Hi Daos,
I am late to the party as usual, but I can certainly echo some of the responses of other Purists to your great post.
I was a Major Lurker for some time, just soaking up the information and knowledge here. Like many I thought “what can I contribute when 'everyone' has more knowledge / more experience / more watches / more opportunities” than I do.
But when I finally, tentatively, dipped my toe in the water I found, like you, I was welcomed and people seemed genuinely interested in my contributions and observations.
I also enjoyed the variety of people and personalities that shared here. It is a bit like a giant jigsaw puzzle with small bits of information slowly revealed. We do get to know each other quite well and it is fun to add new pieces to the puzzle. So PuristS is about so much more than watches – although I still value highly the independent information and opinions presented here.
I discovered The PuristS just over 4 years ago when I innocently typed Jaeger-LeCoultre into a search engine. [I know the precise date because I just checked my hard drive and found photos of a Greubel Forsey tourbillon and a F.P.Journe Resonance that I saved on that first encounter.] That led to the purchase of a Reverso Grand Date and, fittingly, my first post was about that particular watch. In a way it was to thank others for what I had learned leading up to that purchase. I didn’t really expect to be able to post anything regularly after that, but it does look like I have found something to mutter about at least 1435 times.
I would also really encourage others to post here. It is a great and welcoming community of like minded individuals and there are many rewards within.
Andrew