How did you discover Physics Forums

[I like Serena]

As a software engineer I had not used my education in math and physics for a long time.
A couple of years ago I started giving private lessons (college+) to fill this gap in my life.

Then I found the puzzle forum below GD and fooled around a bit there.
After a while I branched out and became addicted.

 

[Pythagorean]

Looking for a physics forum on google where people were interested in open discussion.

 

[Pythagorean]

do any mods use physicsforums as "broader impact" or "outreach" on CVs or proposals?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I don't remember how I became aware of PF. My first post was a question concerning Zweibach's "First Course in String Theory". I got excellent help from SelfAdjoint, nrqed and others. SelfAdjoint is no longer with us. Afterwards, nrqed and I passed a large number of e-mails between us because he wrote a book which I read and sent him a list of errata and comments about it.

 

[dlgoff]

Dang Jimmy. You're an old ... like me! Seriously, I remember them well. We're lucky to have found PF. :)

 

[rhody]

That's better, thanks Jimmy, now, how about Zz, and our famous "Citizen of the World", who seems to relish mystery and privacy, maybe he will poke his head out long enough to give us his story as well.

Rhody...

P.S. Evo we are interested in your story as well, if you can break yourself away from your banning gun long enough. And, oh yeah, where is that pesky pengy bird too, probably still complaining about MS and Mr Gates.

 

[harrylin]

When searching for information about quantum mechanics and Bell's Theorem (probably on Google), I found interesting discussions on physicsforums; and when I started to follow those I also noticed a number of questions on other physics topics with which I could help, so I joined.

 

[marcusl]

I found PF while doing a Google search for something long forgotten. I liked its mission and the quality of responses from all of you (and still do). I remember replying to ZZapper's "How did you leam QM" thread and thinking that PF is pretty cool.

 

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

Usually when I search for things physics-related a thread from this site will at least be on the first page a lot of the time.

 

[GabDX]

I was searching for a science related forum. As a physics major, I must say I'm very satisfied with what I have found. :)

 

[arildno]

I think I googled, for some forgotten reason, on "arc length parametrization", and a thread from PF showed.
Since the participants had mired themselves in a pseudo-problem, I joined and made a comment there.

I think..

 

[Evo]

That's better, thanks Jimmy, now, how about Zz, and our famous "Citizen of the World", who seems to relish mystery and privacy, maybe he will poke his head out long enough to give us his story as well.

Rhody...

P.S. Evo we are interested in your story as well, if you can break yourself away from your banning gun long enough. And, oh yeah, where is that pesky pengy bird too, probably still complaining about MS and Mr Gates.

Already did.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=3397757&postcount=7

 

[drizzle]

... I can't remember.

 

[rhody]

Already did.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=3397757&postcount=7

I am so bad, sorry, twitches from a narrow miss with Evo's dumb gun...

Rhody...

 

[physics girl phd]

I came though a google search somehow related to looking for papers or numerical info related to my Ph.D. thesis (hence my user name), and I found homework-helping and general discussion both great procrastination tools. (Sometime in 2006).

As an aside, I DID still successfully defend in October of '06, so I didn't procrastinate TOO much on PF... at least not back then.

 

[MATLABdude]

Not going to lie, I came here because it was billed as being the official forum for Piled Higher and Deeper Comics (PhDComics), which is now relegated to being a sub-sub-sub forum. I've been trying to procrastinate less here whilst trying to finish my thesis (hence my diminishing post frequency) but this place definitely falls into the edu-tainment category for me.

Piled Higher and Deeper Comics--the grad life:
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

 

[KingNothing]

I binged, then I decided.

 

[Redbelly98]

I was tired of the attitude of yahoo answers were people would just expect the answer without working for it. So I searched for math forums on google, and this was the first one I liked

I used to be active in yahoo answers too, and that pretty much ended the day I found PF.

 

[George Jones]

In June 2005, someone familiar with me from sci.physics.research sent me an email about Physics Forums, so I joined, and I stopped posting on sci.physics and sci.physics.research.

Greg sent me an email in September 2001,

Hey there,

I thought you might be interested in visiting physicsforums.com which I have recently announced. You can find and discuss many subjects.

https://www.physicsforums.com

thanks,
Greg

but I ignored it.

