Science Forums Comparison

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I suppose people that don't know what they are talking about are sometimes nice, because they ask question, and without that, this wouldn't be much of a forum. If we all knew everything there would be no point in this forum.

[Dave]

Well, quite. There's a lot of difference between those people that are coming here looking for actual answers and those that come on here and deliberately spam/say "the laws of physics are wrong!!!!! cheese is a new fundamental constant!!!!!11"/etc, and I think YT was probably referring to those of the latter kind

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Some of the latter can be entertaining, but not too many.

Like ExtraSense.

[Dave]

ExtraSense did get quite annoying after a while though, as they all do.

 

But on the whole, we have some of the best quality posters around here that I've seen on any of the forums that I frequent.

 

(desperate drag to get it back on topic )

[YT2095]

Well, quite. There's a lot of difference between those people that are coming here looking for actual answers and those that come on here and deliberately spam/say "the laws of physics are wrong!!!!! cheese is a new fundamental constant!!!!!11"/etc, and I think YT was probably referring to those of the latter kind

I was indeed!

I have all the time in the world (appart from when I`m at work) for those that ask and genuinely wish to learn, absolutely infinate patience with them, they are part of what make this forum an admirable and worthwhile endevour!

 

as for the troll fool, country bumpkin, village idiot types... well they won`t and don`t last long anyway

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I just looked at Physics Forums, it looks a lot better than SciForums but you have to pay to get a signature or avatar. I wouldn't like that...

 

Are the admins around here considering advertising?

[Martin]

I think you should be number one in both[/i']. More dedicated members that know what they are talking about would be nice.

 

the "most users ever online" thing is broken

it would be nice to have some gauge of activity

I would expect the view-rate and post-rate to grow

now that LaTex is working

 

and with the format, which is attractive and usable

 

I cant think why more people, including knowledgeable ones,

shouldnt keep showing up

 

moderation keeps down the sheer foolishness and also can,

if applied, prevent personal attacks, insulting arrogance, etc

to some extent.

 

there is a real need for places like this to discuss new research

so much of which is online at arxiv.

I go to bull. boards to a large degree because there I can learn of new work, new observational results, etc.

and get other peoples take on it. I get news I wouldnt find on my own

and I get links to stuff.

 

if this board doesnt take a growth spurt in the next month or two, let me know and i will personally do something-----that is why I would like the "most ever" gadget to work, so I can tell whether or not I should be a booster or whether things are just naturally improving on their own.

 

BTW the main physical science menu could use a little slight tweaking or editing.

for some reason there seems no place for classical EM to go (like rail guns and coil guns) and so they wander into "modern physics" which

should really be more particles, standard model, and that. Personally

a slight awkwardness of categories in the menu doesnt put me off---am quite comfortable with little disorder!

[Dave]

I just looked at Physics Forums' date=' it looks a lot better than SciForums but you have to pay to get a signature or avatar. I wouldn't like that...

 

Are the admins around here considering advertising?[/quote']

 

Have you not seen the ads around the place?

 

Why does Physics Forums look better, out of interest? Is it just high post counts on the forums, or something to do with the general style of the place?

[Dave]

BTW the main physical science menu could use a little slight tweaking or editing.

for some reason there seems no place for classical EM to go (like rail guns and coil guns) and so they wander into "modern physics" which

should really be more particles' date=' standard model, and that. Personally

a slight awkwardness of categories in the menu doesnt put me off---am quite comfortable with little disorder![/quote']

 

I agree that the subforums need to be tidied up a bit. I'm hoping the latex system should help people convey what they're trying to say with a bit more clarity.

[Martin]

I agree that the subforums need to be tidied up a bit. I'm hoping the latex system should help people convey what they're trying to say with a bit more clarity.

 

having LaTex is great!

 

whether or not to tidy up the subforum menu categories depends on

whether you have time for it---and how pressured you feel by

competition from the larger more established board.

