Well, God bless you, RedMDer. You have more than made up for those years. You work all day at a real job, then devote your off time here, in addition to donating more than generously.
I, too, waited a few years before starting to support.
I know this sounds odd, but I was waiting for some kind of email with a notice: “membership obligation fulfilled; you are now a full-fledged freeper.”
I couldn’t believe I was actually part of such a great operation just by virtue of registering.
Since I’m sorta slow, it sunk in sorta slowly. :>)
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks that I was shirking my duty. Then I started to give. And I have ever since, except for 2 short periods of financial uncertainty when retiring from the military.