<p>I believe AParentx was one of the people responding in my first thread.
In fact, AParentx may have been responsible for me, reading a couple of threads to choose my screen name for what was anticipated to be a brief stay: AParent ---> TheDad</p>
<p>August 2003 when my son was a freshman in college. I found the forum a year earlier but wasn't to familiar with internet forums at the time and found the conversation kind of strange - I think it was mostly kids - somehow I didn't see the parents forum at that time. I think I came back again once when I was searching for books and waitlist info in May 2003 and then started posting later that summer. </p>
<p>Our college search would have been very different if I had known about CC before my son applied. CC has helped tremendously even through the college years - from study abroad info. to how to let go as a parent. It would make a good Oprah show - can you imagine all the political opponents coming face to face.?! Now that would be fun. </p>
<p>Newmassdad, Did you ever move to Chicago? I recall you mentioning that you were thinking of taking a job there.</p>
<p>2331: I first began on PR in 2000 and recall HTH very well.....somewhere along the way my name has changed a few times...and I remember CC was very low in the number of posts until something happened on the PR and then all the nice people (well, Barflies, I guess, but smart ones!) came to cc and the HTH types seemed to get left behind...yay!</p>
<p>TheDad, you were the source of my screen name. One of my kids saw your screen name and said you are TheAnalyst (because I am a bond analyst). I said OK without giving it any thought. In retrospect, your screen name is as important as naming the baby, or at least the dog. I wish I had given it more thought. (Haven't been around long but thoroughly enjoy reading others' posts on a daily basis.)</p>
<p>Hm....I'm not sure when I actually started reading and posting here, but I'm pretty sure it was after DS got accepted to colleges...which was 2003 spring. I, too, was a refuge from PR...golly whatever happened to that?? I will say that I've gotten TONS of information here re: DD's college ideas and search.</p>
<p>It would appear that my first posts were in February, 2004, but I think I had been lurking for a few months before that. </p>
<p>The PR board is still around, more moderated now. The trolls left for their own board late 2004, I believe.</p>
<p>TheAnalyst, LOL. I, too, would have given my screen name more thought had I known how long I'd be here. "Bullwinkle" has been subsequently taken, as has "Curmudgeon." But there are others, like "Scarlet Pimpernel" that remain untouched.</p>
<p>"Newmassdad, Did you ever move to Chicago? I recall you mentioning that you were thinking of taking a job there."</p>
<p>He did and it seems that Newmassdaughter can't catch a break (in distance from home, that is)! However, the moniker NewIllDad would not have the same aura of respectability. :)</p>
<p>It looks like April 2003 was my first post. I may have been lurking before that. We had just finished the whole process with our D who was a Senior, then. I remember feeling like we'd been spinning in circles for eight months! CC parents were saying and feeling the same things that we were. :p Looking back on those threads makes me feel ancient, but in a good way...like maybe, I've learned a lot and am better able to handle the launch of Sluggkid #2. </p>
<p>No regrets, but if I knew then what I do now, I wouldn't have worried so much about the normal high school Senior yah-yah's of our D. I would have relaxed more and focused on the big picture positives. It has been a joy to watch our D in college. We simplified the process with our S and have let him be the captain of his own ship. We've learned to have a sense of humor about high school and not take it so seriously. In another life, we may have looked for a better high school. ;) </p>
<p>I do miss the smilies we used to have, especially the ones that danced and jiggled. CC needs a smiley with a grad cap. :)</p>
<p>Well, TheDad, I am touched to hear that I am your ancestor in some sense. ;) Actually, I chose my original Aparent in order to remain as anonymous as possible. And I am now Aparent5 because I have lost my password 5 times and could never figure out how to get a new one, so I just reregistered with a new handle. It's amazing anyone in my family managed to get into college. ;)</p>
<p>I was lurking in 2002, mostly reading TheDad, Twinkle and Sunshine's many threads to get the feeling for what was about to begin. I got my name by describing TheDad's patient and supportive posting at the dinner table, only to be named "ReasonableDad" by my kids.</p>
<p>Now that we are waiting for S's outcomes, I definitely feel more like ImpatientDad.</p>
<p>Like many others, I was bummed when CC started the new forum - not because of the changes, but because they restarted the counters on the number of posts. Suddenly, I was a "junior member." Once upon a time, in a galaxy.... wrong start. Once upon a time, I was investigating Penn's Digital Media Design program and thinking that my son might have a chance at that (but didn't know how we would ever pay for it). One day I was purusing a rival website of CC and saw a post by someone who had just gotten in DMD. I quickly registered as Digmedia (short for Digital Media - and I pronounce it Didj Media vs Dig Media) and did a post asking about the program. I never did like the forum on that site, though (too unstructured), but someone posted about CC, saying how useful it was. So I came over here and registered with the same name.</p>
