Types of PF Posters - Identify Which Is You?

[micromass]

Anything I've missed? Which one do you identify with?

The professor
These are among the most knowledgeable posters on the forum. They rarely start any threads, but the love answering them. But when anybody corrects them, all hell breaks loose on the thread!

The politician
These love to argue in the politics section. They rarely post outside it though. If you post anything remotely political, you must have ran into them.

The social birds
These love talking about nothing and everything in the general discussion section. Everybody loves them.

The administrator
They tend to keep low and only appear when they are called. Simply typing @Greg Bernhardt summons them.

The over-ambitious student
They are often too ambitious for their knowledge. You recognize them by threads asking for help on problems in Jackson while they are currently in a trig class.

The crackpot
They appear once in a while, but aren't as numerous here as they once were. The administrators keep them out.

The confused student
The more you help them, the more they get confused. Can lash out when they aren't helped in 10 minutes time.

The science amateur
They're interested in science, and love to read up on new things. But they lack the will to study it formally.

The lurker
Just reads. Never talks.

The good student
Asks for help in a nice way. Threads are always very structured and informative. People love helping them. They are a rare breed.

The lazy student
Don't bother to learn LaTeX. Posts pictures with vague unreadable handwriting (and often the pictures are upside down). Expects to get the full solution quickly. Often doesn't reply again.

 

[fresh_42]

Oh, there is an important class missing. The ones who throw up their question here (unedited, photos which have to be turned if readable at all, and so on) assuming all work would be done magically by a well-minded naive person and eventually never be seen again.

 

[micromass]

Right, I'll add it. Thanks.

 

[ProfuselyQuarky]

None of the above. Though @phinds accused me of being a troll the first day I joined

I like it when all hell breaks loose on a thread.

 

[micromass]

Though @phinds accused me of being a troll the first day I joined

It's his way of saying welcome.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I perceive there to be definite types, but I would have created a completely different classification system.

 

[phinds]

You left out the cranky old guy category where I belong.

 

[Psinter]

I have never been accused of being a troll ever in any forum I have been. I just happen to like funny stuff. And cute stuff. I mean, cute stuff will be cute.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Micromass, you are ignoring me! I'll tell you something when you tell me something. You haven't said which one you are.

Thread locked until then. No wait... better. Psinter's reply reserved until then.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

I probably reside somewhere between the professor and science amateur. Undergraduate work gets boring quickly, but I'm no where near as knowledgeable as those in graduate school, which I don't plan on doing until my daughter gets older. It's as if I'm teetering on the edge.

 

[Pepper Mint]

I share with each class some bits and don't know which one I am belonging to now. Sometimes I lurk, and am a crackpot etc. But I think I like social birds.

 

[1oldman2]

Don't forget "The Im-poster" category.

 

[Drakkith]

You left out the cranky old guy category where I belong.

Seconded.

 

[ShayanJ]

The good student
Asks for help in a nice way. Threads are always very structured and informative. People love helping them. They are a rare breed.

Its too good to include me, but looks like its the only choice!

 

[beamie564]

How do I say I'm a lurker without posting??

 

[Drakkith]

How do I say I'm a lurker without posting??

Like trying to observe the path of a photon, it cannot be done.

 

[Psinter]

You forgot this kind of poster. I don't have a name for it, but I admit falling prey of it:

Although it's not exclusive from here. It happens in nearly all places of the internet where individuals can comment.

However, if you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, you have:

Spoiler: Bigger Picture

 

[Ben Niehoff]

I'm somewhere between Professor and Lurker. If someone posts an interesting question that is not already too bogged down with replies, and it looks like I can actually help by writing a very short response without having them come back with a billion more questions, then maybe I'll respond. But only if I don't have to write out more than a line or two of LaTeX. :P

 

[jtbell]

There's also the Crusading Nitpicker, who has strong opinions about how a certain topic should be taught or described, and voices those opinions in every thread that even tangentially mentions that topic. He usually specializes in one specific topic.

 

[fresh_42]

@Psinter Although you are right and I like the picture very much, it's a little bit unfair.

From a poster's point of view the whole world is condensed in his question and it seems clear, that anybody of those "established physicists" had read his books, too, and knows his terminology for certain.
Of course this isn't always the case and you have to find out a lot of "meta-stuff": level of knowledge, understanding, sometimes age, notations as the choice of variables, goal (short term as well as long term), sometimes mood of all parties involved and probably some more.

With respect to this, I found and find PF astonishingly helpful and serious. Even on subjects, that are not automatically physical or mathematical.

 

[jackwhirl]

I am a hybrid.
Or maybe a chimera.
Social-Amateur.

 

[Psinter]

@Psinter Although you are right and I like the picture very much, it's a little bit unfair.

From a poster's point of view the whole world is condensed in his question and it seems clear, that anybody of those "established physicists" had read his books, too, and knows his terminology for certain.
Of course this isn't always the case and you have to find out a lot of "meta-stuff": level of knowledge, understanding, sometimes age, notations as the choice of variables, goal (short term as well as long term), sometimes mood of all parties involved and probably some more.

