New Member Posts

[Phi for All]

I wanted to say welcome to all the new members we've gotten in the last few weeks. There have been quite a few but we haven't heard much from you.

 

Most of you have introduced yourself, and I'd like to make sure all is clear about responding to existing threads and starting new ones of your own. How's it going? Are you finding interesting things to discuss? Do you prefer amphibians to reptiles?

 

Talk to me.

[chucktaylor]

Hi,this is my first post.A thread I would like to post is a question about the possibilities and creative ways to register billiard balls on a billiard table relative to themselves,the rails and the bed.Ultimately every detail and nuance captured and recorded.Maybe some answers would come from engineering-manufacturing or optics,computer science or possibly Astronomy.Maybe even something like medical procedures or devises.Can you make recommendations on where and under which discipline I may post my thread.

Edited March 30, 2010 by chucktaylor
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[Klaynos]

I'd suggest posting it under engineering.

 

p.s. Hi and welcome!

[chucktaylor]

Thank you,that was my first thought.

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I'd suggest posting it under engineering.

 

p.s. Hi and welcome!

 

Thanks for the reply.

Edited March 30, 2010 by chucktaylor
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[cantbesaved]

hi i joined awhile ago, but havent posted much :3

[Phi for All]

hi i joined awhile ago, but havent posted much :3

I'm curious, what's stopping you?

 

Looking at our logs, we get a lot of new joiners who post a few questions and then sort of drift off. I can understand that, you have a question that gets answered and you go back to normal life.

 

But we get quite a lot of people who join, post an intro, then never (or rarely) post again, and I was just wondering if there is something we can do about those folks. It can't be our breath. Is it just that you aren't in the habit yet? Do you post in other forums? Don't you hate people who ask a bunch of questions?

[NZ]

Hi all,

 

I just thought I would comment as I am a newcomer to this forum and say that i think this has to be one of the best forums on the net! I am jealous of the sucess of this forum compared to my own, where I am the only member! haha oh well. I would also like to say, Phi for All, that I believe some new comers (such as some of my friends) are a bit unsure where to start and how to get involved because of the sheer size of the forum and the number of posts that can "drown" you.

 

Just a thought

[toastywombel]

Hi all,

 

I just thought I would comment as I am a newcomer to this forum and say that i think this has to be one of the best forums on the net! I am jealous of the sucess of this forum compared to my own, where I am the only member! haha oh well. I would also like to say, Phi for All, that I believe some new comers (such as some of my friends) are a bit unsure where to start and how to get involved because of the sheer size of the forum and the number of posts that can "drown" you.

 

Just a thought

 

I say the best part to jump right into is science news. If you see something scientific in the news there you go, post it in the science news section (if its not already posted). There are often interesting discussions.

 

I have noticed that there is often some threads that new comers post on, than the regular crowd comes in (I guess I could be considered part of the regular crowd) and the op is often drowned out. I will try to avoid doing/being a part of this from now on.

[NZ]

Thanks for that, will do.

[Phi for All]

I would also like to say, Phi for All, that I believe some new comers (such as some of my friends) are a bit unsure where to start and how to get involved because of the sheer size of the forum and the number of posts that can "drown" you.

 

Just a thought

I remember spending a week just reading when I first came here. Eventually you find something to question, you post, you find out it wasn't a dumb question and folks are pretty cool about answering, and then you work your way up to starting your own thread.

 

So thanks for that, it can be really intimidating. Just remember, you can't break anything and no one is allowed to call you ugly (unless the evidence is incontestable).

[smrj]

hi to all.. i m rida from india..

[Achira]

how to post

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how to be an active member

[divagreen]

I'm curious, what's stopping you?

 

Looking at our logs, we get a lot of new joiners who post a few questions and then sort of drift off. I can understand that, you have a question that gets answered and you go back to normal life.

 

But we get quite a lot of people who join, post an intro, then never (or rarely) post again, and I was just wondering if there is something we can do about those folks. It can't be our breath. Is it just that you aren't in the habit yet? Do you post in other forums? Don't you hate people who ask a bunch of questions?

 

I just tried to post in the philosophy forum, and I could not do so. ('Twill be my second post, after the intro.)

 

Can I not reply to a sticky post? (It was the thread about philosophical reads.)

 

Anyway, just wonderin'.

 

Thanks.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Whoops. I just put up a notice there to explain it.

 

Basically, based on previous experience with philosophy and religion forums (i.e. having to ban lots of people when they got very angry at each other), we've limited the forums to people with a certain number of posts as a kind of quality control.

 

Philosophy requires 30 posts, Religion 50.

 

So far the forums have gone quite well, so we might lower those requirements.

[TheLivingMartyr]

can someone tell me what all these "lepton" or "meson" or "mr.wizard" or "molecule" next to peoples' names mean?

[timo]

They are a standard feature of forum software (though the forums might as well just all use the same software) that assigns "user titles" to members based on whatever parameters, usually the number of post. In the case of this forum, the titles were chosen somewhat scientifically, starting from leptons and quarks (small elementary particles) over mesons and baryons (structures consisting of two or three quarks) to larger and more familiar things like atoms, molecules, dunnowhat. Administrators and moderators can set a title of their choice at will, so "Mr. Wizard" is not an automatic user title but Cap'n Refsmat's delusion of possessing magic powers or a reminder that he can make people disappear.

