whom are decent and non-trolly and have a valid opinion, same as everyone else.
Also, it would be extra fluffing up of the self-importantMN royalty/elders. ("I've just namechanged! Can you guess who I am?!" - no, are you famous or something? And doesn't announcing it defeat the object of NCing? ).
Lets just report troll threads as we see and suspect them.

I agree with ssd - and a sad old gits area would be excellent. It would be like my second home.

And doesn't announcing it defeat the object of NCing? hmm

ha ha - I always think that too!

FWIW I used to post fairly regularly, stopped for a few years and recently came back. I recall there were always comments back then about 'missing the old MN', that things were different 'now' blah blah blah

If, in RL, you hear someone bleating on about how great it was in the 50s and how the world has gone downhill since, then frankly you are looking in a mirror.

Some people (myself included) have been here many years but have for one reason or another joined with a new email so it may say WaitrosePigeon(2days) when in actual fact it could be WaitrosePigeon(50yrs).

For those posters with profiles, if you click on their name it does say (you should be able to click on mine and see no of children and year joined, I think). But very few posters have profiles - maybe that should be encouraged more. Do many people even realise they exist?

You can get it to show the length of time you have been here on your profile - it's optional though

X post

And yes a newbie is no more likely to post something twattish than a regular - in fact far less likely IMO.

I've been a member since 2009 but deregged then reregged under a new email address after Hackergate so in my case the join date would be misleading.

I think it would make people easier to spot after a name change, which I don't think is a good idea.

I'm not particularly interested in people-spotting or who has been here for how long, I'm more interested in what people say on a particular thread, and how they say it, regardless of how long they've been on MN.

I agree Panda. MN reincarnation does happen

I often find the older posters worse tbh - tho it isnt as bad as when I first came on here.

Satans - 6 years