Are we top heavy?

[smp]

(09-23-2015 03:43 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  I realize this and I think that the percent of user who have never posted is unimportant. I started this thread only to ask people if they thought we were too intimidating to new members. Instead of seeing a lot of RTFM replies on the General forum maybe we should add a Noob (Newbie, New Members, whatever) forum where new members can get a welcoming reply.

You know, I'm a "new guy," and I've tried to identify myself as that in my posts. I have received some responses pointing out where to go in the manual - but not in the vein of RTFM. These were specific pointers that assisted me greatly, as I struggle to navigate the 600+ page manual. That's a significant amount of material to browse, and these pointers have been very helpful to me. I think folks here have tried hard to help the new guy, and I've not felt intimidated, except as I have brought it on myself, thinking a bit too much about the great number of very smart folks who reside here on this forum.

I've been a member of forums in the past where the residents seem to love to pounce on newbies and spit out their RTFM one-liners. That is definitely *not* how I would describe my experience here.

Thanks.

smp

[anetzer]

(09-23-2015 03:43 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  I started this thread only to ask people if they thought we were too intimidating to new members.

I'd consider myself a newbie in this forum (and on the matter of it) and although I do visit regularly I try to keep posts at a minimum. I guess it's a question of basic courtesy not to offload one's uninformed opinion onto every thread.

I also need to say I have never seen an online forum that had as perfectly good manners as this one. People don't shout, they rarely digress. Even personal conflicts are usually dealt with in good humor and in a respectful way.

But what's most important: Even the "gods" of this forum are very very understanding and helpful even when I ask very stupid and newish questions. I was amazed, how willing people where to go at great lengths to answer dilettante questions, dig in their bookshelves or send things to an unknown stranger, trusting them to return everything in good an proper order.

I guess that is what makes this forum special and you should not be too concerned if we rookies don't constantly pipe in with unnecessary "Me too..." posts.

You may safely assume that most of us are just very very thankful that you are there, all of you!

a.

[smp]

(09-25-2015 05:24 PM)anetzer Wrote:  You may safely assume that most of us are just very very thankful that you are there, all of you!

Very well said!

smp

[Thomas Klemm]

(09-23-2015 03:43 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  I started this thread only to ask people if they thought we were too intimidating to new members.

These are three cases I remember where it appears that we lost a new member:

daisyclover18
He started a thread with a question about: HP17bII+ Programming t-distribution. The first answers didn't work. I assume that he never saw my solution since his last visit was before my post. So why did he leave? I have no idea.

tigger
He started 14 threads between 2015-07-24 and 2015-09-06. When I replied to his 3rd thread I wasn't sure if he was trolling. But later I realised that he was really struggling with basics. He got nice answers and this resulted in more threads. Until his last question about rad, grad, deg when he was told:

Quote:you really should research there before asking these kind of questions

Did he leave because of this? Or did he start working with the manuals and thus no further questions came up?
Are we intimidating when we point out How To Ask Questions The Smart Way? Or can we really assume that "new members aren't necessarily sissys"?
I agree with Bill:

Quote:From my point of view, many times an "in the manual" question results in a dialog in the forum that leads to a very interesting discussion on other aspects of the "in the manual" question. The end result is that I learn new aspects that I never was aware of.

MarkHaysHarris777
Joined: 19.01.2015
Last Visit: 30.04.2015 22:44
Total Posts: 334
This poster's frequent "stream of consciousness" (bewusstseinsstrom?) posting style was not well received.
It was asked to limit the number of posts per day because of him.
Asking questions that were answered in a manual would lead to: "Advantage to those who can read".
I must admit that even I once gave hime a snide reply: Yeah, yeah, ... On the other hand his statement wasn't exactly bright.
But then out of the blue no more posts. No updates of his projects. Nada.
I don't think that we have expelled him but honestly I don't have a clue why he left.

To answer your question: I don't think we're intimidating to new members. And even if this happens others usually chime in and put it into perspective.

Kind regards
Thomas

[Thomas Radtke]

Mark might have changed his interests after getting into the Raspberry Pi and electronics. There's only so much time to spend for a hobby. After getting back to running, I also find myself looking at the Today's Posts listing once a day at most, when I actively participated in interesting topics frequently before. Quality has suffered, too :-(.

[ggauny@live.fr]

Dear Madam,

For me, i would like write on the forum because i have many programs, but (as all people can see) my english langage is so approximative then i am afraid to write.

I regret now not have inaph learned in english class room when young. At this time i only go in english class to see the teatcher that she was so pretty, not to learn !!!

gérard

[Katie Wasserman]

(10-11-2015 07:00 AM)ggauny@live.fr Wrote:  Dear Madam,

For me, i would like write on the forum because i have many programs, but (as all people can see) my english langage is so approximative then i am afraid to write.

I regret now not have inaph learned in english class room when young. At this time i only go in english class to see the teatcher that she was so pretty, not to learn !!!

gérard

I think that most of us here are patient and will try hard to understand whatever you write about. Given that most of our topics are about HP calculators it's not hard to figure out what you're saying. Post as often as you'd like, we'll ask if we don't understand.

