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Ben

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Moderation Note: this post was moved from: 20579

 

OK here's a question nobody wants asked, I guess.

 

What sort of forum would have a moron like TheBigDog as a moderator?

 

I grant it is possible (but unlikely, perhaps) that he knows **** loads of stuff in some area or other, but it is certainly not in mathematics and probably not in physics either. So why does he post his authoritative-sounding insanity in sub-fora where he clearly has not even the most basic knowledge?

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When I was younger (much younger!) I had a lot of bright ideas about all sorts of things. It goes with an enquiring mind and a scientific bent. I would work the stuff out carefully and then show it to an expert. A teacher, an author, a university professor...

 

Every one of those ideas were either (a) wrong or (:doh: old.

 

The experts were uniformly supportive. They showed me where I was going wrong, suggested further reading and so on. I took their advice gratefully.

 

Now we have the internet. A bright kid can find a forum like this and post the bright idea. I've been here a year or so, and find the members and staff to be very like the experts I used to pester - kind, supportive, helpful.

 

Occasionally, though, they encounter somebody who is convinced they're right. So convinced that they don't need to read any of the links provided, or even the careful replies to their posts. It's frustrating - you try every way you can think of to get through, but it bounces straight off that hidebound certainty.

 

What to do next? Get angry? I've seen quite a bit of "testiness" around here, but mostly it's kept polite. The other way of dealing with the problem is with humour. TheBigDog's post was a classic - countering mathematical weirdness with mathematical craziness. I don't often laugh out loud reading this forum, outside of the "Quality Jokes and Humor" thread, but that post appealed to me at least as much as it appalled Ben.

 

I'd say the staff here have earned the right to a bit of fun, especially if they share it with the rest of us. As it says right at the top of the page: Hypography - Making Science Social.

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What sort of forum would have a moron like TheBigDog as a moderator?

I’m tempted to quip back with some witticism about anyone exceeding some threshold of measurable intelligence and common sense knowing better than to accept the unpaid and often thankless duties of a forum moderator, but will restrain myself, as I think you are, as you put it in the original thread, “missing the ‘tongue in cheek’” of Bill’s (TheBigDog’s) post.

 

Bill’s post is a parody of the sort of obfuscated, BS-riddled pseudo-math we citizens of the internet are assailed with daily. Why I recognized that, while you, Ben, apperantly didn’t, is because I readily recalled many posts in which he demonstrated a sound grasp of math. Had I not recalled that, I might have been tipped off by his post’s style, which struck me in a hard-to-describe way as that of parody, or the incongruity of it’s beyond-bad math and sound grammar and spelling. Folk who seriously rant about such subjects as the unfairness of the math “establishment” depriving the masses of their right to divide by zero or allow [math]\pi[/math] to be a rational number tend, in my experience, to do so in noticeably peculiar English.

 

Ben, I think you should make the mildly embarrassing admission that you took seriously an attempt at humor, and apologize to Bill for calling him a moron (hey, read the site rules – we’re officially not supposed to call even the obviously moronic morons, or any of a plethora of amusing but impolite descriptors). :naughty:

 

:scratchchin: Unless you are parodying someone taking parody seriously, in which case I’m the one failing to recognize parody, in which case ... no, I don’t think this is the case – you’re using too few words and no glaring or subtle absurdities to be parodying. ;)

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...as I think you are, as you put it in the original thread, “missing the ‘tongue in cheek’” of Bill’s (TheBigDog’s) post.

 

I think you missed the mark on that link. It looks like you typed 276311 rather than 276331... I'd just like to say... anyone who can mistake a 3 for a 1 is clearly the most god-awful mathematician who has no business moderating the physics and mathematics forum :doh:

 

~modest :)

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That's too bad, Ben. I have enjoyed your posts.