With respect to this, I found and find PF astonishingly helpful and serious. Even on subjects, that are not automatically physical or mathematical.

I agree that sometimes it is helpful.

My opinion is that it's not unfair because I'm not frowning down on it. Just laughing at it and not in a negative mocking way. Laughing in the sort of way that one laughs at oneself from time to time. Straying from the point happens very often. It's sort common in human conversations. And I agree with you that it is sometimes helpful to stray from the point to show a bigger picture and concepts that are important into the discussion of a subject at hand.

It happens to me from time to time and it's not until I take a step back that I realize I went off topic.

I mean, do you remember when the United States president of 1888 said that... argh! I went off topic again.

 

[Drakkith]

@Psinter, your picture is hilarious!

 

[fresh_42]

@Psinter, your picture is hilarious!

Seems there is a need for a new badge: inclination value.

 

[Drakkith]

Seems there is a need for a new badge: inclination value.

Not sure I get the joke.

 

[Pepper Mint]

Simply one main person can work in in 2 or more classes. If e.g Evo sits up there and watches him, she'll recognize only one and so she is making a mistake in case he masks himself. She may have to figure out a way to get all classes he is a member of.
This I think is a difficult part that people may misunderstand easily.

 

[fresh_42]

Not sure I get the joke.

But I'm not quite sure whether the label should be "for real" or "for what the poster thinks it has to be".

 

[1oldman2]

View attachment 103977

But I'm not quite sure whether the label should be "for real" or "for what the poster thinks it has to be".

Its like a Feynman diagram for intellect !

 

[axmls]

Anyone who has roamed the academic guidance section has seen the indecisive. These are soon-to-be high school graduates who have two possible callings in life: they can't decide between engineering practical devices for industry, and studying 37-dimensional hyperbolic superstring time-travel theory, as if there's nothing in between the two.

 

[fresh_42]

Anyone who has roamed the academic guidance section has seen the indecisive. These are soon-to-be high school graduates who have two possible callings in life: they can't decide between engineering practical devices for industry, and studying 37-dimensional hyperbolic superstring time-travel theory, as if there's nothing in between the two.

That reminds me on some strategies which could often be observed when I was at the university. I used to call it academic triple jump.

Folks started to study micro economics, business.
Until - oops - "Where does all the math come from?" And usually it has been some basic statistics and interest rate calculations.
So they changed towards macro economics, national economics.
Until - oops - "There is even more math!?" And this time some serious calculus has been involved.
In the end, they all ended up trying some jurisprudence.

 

[QuantumQuest]

I think I reside in the science amateur category with a non - amateur label for CS (upper undergrad to grad line), but amateur to my other interests in Physics, with some deviance to that I study formal textbooks all the time. Also I touch a little - maybe not too little , to phinds category.

 

[Lisa!]

No poll to vote?
Anyway I can't identify myself with any of the mentioned types

 

[Mondayman]

I spent around 18 months lurking PF before I made an account, so I suppose that makes me a lurker.

 

[RonL]

Holding in the crackpot slot for over ten years, needs a special theme song

 

[OmCheeto]

Holding in the crackpot slot for over ten years, needs a special theme song

shhhh!

You're not supposed to tell them, that we infiltrated

ps. I would classify us as autodidacts: "We don't know nothin', but this sciencey stuff sure is interesting".
pps. Not sure about you, but I also suffer from attention deficit disorder. Every time an interesting question pops up, here at the forum, I have to do a stinkin' experiment to see how it works, for myself. I don't trust anybody.

 

[RonL]

shhhh!

You're not supposed to tell them, that we infiltrated

ps. I would classify us as autodidacts: "We don't know nothin', but this sciencey stuff sure is interesting".
pps. Not sure about you, but I also suffer from attention deficit disorder. Every time an interesting question pops up, here at the forum, I have to do a stinkin' experiment to see how it works, for myself. I don't trust anybody.

You have me correctly pegged in every way, I just can't stay focused long enough to do any experiments.

 

[OmCheeto]

You have me correctly pegged in every way, I just can't stay focused long enough to do any experiments.

Just make sure, that if you do start experimenting, that it's an electric, and not a gas oven, when you stick your head in there.

 

[RonL]

Just make sure, that if you do start experimenting, that it's an electric, and not a gas oven, when you stick your head in there.

I have been keeping up with your posts and am in awe of how much of a rocket scientist you have become, I am going to take your word on the oven experiments you have done. I wonder if the black rock would get hotter than 196 F in the middle east ?

 

[OmCheeto]

I have been keeping up with your posts and am in awe of how much of a rocket scientist you have become, I am going to take your word on the oven experiments you have done. I wonder if the black rock would get hotter than 196 F in the middle east ?

The "black rock" was a "back of napkin" type thing: 1000 watts/m²
I later recalculated, with more realistic numbers, and came up with something around 220°F.

 

[Kevin McHugh]

Its like a Feynman diagram for intellect !

Yes, I find my antithoughts going back in time frequently