 

I think its great to be smaller, younger, looser, less crowded. I think SFN is great---I just found it or re-discovered it after some format changes gave it a new look.

 

From a strictly personal perspective, I'm interested in research news in astronomy cosmology and quantum gravity (the newer background independent approaches). what I would like to see is other people here

who watch for research news and arxiv preprints in those areas and who have an interest in those things and tell me about it or give me a link when they find something.

 

Are you in London?

There is a great conference on Quantum Gravity scheduled for around the 6 or 7 of September at London's Imperial College. Leading people will be there, john baez, carlo rovelli, renate loll, lee smolin, chris isham, laurent freidel, abhay ashtekar, (names in no particular order).

would you like the Imperial College website that has the announcement describing the conference? A lot is happening, including mathematics, in quantum gravity. you should go.

[Dave]

Unfortunately at that time I'm going to be away, but thanks for the offer

 

(fyi, I'm nearer Birmingham, currently at Warwick University)

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Have you not seen the ads around the place?

No, I mean like put an ad for Science Forums somewhere. Perhaps maybe in Popular Science magazine, or the like (depending on how expensive it is).

[Dave]

Quite expensive for magazine ads. I think we're being advertised to some extent by the online ads thing we have going here (at the top of the page).

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

What's your rate of growth in members per month? I mean, physicsforums has 8,000 some members, and you have maybe 1,500 (most of which who don't post at all). I'd like it if we had experts in certain fields like Glider, by maybe asking professors you like to sign up. Then we would have a much more expert group of people and we wouldn't argue as much.

[fafalone]

New members:

 

May 2004 216

April 2004 186

March 2004 129

February 2004 114

January 2004 102

December 2003 77

November 2003 78

 

So it's steadily increasing.

[NSX]

by maybe asking professors you like to sign up. Then we would have a much more expert group of people and we wouldn't argue as much.

 

That's a good idea, but professors usually have alot to do. Although, most of them are for encouraging Science, so you could give it a shot.

 

[edit]

Actually, i'm quite intrigued by the number of guests we have on the forum [usually much more than the number of active members]

[fafalone]

Most of the guests are usually search engines, particularly Google and Inktomi, but we do have alot more real people guests too. As far as number of users online, I think I've seen around 160. We do need to fix that tho.

[Dave]

That's a good idea, but professors usually have alot[/b'] to do. Although, most of them are for encouraging Science, so you could give it a shot.

 

Quite a few professors would probably be interested I would have thought, but as you said it's them being able to find the time to do it. Perhaps trying to get onto people like PhD students would help?

[NSX]

yep

Well, when we all go for our PhDs, there will be lots of Doctorate students on the board!

 

[Dave]

Well, that's the plan at the moment for me

[jordan]

I'd like it if we had experts in certain fields like Glider, by maybe asking professors you like to sign up. Then we would have a much more expert group of people and we wouldn't argue as much.

I don't like this idea, myself. Then we'd have people who ask a question the next post is a long post written by a professor that gives the perfect answer that no one can debate. The fact that people aren't always right is what makes it fun. Also, I would bet people will shy away from posting becasue they don't want to look like an idiot when the professor comes along and picks apart everything they say.

[Dave]

There is that problem; however, it does bring a certain kind of authority to the forums - at least you know you're going to get an answer.

 

Plus, I don't know a single professor that hasn't made a mistake at least once a lecture, nobody's perfect

[jordan]

True, but I can really see the conversation going:

 

<question>

<"wait for ______">

<"yeah, he'll know">

<"just wait for him">

<"he knows all this stuff">

<lengthy response from professor>

end of thread

[Dave]

Doesn't always happen that way. For example, swansont is pretty knowledgable in the area of physics, and we don't often see threads going that way. People don't always have the time to write a very lengthy reply about something either, but rather just give the jist of the argument.

[fafalone]

Of course when two professors disagree about something, we'd see some really good debating.