<p>Yes, the process is "over" but I made some friends along the way who seemed interested in my son and - amazingly - sometimes even interested in my advice. I've had email exchanges with lots of parents and - even though I try not to email the students - xiggi and twinkle have kept me a little up-to-date with things. Our family has even had dinner with another poster and her husband "down under in paradise."</p>
<p>btw, does anyone remember on the old forum, we used to have "full names" in addition to the short ones? Mine was "Digital Media Dad." I had totally forgotten that until I went back to the old forum and looked at my profile. The full names were not carried over to the new forum.</p>
<p>ReasonableDad, LOL...and sympathies about being ImpatientDad. Given a fusion of my dramatic and historical streaks, I confess that the period made me empathize with the commanders left aboard ship at the Normandy Invasion...everything is "away" and you know that <em>something</em> is happening but damned if you know what.</p>
<p>AParent, well, you're a much gentler poster than I am and it's a pleasure to be your descendant, even if "The" and "Dad" are both more definite in comparison.</p>
<p>I was so grateful to stumble across this forum two years ago after a reference to it on the PR board. PR was so troll-ridden in those days that you had to discard at least 90 percent of what was written in order to get at the good stuff from the legitimate posters.</p>
<p>I was amazed at the high quality of the information posted here - and also at all the terrific dads on this site. Many of the guys I know personally are "just tell me how much it's going to cost me" types (delivered with a wince, of course) who were, shall we say, less involved in the whole danged process (including my own dh). The exceptions are the wackos who have the latest USNews rankings memorized - you DO NOT want to run into them at the grocery store, believe me. So it was wonderful to meet so many wise paternal types on CC.</p>
<p>I remember HTH, but the PR guy who really, really bugged me was "anotheranon." He was a perfect snot - perfect family, perfect kids, perfect life - who banged the "family values" gong constantly and was forever either belittling students or predicting disaster for the other parents' kids. I remember that no one in his family was allowed to forego the family dinner hour FOR ANY REASON, ever, so of course kids whose EC schedules prevented them from having dinner with the family were automatically doomed to eventual bitter failure.</p>
<p>Much nicer folks in here.</p>
<p>I, too, found CC in spring '03, after S#1 had been admitted to college. I had been an avid lurker and infrequent poster on the PR forum, and also remember the thoroughly obnoxious HTH all too well. I didn't find much use for the PR forum since there was a certain, shall we say, lack of civility. Can't even remember how I got to CC, but this place is truly a goldmine of information. I confess to having turned several others in my community on to it's addictive nature. I must beg for forgiveness.</p>
<p>I am another person that migrated here from the PR board. I occasionally posted there starting in 2002 when my oldest child was a junior in HS. I lurked more then I posted because I was concerned that the nasty hth guy would have something to say to me and he was pretty articulate! </p>
<p>I remember looking at this site when I found PR and it was not very active. The big difference between the boards, imho, is the moderators. It was possible on the pr board for threads to be hijacked or kids to post really raunchy stuff under authentic sounding title threads and they wouldn't be pulled for days. Also, there were tons of trolls, people posting under multiple names and it seemed that no one was ever really banned. Thank you mods for keeping this board a good one.</p>
<p>Its people like TheDad who keep bringing me back, since 2004. My S decided to apply as a junior, and we had 2 days to select schools. How differently we would have chosen if I had been reading this board! My S was truly blessed with an admission to a school that "fits" him, tho clearly many others would have served as well, & been cheaper. I thought being NMF only meant tuition at state U, Arizonia, & Tulane!!!
Many times e-mailed some participants. I see names now and know exactly who & where their child(ren) are. I smile watching the list of acceptances (can't wait to hear final news from Curm). I also love the threads on sheets, and getting info on trips (whre to eat, etc). I read more than post, as I have less info to offer, and lack the eloguence of others, but I am a true addict. Plus, I get to apply this info with children of friends and in my work.</p>
<p>I've been lurking and posting since November 2003 when my son applied ED to Columbia and some state Us. My son is a sophomore at Swarthmore now....I'm pretty much beyond getting excited about college admissions but I do come back for posters like theDad, Soozie, Marite, bookworm, optimizerdad, Berurah, momsdream etc..</p>
<p>Yes, I am in Chicago now, but would like to get back to the northeast. </p>
<p>Newmassdaughter is doing very well at Chicago. A big honor may be heading her way, but I hesitate to say very much as, if it happens, it cold provide an easy link to her identity.</p>
<p>As near as I can tell, I started posting sometime in 2002. Hard to believe that was 4 years ago. In many ways, I miss the old boards as there were fewer posters so it was easier to keep track of who said what. Yes, the mention of twinkle and sunshine brings back some memories of the earlier days.</p>