At a young age, you think you're smarter and more mature than you really are. This continues to hold true even into the teenage years, and will probably continue for quite some time.
Let me put this into perspective:
At age 12, I thought I was an incredibly mature 12 year old that was more mature than many 15-year olds.
At age 13, I felt like my thoughts at age 12 were silly and immature.
At age 14, I realized how stupid I was at ages 12 and 13.
And now that I'm 15, approaching 16, I realize that I've
always been less mature than I thought I was, and will probably hold that pattern for a few more years.
Yes, we all do mature over the years, but perhaps not as much as we
think we do.
When I was just barely 14, I was a strong advocate of lowering the age requirement. I felt like I had great reasons, and I thought that I'd make a great Moderator.
Now, almost two years later, I'm just over 2 months away from being 16. When I look back at my writing and maturity at age 13-14, I don't necessarily consider my old self immature, but I was
vastly less mature than I am now. There's a
huge gap between, say, a 12-year old and a 16-year old, but you just don't realize the full extent until you're in that higher age group.
When I get closer to 18 and 20, I have no doubt that I'll look upon my current (15) self and think, "I may have been smart for a 15-year old kid, but I was nowhere near my level nowadays."
Use this time before your eligibility to train and improve yourself to become a better candidate for Mod. It will help you
so much.
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I would personally like some sort of forum activity to be a recommendation for Moderator candidates. It disappoints me when I see a new Mod come onto the forums and delete my posts just because I didn't agree with the majority view, even if I was technically within the rules
and presented a valid argument.
Not necessarily a
requirement, but something that is strongly suggested and advised. I heard that this does count behind-the-scenes, but it'd be nice to see something like that more strongly advised, such as putting it in the
Current Positions Available thread thingy.