In the past week, one of our moderators has indicated she would like to retire from her function. This moderator is 930310. Obviously, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to 930310 for having moderated this forum for the past couple of years, and I would like to genuinely thank her for all that she has done for our community, as well as for everything she has accomplished in the field of gerontology research.

Another moderator has indicated he would like to step down if we can find a suitable successor. I will confirm who this is in case we can find one.

The two messages/updates above indicate that we, as the GSF Moderators' Team (so including the Admin) are looking for at least one, but possibly two members who would be interested in moderating this forum. This includes, among others:

• keeping this community a safe space for all members, regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual preference, or other reasons for discrimination: this also means being able to look beyond your own perspective or viewpoint;
• moderating posts that reveal too much personal information, be it of a member themselves or of supercentenarians and their relatives;
• moderating posts that do not respect our forum rules;
• reporting behaviour that is not in line with our forum rules;
• being willing to discuss matters with the moderators' team first before acting (unless the behaviour warrants immediate action);
• and being a regular online presence on this forum (which does not require posting all the time - just logging in frequently).

If you feel you might fit the criteria, and you could be a welcome addition to our team, feel free to send me - the Admin - a personal message, reasoning why you would be a good fit. I will try to confirm my having received your PM as soon as possible. In about two weeks' time, my team of moderators and I will look at the application, and inform all candidates.

Please feel free to ask any questions below if they are not about a personal, individual application, but about the application process in general (as I am sure I am forgetting a thing or two).

Looking forward to your interest!

Kind regards,
the moderators
the admin

(Original post here.)

For 15 years, The 110 Club has served as the virtual home of the longevity tracking field, with a special focus on super-longevity (108+).  Throughout this time, global interest in longevity has grown tremendously.  This is no longer a niche field.  Now more than ever before, the ability to extend one’s lifetime is within our grasp.  Yet despite this immense interest, our field has always lacked the investment needed to address the worldwide demand for our research.  That is about to change.  The 110 Club is here to stay, but our field will soon be served by a new project, much larger in scope.

I am pleased to introduce the first company ever built to address the needs of super-longevity researchers: LongeviQuest, which will be launching publicly next month.

 

LongeviQuest (LQ) initially arose out of conversations over the past couple of years between me and Robert Young, the world’s foremost authority on supercentenarians for the past generation.  Robert and I, along with many of you, have long agreed that our field is woefully underserved and underfunded.  This scarcity of resources has impeded our field’s development, and that is now coming to an end.  For the past year, I have invested in the development of technology built specifically for the purpose of enabling, organizing, displaying, and promoting super-longevity research.  Dozens of experienced researchers were consulted in the design process.  LongeviQuest is the infrastructure around which global research operations will be conducted.

 

Technology is one component of a business we have created to support research.  LongeviQuest is an organization that will enable passionate fans around the world to pursue high-level research, and to have their research promoted to the media.  We will work diligently to recognize many more centenarians (108+) than are being honored currently, and to tell their stories to the world.  All of this can be done because for the first time, revenue generated from the public’s interest in this field will be used to enhance our research capabilities.  We have barely scratched the surface of longevity research; there remain so many frontiers yet to be pursued. 

 

LongeviQuest is a collaboration between many of today’s most active and respected researchers.  Many of you know some other members of our core team.  I am honored that Yumi Yamamoto will be leading LongeviQuest Japan research efforts.  She will be supported by an excellent team including Yu Li, an experienced validator of Japanese cases.  I am equally proud that Fabrizio Villatoro will be leading LongeviQuest América, bringing his expertise and passion to develop our research capabilities in the Western Hemisphere.  LQ América will also include another co-founder of LAS, Stefan Maglov, who has joined LongeviQuest as Global Administrator to help ensure that our research worldwide is of the highest quality.  Of course, in addition to his big-picture focus on advancing the field, Robert will be active at this highest level of research operations as well, ensuring that this new project can build upon the institutional knowledge of the Gerontology Research Group and International Database on Longevity.  With this group of experts leading our validation operations, LongeviQuest research will meet the highest standards of scientific integrity. 

 

Beyond formal involvement, LQ’s validation process has been refined with valuable contributions from dozens of additional researchers.  I’d like to specifically thank the members and leaders from the following organizations who provided feedback: the Gerontology Research Group; GRG Japan; Latin American Supercentenarians; and the European Supercentenarian Organisation.  While I cannot speak for the members of these organizations, I can attest to the goodwill that has been present in all of these discussions, and our shared recognition that this investment in our field is long overdue. 

 

Our process establishes global minimum validation standards and dispute resolution procedures, but otherwise grants full autonomy to the regional LongeviQuest subsidiaries.  Research looks much different in Japan than it does in Mexico, or France, or the United States, etc.  LongeviQuest has been built to account for the unique challenges faced by researchers in each country.  LongeviQuest’s governance structure will democratize the field.

 

Everyone I mentioned has approached this project with an attitude of cooperation.  Our subject matter is relevant to all of humanity.  We are much stronger together than we are apart.

