Narrowed down to bare bones

Well, when I retired from the federal government I thought that stamps would be more than enough to keep me happy and active. So I took my stamps out and started working on them. During my working years I bought lots and lots of stamps but never had the time to truly appreciate them; I just accumulated.

A couple of months after I retired I was offered a five-year translation contract by a local foreign embassy and the money was so good and the subject so easy I just couldn't say no. So the stamps went back on the shelves. When the contract was over I signed another translation contract with a different embassy to translate an 800+ page document. The subject was difficult but terribly interesting: architecture/religion (and I had never translated neither architecture nor religion before). So I said yes and by the time that was over I had lost all interest in stamps.

But the gods never close a door without opening a window. I immediately developed an interest in Classical Latin.  So I enrolled in a 5-year correspondence course with a foreign university and discovered that when you are up to your ears in Virgil and Cicero and Tacitus there's not much time for anything else especially at age 70. So a couple of years ago I started finding good homes for my collections. The most difficult to part with was my Indian Feudatory States; the easiest my Canada, USA, and Eastern Europe. Now I just have the Ceres and the Argie. Deps. on which I will probably work some 30 minutes a week.

My best wishes for the New Year.

A nice lead in for "How does one become a lifetime supporter" ?

A collector may have disposed of unwanted material through a common community, perhaps "The Stamp Forum"
passing on the Joy of collecting through a mutual interest group, to members whom show continual support and contributions to the general knowledge of all.
Material could be donated at auction to assist the upkeep of Forums like these, from members and Moderators who freely donate their time
for the benefit of all of us.
These Forums may appear free, but there is a cost, both time and financial.

Members as Ryan and Aussie Al,  Londonbus, Jack and etc &etc  have made amazing donations that have inspired me to give away
all my surplus stock to those around me.

That is one part of how one becomes a Lifetime Supporter, and I for one hope it doesn't change.

How do the number off posts change. Yesterday I had 18, today I posted three times and now I have 19.

Your member record shows a total of 19 posts being made since joining the forum on March 28, 2014. Five of those posts were made today.

Sometimes it might take a little while for the system to recognise your recent posts. Also some boards such as the introduction threads or sales threads might be set not to count, been a while since I looked over that, put it on the to do list for tomorrow.

Tony as Rod said post some images from your collection a great way to build up your posts.

Another is just reply to Rods posts

If you wish to giveaway some of your collection to members here on the forum I see no problems with that. Just have to keep the 50 posts for sales, Rules are rules and I wont break them.