A Message from the Grinch!

There are ways to write about your birthday, anniversary, etc., without making it a post just to say "It's my birthday!" and I have seen people write discussions that mention those things but have more substance to them. I wouldn't write about my birthday anyway. I even took it off Facebook so no one would be sending me obligatory Facebook greetings.

This reminds me very much of my school days. My English teacher had a habit of setting us the task of either writing an article contradicting what we genuinely believe or writing one about a mundane or abstract topic. It constituted excellent tutoring because it enabled us to present simple statements as respectable presentations.

One way to make it a discussion could be to write briefly about the importance of a festival so that other users who are not aware of a particular festival could come to know about it. In addition, it could also be asked whether that particular festival is also celebrated in their area(s) and if they say yes, we could further ask - how it is celebrated.

Just as what @PhredWreck said , it's also my suggestions that out of the milestone create something that can be discussed further .

come to think of it, aside from my being overwhelmed by joining this site...i've got no idea to start a real discussion

I just left a comment to @PhredWreck about the problem of birthday discussions. Yesterday they were proliferating. I saw one user politely remembering that it's against the guidelines and the suggestion was not appreciated. Thanks for this post, I hope that many are going to read it.

Posts on personal milestones are soft options without tasking their mind.As far as I am concerned ,I love reading posts seasoned with wit,even though some of them are too much for me to understand .

Well. now you got me wondering how many no-no's I've done and how do i get on the right track.

I am aware of this. However I think they can become discussions depending on how the discussion about the celebration is started.

I have a feeling a birthday could be ok, as long as it was also a reflection of other birthdays, or a call to talk about the differences in different cultural birthdays

I guess at Christmas time the site could get a bit overwhelmed with such posts and that's what they are trying to avoid.

There are so many things to write about, why push the boundaries on a topic that MyLot doesn't want to encourage. I think they want to avoid, hundreds of Happy Birthday comments etc. I ignore those posts and don't participate in them when I do see them.

"May I wish you a happy Christmas" seen that discussion already (and it's only Nov). . . I do hope that these posts arn't going to be posted by every single person. Could the admins make a sticky discussion at the top of Top rated / hot where people can just shove in their mindless festive good cheer?

I think if a person wrote about some sort of tradition they had for a birthday, or other holiday this might be of a lot of interest to people. An overall tradition that is done in their home or country to celebrate a birthday or holiday this is very unique and can strike up a great conversation. My English tutor ripped up more of my papers than I care to say. I thought I had done an excellent job on them and had improved. She said they were well written but showed no feeling or emotions for the subject I wrote about. She tried to explain to me if you want to write you need to do this with feelings so others can feel what you have felt. Maybe this is a good idea for people to consider when they write here. Make people understand and feel what you're feeling when you write a discussion for the site. This adds some emotion to the subject and draws people in to the subject matter. I know guide and how to preform some maintenance on a computer isn't so wonderful it is more informative. Informative posts are good to teach people about something they had no idea about or to introduce them to a new idea. Now I like these too.

I have a whole four months of being 53 left to go before I turn 54 and I aim to enjoy every one of them

I do try to post conversations that are interesting and, when I can, include photos so someone has something to actually talk about. I hope everyone is enjoying their winter holidays, no matter what they are.

I think that if you include your plans for the holiday it becomes more of a discussion, especially when you include others and what their plans are.

I think somewhat as you did with closing with a question. As well perhaps with contour within a post-an added detail, even without a question the natural flow of a post can invite thought which may lead to discussion by simple sharing of thought. But I think the main thing is, a correct focus of intent and context of the site's purpose...that alone kind of will be or what will not be what gives natural flow to the nature of interaction.

I agree! For Christmas Day, we will go to my grandmother's house, eat and play games all day! We open gifts with my other family members. Christmas is my favorite time of year! :)

I will do my best to keep this in mind. A discussion has to have sustenance and substance in order to be a discussion at all.