 

LongeviQuest will launch publicly in January, after a Beta testing period.  An exact date will soon be announced.  We are excited to share more details with you about the project in the coming weeks, including more details on the new democratic validation process which will empower the best researchers. 

 

As this project moves towards launch, your feedback will be more valuable than ever.  In that spirit, I invite anyone interested in participating in the Beta testing of the LQ website to contact me or any member of the founding team to let us know you’d like to be involved.  Our e-mail addresses are below for those who wish to research with LongeviQuest:

 

BenMeyers@LongeviQuest.com

RobertYoung@LongeviQuest.com

YumiYamamoto@LongeviQuest.com

FabrizioVillatoro@LongeviQuest.com

StefanMaglov@LongeviQuest.com

YuLi@LongeviQuest.com

 

The incredible passion shown by the members of this forum was a convincing factor in pursuing this project.  Thank you all for the inspiration.  I am very excited for what lies ahead for us all.

Below, please find a list of the current team of administrators and moderators on the Global Supercentenarian Forum.

Admins:

Admin, 1 Mar 2022 - Present.

Moderators:

seto2001, 1 Mar 2022 - Present.

024Tomi, 15 Mar 2022 - Present.

Ale76, 15 Mar 2022 - Present.

930310, 14 Apr 2022 - Present.

Ell, 14 Apr 2022 - Present.

Former moderators:

Fabri21, 1 Mar 2022 - 5 Dec 2022.

Yes, it happened on April Fool's Day, but this is no joke.

Trusted Membership gives you access to the more private part of the forum, where, among others, you will find an area to have a go at validation or revalidation of supercentenarians. In order to be eligible for trusted membership, you will have to meet the following criteria:

1. You will need to have been a member of this forum for at least three (3) months.

2. You will need to have made a minimum of fifty (50) posts.

3. You will need to have made at least one hundred (100) posts in the previous year to remain trusted member.

4. You will need to have a clean track record: no bans or suspensions, and/or improved behaviour after a warning.

5. You will need to have made quality posts, i.e. more than "happy birthday!" or "RIP".

6. Trusted Membership is given at the discretion of the admin + moderators. We will need to feel you can be trusted.

I realise that especially points 5+6 are subjective and could cause frustration or irritation. And that is perfectly okay. If you feel that you should be given trusted membership but you have not been awarded it (yet), please feel free to discuss it in the "Complaints Corner" subforum. That's what it exists for.

As for these first three months, points 1+2 are an issue as well, as some members have immediately gained TM status, whereas others have not yet. This is also to do with what we know of the current members and their backgrounds - with some, it helps they've shown good behaviour elsewhere, with others it might be the case we just don't know them well enough yet. In any case, please realise that in these first couple of months (let's say until the end of June) you might see members being granted trusted membership, even if they might not meet criterion 1 or 2 yet. Once more, feel free to address this perceived unfairness in the "Complaints Corner" subforum.

And please realise this first and foremost: the admin and the moderators are human beings. We make mistakes, too, and we will probably (unknowingly) be biased in some cases. But we are always willing to discuss why we have taken certain decisions - and this might even lead to decisions being revisited (as has already happened).

Congratulations!

Welcome to the Global Supercentenarian Forum! We are happy to see you having joined our community, and having become part of the world of supercentenarian tracking. As a means of introduction, please allow us to lay out a number of rules and guidelines.

1. A member should be at least thirteen (13) years old – any accounts of younger members will be suspended.
2. This is an international forum with members from all around the world. These members all have different mother tongues, religions, genders, sexual preferences, and customs and traditions. Therefore please show respect towards other members and treat them the way you wish to be treated. Discrimination on the basis of gender, race (also known as racism), sexual preference, or ableism is not allowed on this forum and will lead to a ban. In fact, all types of offensive and/or provocative posts will not be tolerated.
3. English is the main language of communication on this forum, but please understand it is not everyone’s mother tongue. Therefore, be kind if someone makes mistakes or uses unconventional English to express their ideas. Obviously, though, profanity will not be allowed.
4. This forum is first and foremost a fan forum for people interested in supercentenarians. It is not the place to sell one’s products or ideas. Therefore, advertising, spam, and/or self-promotion are not allowed on this forum.
5. It is important to avoid copyright issues, so please always indicate a source for newspaper reports, images, videos, and other types of media.
6. Show respect to supercentenarians by typing their names correctly. As this is an international forum, please use correct diacritics. For any names that have been transcribed to English, such as Japanese names, please also provide the supercentenarians’ names in the native language.
7. In order to maintain a good overview of this forum and its threads, updates are restricted to one every month. Any unnecessary, intermediate updates will be deleted by administrators or moderators.
8. In addition to updating, please also refrain from over-quoting. Make sure that you only quote the relevant part of one’s message in order to keep threads legible and condensed.
9. As a last guideline, stick to the topic of the thread. Any off-topic messages will be moved to a more appropriate section of the forum.
10. Finally, have a good time whilst exploring this forum! We hope you enjoy the world of supercentenarians as much as we do!

Kind regards,

the Admin and Moderators of this forum