[Guenter Schink]

(09-25-2015 05:24 PM)anetzer Wrote:  

(09-23-2015 03:43 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  I started this thread only to ask people if they thought we were too intimidating to new members.

I'd consider myself a newbie in this forum (and on the matter of it) and although I do visit regularly I try to keep posts at a minimum. I guess it's a question of basic courtesy not to offload one's uninformed opinion onto every thread.

I also need to say I have never seen an online forum that had as perfectly good manners as this one. People don't shout, they rarely digress. Even personal conflicts are usually dealt with in good humor and in a respectful way.

But what's most important: Even the "gods" of this forum are very very understanding and helpful even when I ask very stupid and newish questions. I was amazed, how willing people where to go at great lengths to answer dilettante questions, dig in their bookshelves or send things to an unknown stranger, trusting them to return everything in good an proper order.

I guess that is what makes this forum special and you should not be too concerned if we rookies don't constantly pipe in with unnecessary "Me too..." posts.

You may safely assume that most of us are just very very thankful that you are there, all of you!

a.

Although somewhat late, I think a "me too" is in order here

Günter, more lurking than contributing

[BobVA]

(09-17-2015 04:59 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  There are currently 32 senior members (300 posts or more) and they account for 45% or all posts. 32 members is almost exactly 1% of total members.

I'm just curious: is there any significant change to the statistics if the Prime forum is excluded?

[Katie Wasserman]

(10-18-2015 09:19 PM)BobVA Wrote:  I'm just curious: is there any significant change to the statistics if the Prime forum is excluded?

I have no idea. I just computed some simple statistics based on the number of posts for each user. Your query would require access to the database storing the posts and only Dave has that.

[BruceH]

(09-24-2015 05:43 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  I would hope that we're not intimidating to new members...

Says the person who uses as her forum picture a photo of a white-hot branding iron poised to sear the flesh of any errant TI user who should wander in.

Yep. Perfectly friendly.
;-))

[d b]

(10-20-2015 11:12 PM)BruceH Wrote:  ............any errant TI user who should wander in.

TI users? Here?
Hang 'em high.

[Katie Wasserman]

(10-20-2015 11:12 PM)BruceH Wrote:  Says the person who uses as her forum picture a photo of a white-hot branding iron poised to sear the flesh of any errant TI user who should wander in.

Hmm...., it does sort of look like a branding iron. Is that all it takes to scare away the TI riff-raff, wimps!

[Kevin Ouellet]

Scaring away TI fans did work in the past... at the expense of HP Museum. Those TI fans came here in late 2013 or early 2014 (on the old forums) because they took interest in HP Prime programming since it offered more freedom than TI did with the TI-Nspire. But then some HP fans started generalizing and mocking the TI community as a whole and the result is that TI fans who joined here all moved their HP Prime discussion to TI forums until HP fans stopped singling the entire TI programming community out.

[walter b]

Just my 20m€ in addition to what's written here so far:

(09-17-2015 04:59 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  Thinking that I usually see the same members posting, I just ran some quick statistics to see how top heavy we are. There are currently 32 senior members (300 posts or more) and they account for 45% or all posts. 32 members is almost exactly 1% of total members.

Looking at the distribution, "we" are very bottom heavy, aren't we? So much about this subject.

Quote:Should we be concerned that we don't have a more egalitarian forum?

Yes, the moderators should.

Nothing more to be said about this topic from my side.

[rprosperi]

(10-30-2015 04:01 AM)walter b Wrote:  Just my 20m€ in addition to what's written here so far:

(09-17-2015 04:59 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  Thinking that I usually see the same members posting, I just ran some quick statistics to see how top heavy we are. There are currently 32 senior members (300 posts or more) and they account for 45% or all posts. 32 members is almost exactly 1% of total members.

Looking at the distribution, "we" are very bottom heavy, aren't we? So much about this subject.

Quote:Should we be concerned that we don't have a more egalitarian forum?

Yes, the moderators should.

Nothing more to be said about this topic from my side.

Welcome back Walter.

[Vtile]

Hello,

To shed some light why I'm here now while not HP collector is that I had a problem with HP calculator (50g) and this place seems to be a gathering place of HP calc masterminds. I'm not afraid to ask and say my opinion, those times are long gone. These days I just lift my elbows higher depending how small the gathering is.

LV

[Gerald H]

Ha! Just had a brainwave to solve the "problem" - all senior members should resign from the Forum &, if they so wished, rejoin, possibly under a pseudonym & obviously with junior member status, & boost the postings from junior members.

[Katie Wasserman]

(10-31-2015 05:29 PM)Gerald H Wrote:  Ha! Just had a brainwave to solve the "problem" - all senior members should resign from the Forum &, if they so wished, rejoin, possibly under a pseudonym & obviously with junior member status, & boost the postings from junior members.

Or we could just treat the postings count like we're playing golf, lower scores are better! I think that some of us seniors like to chat too much.

[Gerald H]

Bit of a hitch with my brainwave - I can't see how to resign membership!?

Am I convicted to be a member forever?