 

[rhody]

In June 2005, someone familiar with me from sci.physics.research sent me an email about Physics Forums, so I joined, and I stopped posting on sci.physics and sci.physics.research.

Greg sent me an email in September 2001,

Hey there,

I thought you might be interested in visiting physicsforums.com which I have recently announced. You can find and discuss many subjects.

https://www.physicsforums.com

thanks,
Greg

but I ignored it.

George,

I think it is cool that you kept it, and that you stayed and became a Mentor.

Rhody...

 

[Mépris]

I went on Google and then typed in "physics forums" in the search box. And the rest is history. ;)

 

[rhody]

I went on Google and then typed in "physics forums" in the search box. And the rest is history. ;)

Thy,

Are you kidding or are you serious ? If serious, what were you looking for that prompted you to seek out PF ?

Rhody...

P.S. When I quoted you, some other text came up (not displayed in your post) other than what was shown on the screen. That's why I am asking... It was George Jones original post, enclosed in [][] quote /quote tags, and thus made invisible. That is a first for me, responding to a post with hidden text in it. MODS! (pengy credit given) have a look please...

 

[rhody]

I thought this was appropriate to post Evo's comment here: from the, "We broke the record" thread. Where are these users coming from, are they just lurker's or spiders crawling the site ?

Not trying to hi-jack Greg's thread, but it would be nice to see other folks post here as to how they found us.

7,437!

4,000 in Homework!

Greg, where are these coming from at night?

Rhody...

 

[Borek]

Somewhere in 2005 I was looking for places to promote/get links to my then starting chembuddy site. Forums - especially chemistry related - were a good place, it is not difficult to add a link to related material/software when answering someones question. So initially I was posting just in chemistry, it wasn't till much later that I discovered there are other interesting parts of the PF. At some point I had a small clash with one of the (now ex) Mentors, which put me off for some time, but eventually I got back.

So basically I am a converted spammer

 

[Dembadon]

When I found PF, I had just decided to go back to school and earn a degree. I looking for some advice about the curriculum for a computer engineering degree and what distinguished it from one of its parents, EE. My goals have changed since then, but my appreciation of the help I received hasn't. This was the only place where I felt like I was getting honest, objective answers.

I did some more poking around and discovered that I could learn a lot by making this site not just a part of my education, but also a part of my general intellectual and personal development. I've yet to find a more scientifically minded and helpful community on the internet. PF challenges my biases and has helped me learn how to think for myself, which is something everyone on this planet needs!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

In June 2005, someone familiar with me from sci.physics.research sent me an email about Physics Forums, so I joined, and I stopped posting on sci.physics and sci.physics.research.

Greg sent me an email in September 2001,
but I ignored it.

lol I spammed you! Were you working for a university? Back then colleges still listed professor's emails as text and it was an easy grab

Not trying to hi-jack Greg's thread, but it would be nice to see other folks post here as to how they found us.

I'd say through google search. All those records are being broken around 7-9pm CST. Which is more than likely the time students are done with dinner and starting their homework.

 

[rhody]

I'd say through google search. All those records are being broken around 7-9pm CST. Which is more than likely the time students are done with dinner and starting their homework.

Greg,

That makes sense, which brings up a related issue. Last year I went to a lot of trouble and time to post information in my thread on brain plasticity, because I believed it could benefit others. The idea that a college student would use, paraphrase or plain just copy it and use it for research paper in college has crossed my mind many times. Have you heard stories or been contacted by college professor's who suspect that the student may have used anothers work, in this case my own without giving credit to the originator of the material ?

Rhody...

 

[Evo]

I thought this was appropriate to post Evo's comment here: from the, "We broke the record" thread. Where are these users coming from, are they just lurker's or spiders crawling the site ?

Not trying to hi-jack Greg's thread, but it would be nice to see other folks post here as to how they found us.



Rhody...

They're actual guests, not spiders.

 

[Proton Soup]

referred here by someone on another forum

 

[rhody]

They're actual guests, not spiders.

Thanks Evo, I wanted to make sure they were real people and not bots or spiders of some kind.

Rhody...