I don't think Losts' words are wrong and in fact I find some logic in his words.
"The root of every successful and true friendship or any relationship is based on truth and the facts!"
I completely agree to this statement, if you avoid some basic questions and later find out the truth, then there is no point of that friendship. It shows lack of trust and it is pointless to carry on further.
I know many people find this question "ASL" quite irritating. When someone questions me regarding ASL, I don't answer it clearly, but I do let them know in a way that they are not kept in mystery. Many people on TCP know my age, not a big deal.
I just think, like Lost clearly mentioned quite correctly, "it's unfair". Many people ask others their age and when it comes to them, they just avoid it and that is very unfair according to me and moreover there is no harm to disclose the age and speak truth if the intentions of both the persons are good and if they respect each other.
And yes, age doesn't matter as we are all here to make friends and hopefully, "friends forever". So if you want to know each other better and just familiarise yourself, then what's wrong in just saying your age. If you reveal your age, then the opposite person will find themselves at ease. It's your own age and if people are truly looking for good friends, then your age won't really matter, whether you are 15, 25 or 45.
But it's just that when someone new comes on TCP, wanting to make friends and they are probably used to asking this sort of question(ASL) as they might be thinking, its normal to ask on a chat page. We would like many people to come to TCP and make them feel comfortable and make them realise that this page is just unique and very friendly. So make them feel at home and just answer a simple question, "your age".
The main thing is that if someone asks you your age and they have already introduced themselves quite clearly, then it just makes all the sense and it is fair to let the opposite person know about your age or give them some sort of clue so they have a rough idea as to who they are conversing with.
I also would like to make a quick point regarding CaRpE_dIeM 's point about,
"Maybe it's the person who asks who is being unfair!"
I don't quite agree with this statement. I don't think the person asking is "unfair" because they are just trying to get to know you and majority of the time firstly they let you know their ASL and then they ask you yours. And it's not a big deal really. People should be fair enough while having a proper and a friendly chat.
And like Conoro said which I quite agree to,
"Since when has the age or anything else been the prime reason for what we feel toward the other?!!"
True, if you say you are 40 then it won't change the persons feelings or they won't ignore you. Similarly if someone says they are 13, we will give them the same treatment as any other member at TCP. It's just so that we get to know each other better and it shouldn't really cause any issues.
So yeah, I would just like to say one more thing that I do completely agree with Lost and almost all of his thoughts and opinions are true and people shall at least disclose the basic things such as age or gender for a comfortable conversation.
Opinions differ from person to person and he has just expressed his opinions and I’m quite sure that he is not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings or be disrespectful in any way. As far as I understand, he has just given a general perspective through his opinions "to rather accept the truth and disclose the information depending upon the questions asked by the opposite person than avoiding them for a comfortable chat". These are only his opinions, and we have the freedom to accept or reject them. And this was just my opinion and everyone has a right to express their opinions especially as a member of TCP. No one is forced to agree or disagree.