Super Mario Boards

i can confirm that being veteran does absolutely jack shit in terms of who you're pals with as long as you make efforts

my best bud on these boards is pitohui and he basically didn't exist until the start of 2018

it's all in terms of making effort to actually know people and talk to them rather than being put off by existing connections

Can further confirm that the time you join has basically no impact on your ability to connect with people here.
I talk here regularly to people who have been here for ages like Shoey and Perch, people who were getting back into the community a few years before I came in like Rose, folks who were there right about the same time as me like Koops and SGoW, and folks who joined in on the fun in, like, the last year like WT.
I talk to people like Nabber who have been here for years and people like LJS who came after me.

It's really all about getting involved and taking the time to get into activities and, outside of those activities as well, to talk to people and strike up conversations.

I'm 19 and joined in late 2019 and I don't roleplay and I'm happily friends with both people who are newer to the forums and a bit younger or the same age as me (e.g. Toadettefan and MightyMario) and people who are older and have been around longer (e.g. Fawfulthegreat64 and the twins)

I mean, I have a few friends on here like Lefty, LJS, Jaz, and Mags but I think I just have this deep rooted fear that no one will want to be friends with me. Long story short, but I've spent my entire life getting rejected from friend groups because I grew up homeschooled and everyone else already knew each other from school. Because of that, I have a really hard time actually talking to people and starting conversations without worrying that they'll just get annoyed with me or tell me to go away or whatever.

Then, and I do not say this with rudeness, that is on you. Phrasing it as a problem of the people and their groups without ever trying to break into the groups in question externalizes the issue, when the real problem is your own anxiety. Which is not to diminish said anxiety, but you can only work to overcome it by recognizing it is internal, not external.

Yeah my besties on here have been here ages before me (The Wario-killing twins and Pitohui) and/or after me (WT)

'Sides, doesn't matter how old you are. You havin gun? That's what matters!

I've known you since then and you were always cool on my book.