I'll clean up the banana skins lying around in my office, now.

 

@Michel: I am pretty sure they are simply a measure of the number of posts; no other variable involved (the user names existed long before the reputation system).

[michel123456]

Stupid and inaccurate scale of this forum, intended I suppose to represent the value of the member in relation to the number of posts. There are other scales, you will find out. At your first post, you are a lepton, even if you have a master in astrophysics and 30 years of experience at NASA.

 

Damn.

I forgot.

Welcome, Livingmartyr. You have chosen a pessimist name. Can we call you LM?

Edited May 19, 2010 by michel123456

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I was thinking more of the TV show, but your ideas work just as well...

[TheLivingMartyr]

starting from leptons and quarks (small elementary particles) over mesons and baryons (structures consisting of two or three quarks)

 

I am acquainted with Standard Model, but thankyou for the explanation anyway:D

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Welcome, Livingmartyr. You have chosen a pessimist name. Can we call you LM?

 

you may call me LM. And the name was not specifically in relation to my views towards life, I just thought it sounded cool.

[mooeypoo]

Stupid and inaccurate scale of this forum, intended I suppose to represent the value of the member in relation to the number of posts. There are other scales, you will find out. At your first post, you are a lepton, even if you have a master in astrophysics and 30 years of experience at NASA.

The names represent the user's activity in the *forum*, not necessarily in life.

 

You can be a triple-PhD with five nobel prizes and your activity log will still show your scale as a "Lepton", until you are more active, and the forum scale will upgrade your title.

[JamesNBarnes]

Hello,

 

I was a member of -some- science forum a while back... it may have been this one, i forget! Regardless, I have made my way back, not too sure why, but not sure why i left either. I like the atmosphere here though, there's a reasonable chance of getting a sensible and well constructed answer from a question here

 

I have been working on my perpetual motion machine for a few years now, i managed to crack that particular nut in a weekend. After being started (you can start it by hand with practice) it will continue to accelerate at a fairly linear rate for a few hours until it reaches its maximum speed. At this point it is generating about 2200W.

 

My research in this area has led me to form a new and profound theroy of the universe, its too complex for me to state here, but i think there is a driving force behind life that is beyond anything considered up to this point!

 

What has led me to this conclusion? Well...

 

My perpetual motion engine works flawlessly... except on Thursdays. As soon as midnight passes, the machine starts to slow down and then stops, and it refuses to start again until Friday morning.

 

I never did get the hang of Thursdays.

[rigney]

Moderator, I'm simply trying to get my feet wet quickly. Being 78 years young, I don't expect to be a Yo Yo Ma in the next few weeks or even buy a cello. At the moment my biggest problem is trying to keep logged in when making a post or reply? Seems I'm always running out of time or havent logged in adequately to a specific venue, or forum. I would appreciate any "helllp".

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Moderator, I'm simply trying to get my feet wet quickly. Being 78 years young, I don't expect to be a Yo Yo Ma in the next few weeks or even buy a cello. At the moment my biggest problem is trying to keep logged in when making a post or reply? Seems I'm always running out of time or havent logged into a specific venue, or forum. I would appreciate any "helllp".

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Moderator, I'm simply trying to get my feet wet quickly. Being 78 years young, I don't expect to be a Yo Yo Ma in the next few weeks or even buy a cello. At the moment my biggest problem is trying to keep logged in when making a post or reply? Seems I'm always running out of time or havent logged into a specific venue, or forum. I would appreciate any "helllp".

Edited May 29, 2010 by rigney
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[mooeypoo]

Moderator, I'm simply trying to get my feet wet quickly. Being 78 years young, I don't expect to be a Yo Yo Ma in the next few weeks or even buy a cello. At the moment my biggest problem is trying to keep logged in when making a post or reply? Seems I'm always running out of time or havent logged in adequately to a specific venue, or forum. I would appreciate any "helllp".

 

rigney, it seems like you can post successfully (seeing as you posted here?) if you still get problems, can you tell us which browser and version you're using and what, exactly, you see as an error?

[jackson33]

Originally Posted by rigney

 

Moderator, I'm simply trying to get my feet wet quickly. Being 78 years young, I don't expect to be a Yo Yo Ma in the next few weeks or even buy a cello. At the moment my biggest problem is trying to keep logged in when making a post or reply? Seems I'm always running out of time or havent logged in adequately to a specific venue, or forum. I would appreciate any "helllp". [/Quote]

 

As a young man myself (NOT a moderator), it's simply getting used to the different systems. Here for some reason, if you don't check the "remember me" each time you sign in, by the time you have formed your post, it's forgotten your here. What I do, having gone through these problems and losing written post on a forum, is to form my post on 'word pad' or Jarte Word Processor software, free and can be down loaded online, then COPY and paste onto the forum. Let me know if you want more on this...

[iNow]

If you use the Firefox web browser, they have an add on called Lazarus which will store your forms and allow you to retrieve them when you've gone "dormant" for too long. It's also free.

 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6984/

 

 

Either way, welcome to all newcomers. Thanks for bringing fresh blood and fresh ideas into the community.