 

There are 2 possible reasons for your bewilderment here. You either don't understand or appreciate a tongue in cheek parody, or you don't understand how Bill's post accomplishes such a thing. The former comes from life experience and an appreciation probably cannot be garnered through explanation. The latter is attainable through knowledge of Guadalupe's post history. Toward that goal two relevant threads have been proffered:

Judging by the time between posting of these links and posting the OP I judge you have read neither. No moderator or member of this board can make you examine the post history and discover what everyone else seems to know.

 

In short, your parting is regretted as being percipitaed from a misunderstanding, but that misunderstanding cannot be emended by the staff.

 

~modest

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Hmmm... Maybe I should add a disclaimer next time.

 

[zany parody of mathematical gibberish] 1 + A = :P [/zany parody of mathematical gibberish] (Champagne Ogre)

 

The characters represented in this post are purely fictional and don't represent any forum members past of present.

 

lliB

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Have you considered your own advice?

 

I am not charged with representing the site, and enforcing the rules in a manner which makes the experience of contributors here more enjoyable.

I am not charged with helping discussion threads move forward productively and moderating the contributions to them so threads remain positive and on-track.

I am not charged with being even handed and consistent in my approach to members.

I am not charged with making Hypography a place to which people wish to return.

 

[EDIT]

Not to mention the fact that I'm not the person who just offended a member, and caused a relatively bright contributor to have no further desire to participate here... Then, on top of it... instead of manning up and apologizing... offering an olive branch... instead of trying to mend fences... Bill made yet another post with the same tone and of the same condescending nature... demonstrating with abundant clarity just how little the experience of others here matters to him, and how little he cares about the perceptions of those who contribute here, their desire to engage in serious discussions, and how unimportant it is to him to try keeping threads on topic. Bill did that... not me.

[/EDIT]

 

 

However, despite the fact that I am merely a regular member here, not someone entrusted to staff the site, the answer to your question is, yes. I've frequently considered my own advice, both of my own accord and also at the request of site staff, but often the cost/benefit analysis makes clear that sometimes a sincere comment which is both authentic and valid is worth sharing a bit bluntly to get ones point across.

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I am not charged with representing the site, and enforcing the rules in a manner which makes the experience of contributors here more enjoyable.

I am not charged with helping discussion threads move forward productively and moderating the contributions to them so threads remain positive and on-track.

I am not charged with being even handed and consistent in my approach to members.

I am not charged with making Hypography a place to which people wish to return.

 

This much is obvious.

[EDIT]

Not to mention the fact that I'm not the person who just offended a member, and caused a relatively bright contributor to have no further desire to participate here... Then, on top of it... instead of manning up and apologizing... offering an olive branch... instead of trying to mend fences... Bill made yet another post with the same tone and of the same condescending nature... demonstrating with abundant clarity just how little the experience of others here matters to him, and how little he cares about the perceptions of those who contribute here, their desire to engage in serious discussions, and how unimportant it is to him to try keeping threads on topic. Bill did that... not me.

[/EDIT]

Right.

However, despite the fact that I am merely a regular member here, not someone entrusted to staff the site, the answer to your question is, yes. I've frequently considered my own advice, both of my own accord and also at the request of site staff, but often the cost/benefit analysis makes clear that sometimes a sincere comment which is both authentic and valid is worth sharing a bit bluntly to get ones point across.

 

An authentic and valid point requires nothing of bluntness, but I wouldn't discount insecurity.

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Oh, come on, guys. This thread was clearly started due to a misunderstanding. Why the need for this continuous bitching?

 

Bill, INow, I propose the following:

 

Each of you give us your co-ordinates. We will map it, and we will give you the co-ordinates for a nasty bar with a big alleyway in the back that is as close as possible to the exact midpoint between your points of origin.

 

We will set a date.

 

We will set a time.

 

You both arrive, get in the bar, and drink until you've either came to an amicable agreement or not, in which case the operation is moved to said alleyway in the back, where you will proceed to whack the living snot out of each other until there is only one man standing. All weapons are allowable, if cleared with the referee first.

 

So - until we've got your co-ordinates and organized the first Hypo Smackdown, please keep this unnecessary bitching out of the forums. Or keep it at PM level, at least. It serves absolutely no purpose.

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