When I run out of things to do or if a new worldgen-related update comes out, I'll fly out into new chunks and "start over" in a new area of the world. I pretty much always end up back at my spawn base after some time though. I've built a handful of smaller bases around the world this way. It's fun to explore and stumble upon things I built 5-10 years ago.

Probably sometime in 2013-2014 or so. I added a modified sign since I had the world on new years in 2012 but I didn't start adding signs until 2013.

Thanks!

losing worlds it the worst.. I've lost some as well but thankfully not this one!
The world has traveled across ~4-5 different computers (and at least 2 countries). Currently I'm running it on a vanilla server on my local network so I can hop on with any of my machines and not worry about transferring the files.
I didn't start mapping until more recently so my maps are pretty underwhelming. Building a large map room is a project I haven't seriously considered before.. maybe I'll work on that next!
As for redstone, I have a decent number of automatons set up: some rail systems, plenty of original (and some copied) farm builds, some lighting and cosmetic things, potion crafting, etc..
As for food, I typically go for cooked pork chops because (1) have a ton of them already and (2) it fits the world theme well since they used to be the go-to when I started playing.

I think the longest mc world i played was modded (Nomifactory GTCEu), was up to IV age before leaving that world, still have it but dont really feel like returning