I joined SN one year ago today. I think I first read about it on the r/bitcoin subreddit. I was hooked from the start. I abandoned Facebook years ago. I never really embraced twitter. I really liked the idea that sats were taking the place of the traditional "like" or up vote. Stacker News was real value for value.

I began to learn a lot. High signal/low noise. My interest in bitcoin flowed naturally from my politics, the belief in freedom and a natural distrust of a powerful central government. I am a retired lawyer, so my expertise, to the extent I have any, was in law, politics, and economics. Math wasn't my strong suit in school. I got by, but was no wiz. I wasn't a techie either, though I always enjoyed messing around on a very basic level with computers for fun.

I am an older guy. I struggled, and still struggle with the technical aspects of bitcoin, but the people here helped me to learn more than I imagined I could learn. I had tried linux in the past, but soon I had completely abandoned windows for good, thanks to inspiration from fellow SNers. I had run an Umbrel node for a few months before joining, but now I began learning more about what was going on beyond simple plug and play. I started teaching myself python through youtube videos. Progress was slow, and competence is still far off, but I'm enjoying the journey. There are a lot of talented people here on SN who are generous with their time and knowledge.

Thanks to the frequent AMAs I was able to communicate with people with whom I would never have had the chance to speak. I particularly remember Lyn Alden, Anita Posch, Nik Bhatia, jb55, Alex Gladstein, and Alex Leishman. I had occasional interactions with Kevin Rooke, whose podcasts continue to educate me. DarthCoin berates and abuses me at least once a month. Jimmy Song frequently posts polls, fiatjaf discusses new nostr developments and offers bounties, and Odell and Gigi will sometimes post their own latest writings here. Guy Swann occasionally shows up too. I'm sure I'm forgetting many others. For a committed bitcoin fanatic, this is the big leagues.

Keyan Kousha, founder and fearless leader, also contributes posts and comments frequently. He is a very smart yet modest guy. Most users don't kiss his butt too much when they engage with him. Some of his posts even get ignored, just like some of mine. That's a wonderful thing about the SN culture. It's a level playing field.

Stacker News has come a long way in one year. Since I joined, there have been many improvements, including polls, an edit button, a referral program, NIP-05 support, bounties, the rare and valued cowboy hat, NIP-57 zap support, bookmarks, and a nostr sub, among others. I am sure there are many more in the pipeline.

I just want to express my appreciation for this site, and I look forward to learning more as our world moves to a bitcoin standard.