An account two years old still counts as new, eh?

The discussions listed under "new user" do contain some apparent anomalies because it lists discussions started by people who have posted very little, regardless of when the account was actually opened. Many people have come here, posted just one discussion and then left, to be seen no more! A "veteran user" is generally regarded as being someone with a high User Rating but this is not always true because there are a few users who have been here for five years and more but who periodically close their account and start a new one. It's important to realise that the User Rating is NOT a true 'post count'. It doesn't take into account discussions which have less than two responses (or a response and a comment) or second and subsequent responses and comments made by a person in a particular discussion. Although it is a general guide to how active a person has been, that person may actually have made MANY more posts than their User Rating suggests if they are in the habit of replying to every response in their own discussions, for example. I very often judge a "veteran" by how well they know MyLot and how accurately they respond to questions about the way MyLot works.

For me personally, a veteran user is someone who has posted here longer than me and/or has more posts than me. Of course by that criteria some people might consider me to be a veteran user. I've been here for almost two years after all so that's a long time compared to most who give up a couple of months. That's almost like an eternity. Of course, I wouldn't consider myself some fountain of wisdom. I know more than a few tricks of the trade but I doubt that I would be considered to be all that helpful. Still I do kind of find it amusing that someone waited two years to make their first post. It's almost like they woke up one morning and were like "hey, that website myLot that I signed up and never posted on, I think that I'm going to post on that one." Still they wouldn't be a veteran. Of course when you think about it, post counts can be deceiving in their own right as well. And people can just blend into the background for five years. But in general post counts and time spent could be good criteria.

That is an interesting question. I never really gave it much thought. I say "newer users" or "more experienced users", but I never really put a lot of thought into how I would categorize or quantify experience. I guess that to me it is how well the person seems to know, understand and navigate the site. A person could be here on and off for a couple of years and not have as much experience or knowledge as someone that has only been here for a month or two but has taken the time to familiarize himself or herself with the Guidelines, FAQs, and overall workings of the site.

New users should be recently joined. Not by the number of posts.