And I know what you mean, I liked being a mod since I got to know others here and it's much the same with MIRT. Despite the purpose of disposing of Spammers and Trolls, I still think it's the friendliest forum on DU. And it's a good feeling to spare those on the board of these irritants.
And, despite having several well known members over the years, I still feel pretty safe on DU. And it's certainly run well, between DU.1 and DU.4 everything has been an improvement, including everything that's happened in between. The admins really know their stuff and I trust them. And it's also been a learning journey for me. I'd always voted, mostly for Democrats, but it took 9/11 to wake me up.
I was in my dentist's chair in Albany, NY on that day when all hell broke loose. I think I was there for X-Rays, went there with my mother, but I was left alone in a chair in a room with a TV on CNN showing that second plane hitting the World Trade Center over and over. I walked out of there thinking the world was about to end, and that's when I started watching the news for more than the weather report and in early 2006 a friend told me about DU.
And we do worry about bots, but I think that even I am beginning to recognize them. I worked on a computer for my job, but it was a closed system. So I've really only been online since 2002 so I'm not computer savvy, but I can find my way around DU at this point.