has PF gone lame?

Ryan_m_b

Welcome to the forums. The following post is said in the spirit of clearing up this issue, if at any point you feel it is a personal attack please bear in mind that this is not how it was intended.

You seem to have a series of misunderstandings about how PF operates. This is probably due to your negligible engagement and seeming ignorance as to the rules. If PF isn't for you and you would like something with more crackpottery then you're sure to find many sites that provide that. If you want sites that allow you to develop scientific hypotheses then great, best of luck with that (though as a warning the latter tends to come hand in hand with the former).

With regards to your welcome here...surely you see the irony of acting the way you are and then attempting to take the intellectual and etiquette high ground as it were? Looking at the replies below I don't see anything indicative of that. In fact I see someone who comes across as arrogant and ignorant; not someone who wishes to impart feedback on why they aren't particularly attracted to a service (for a start you don't even display anything that indicates that you've thought about whether or not this service is for you).

As Greg said it works two ways. We are more than happy to welcome people to the forums, even a cursory search (especially in GD introductory threads) will show that there are a multitude of members here who are courteous and kind and really try hard to welcome new members into the community. At the same time being rude, demonstrably uninformed and acting quite childish is not something deserved of a warm welcome*.

As I said above if this forum isn't for you and you don't want to participate then I (and others) will sincerely wish you all the best in finding somewhere more to your liking. If you have feedback on how the site can improve in meeting its stated aims then that would be welcome to. But if this is a case of getting off on the wrong foot and you genuinely do want to use this site for the reason it is intended (the teaching and discussion of mainstream science) then I'm sure we can put this behind us and start again.

The choice now is yours.

* If you genuinely have trouble identifying what behaviour has expressed this then please see below where I have highlighted prominent examples.

mathwonk

absolutely! we have become totally lame! any other questions? i hope i have helped.

lisab

I adore you, mathwonk .

Gad

Would you accept this wolfmeister? It's a wolf fish, it's really great that it'll open up your mind..

harrylin

I brought up the same in a recent thread here (http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=633682); but I referred to the fact that some people do give the good example, which I also try to follow.

How can it be that your post counter counts zero posts, while I count several posts?!

@Ryan_m_b : Yes indeed!

Ryan_m_b

Posts in the lounge do not count.

harrylin

I had not noticed that the counter has a different function than just counting the number of posts on this site. Do members get a reward at a certain number of physics-related posts?

Doc Al

Of course. Hope you like fish.

jtbell

Hint - If you don't "get" Doc Al's joke, do a search for the word "fish" in the General Discussion forum.

(I've seen you around a lot, but don't remember seeing you in GD much if at all.)

Ryan_m_b

Nope, post counts are nothing more than a count of posts in the technical forums.

In terms of rewards/types of account we have:

- Gold memberships that can be paid for or earned through Project PF Proliferation.

- Science Advisor medals awarded through nomination and consensus by current SAs and mentors for demonstrably high scientific knowledge used to significantly contribute to the site

- Homework Helper medals are similar to SAs but for homework

- Mentors are selected by other mentors for contribution to the site in terms of not only scientific knowledge but community spirit

- Admins are selected by Greg to work in the server mines 25/8 to keep the site functional

- Annual awards are awarded via member nomination and voting each winter for a variety of topics

harrylin

Yes, most of the time I have also been a huge fan of this site, and the discussions have both helped me and allowed me to help others a lot. However, I did not notice much change over the almost 2 yrs; and I certainly see no reason for your suggestion that PF has gone lame. And neither did I see evidence that the direction of this site changed for the better.

Very recently the suggestion was given and accepted to add more precise motivations/explanations for locking to already locked threads, but it is unclear if that suggestion is put into practice.
- http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=4062887

BTW there are for me more important issues with this site (mentioned in that same thread), but those are far away from your topic.

harrylin

I found a lot of jokes on Newbees, but still don't have clue - now I feel like a newbee.
And yeah I rarely come here or there because those are hidden beneath the bottom of my screen and I can't keep up with the science discussions anyway!
Thanks for that great summary!

harrylin

PS: the main issue I had concerned ethics and I was at the point of abandoning PF because of it. However, just now PF is measurably improving on that for me essential point. Thanks folks!

Borek

Interesting. As far as I can tell nothing has changed on our side, we use exactly the same set of rules we used before.

harrylin

Rules are merely an incentive for conduct. The use of the same rules doesn't guarantee the same application, which is subject to the discretion of the Mentors. In general, rules can be differently interpreted, bent, not applied, unfairly applied, or inconsistently applied*. For a negative example, see Russia; and for a so-so example, see Wikipedia. Anyway, that is again another topic. In my experience (which is of course just a sample) PF certainly has not "gone lame".

*addendum: moreover rules do not (and cannot!) regulate all possible conduct - for example the guidelines do not require fair (honest) presentation of facts.

dimension10

A search engine. You can write anything in the search box.

Byron Chen

I doubt doing this will get you any of the above. You can view things positively or negatively. From your record of number of posts, all you have done here in the forum is complain? I am not an experienced member here, I only joined months ago. However I find lots of threads NOT locked and the ones locked are crackpot (crackpot as in, since you are wondering, are contents that have no support beyond scientific standards). I feel welcomed to the forums and the moderators are friendly enough. Check yourself, lots of replies from the old hands to the new ones start with "Welcome to PF". I don't know what you are complaining about.