Where Have all the Posters Gone?

Per Pete Seeger, they've gone to the same place .."all the flowers and young men.." have gone.

There certainly was a learning curve associated with the internet that I believe has subsided a bit, and seems to have leveled off.....more and more people are comfortable using search engines and have learned which sites they find interesting and helpful....a lot of the questions and problems we get here have been answered many times and can be found by searching the site...plus there are more engineering sites that have sprung up here and there as well as sites like Quora that sort of answer any questions....So when you search the internet for a question the search engine links directly to that page, and people come and go without ever reaching or commenting on the incoming questions...at least that's my take...

Solar Eagle-

Thank you for your reply. Your comments to my questions make a lot of sense. Now that you have jogged my mind I too must say that I do much of the same things you are talking about.

Again, thank you for taking the time for your answer.

Good Luck, Old Salt

We did have somebody looking for you the other day about advice on buying a catamaran vs a mono hull for sailing the coast of Africa I think....Don't know if you have any first hand knowledge sailing cats, but ...

https://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/127457/Sailing-Yachts

For myself, fighting through the spam puts me off. I check in every day but rarely find anything new and interesting.

I assume most members don’t require a magic weight loss potion. I could do with losing a few pounds but not £’s.

We hate the spam too! We actually continue to fine tune filters and get new tools to fight spam. It is just that CR4 is the lowest priority on the development team's agenda. And each spam post needs to be manually removed.

On another note: Why do they persist? What is in it for them?

Given the task at hand, I think admin. does an excellent job of spam killing.

What's in it for them? Spamming forums is a lucrative business. The spam mechanics are highly automated and cheap, and some percentage of forum users will bite and click on the bait. It doesn't matter that any product gets sold. The spammers get paid on the amount of clicks generated.

Plus, they have automated analysis software that determines the return on their efforts. If users would quit nibbling on the spam and generating profits, it would soon go away to greener pastures.

Having studied human nature I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Hooker

My guess is that the last of the Cavaliers that wouldn't start finally got sent to the scrap yard.

But seriously, SolarEagle's explanation sounds viable. As for me, it's the season. I'm spending more time outside now that the weather's getting nicer. Means there's less time to poke around CR4 and the internet in general.

Can confirm. We definitely see a summer slump.

We think people are more likely to spend their lunch breaks or otherwise outside. No data to prove that, though.

Great to see you back! As someone else noted, you have been missed.

CR4 management knows that traffic's down, and we're open to serious suggestions for bringing people back and adding new ones. I've noticed that some folks who joined at least a decade ago and who still weren't at Guru level have started posting. That seems like a good thing.

I'm sure almost everybody here gets involved in projects from time to time that takes all of their attention for a time...I know I spent an entire year renovating a sailboat a while back, as well as lesser projects over the years...a few I've shared on here....

G'day SE, can you put in a link to this thread please?

Here's some memories ...

https://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/18939/Want-to-See-Your-Project-Featured-on-CR4

Nice.

Thanks for the link. It was an interesting read. I particularly liked the wood work. Your curly grained wood you used in the guitar is very similar to a Western Australian wood called She Oak ( casuarina ).

The japanese tea table is just awesome.

Do you do wood turning?

Jim

No I'm not set up for it yet...I do plan to get a lathe in the future...Soon as I finish building my shop...I just bought this place and still have a lot of work to do....Most of my woodworking stuff is in storage...Moving is such a hassle...Yes the curly maple as we call it is beautiful...the guitar is ash with the quilted maple veneer...

finished...

Nice detail...

This is Black Velvet, another project I did...

I like your workmanship.

I have just returned from a trip down south around Walpole and Denmark ( S.W.Aust ) and for the first time seen a giant Tingle tree. It has a Bole 8m across. It has been eaten out by fire several times in its 400 yr life. The wood is similar to Cal. Redwood.

Jim

I disagree that "the "classic" way is to reply to a question (with no other comment) just by posting a link with the reply.... and immediately unsubscribing."

I say that posting a link is the best way to supply information to someone who is unknowing and refuses to search for an answer themselves. At least that indicates that the responder is sending useful, on-topic information and not just their personal opinion.

As to unsubscribing, no one here is obligated to remain at the beck and call of a hapless poster only to realize that the OP left two days ago after they saw the posted links!

You would have done better to post this directly to the mods than to announce your dissatisfaction to the full forum..

Maybe a little dramatic but essentially an on point post.

Personal opinions (which are mostly based on experience) are where most of the knowledge lies...imho.

I think this is a good forum, and maybe as a result, has a little personality as well.

How about the "what did the supplier say during the phone call?" guys? Have you tried the contact us button on a supplier website lately? They rarely have a phone number to call. And if you fill out the web form, you'll be waiting forever to hear back. Out of warranty/no longer supported? Good luck getting help from the supplier, unless you want to buy a new one. So people come here, ask a question and get run off because they didn't think to read the "club house rules" before posting. This is a chief reason we don't have any new people hanging around. First impressions count!

I haven't posted for a long time because

1. I no longer get an email message advising me of new threads.

2. On top of that i use Firefox because i can use their private browsing option which deletes all cookies at the close of a session and it supports Disconnect which blocks third party sites. This means i have to search for CR4 and then logon. I go to Chrome instead when i really want to ( or remember to ) look in, as the cookies are still there.

3. Like others if i have a 'how to' question i go to YouTube or work it out myself.

4. I have made a quill DRO for under $10 that i have often thought i should post. There are photos of nature that i should post as well. I don't know why i haven't done so.

5. Questions i want to ask but haven't for fear of ridicule. I have since worked it out for myself and i realise that any ridicule would be justified. That alone is reason enough to not humiliate myself by posting to ask dumb questions. e.g. Why do sunbeams DIVERGE after passing through a hole in the clouds. The sun is so far away, coupled with the comparatively small size of the Earth the beams should be parallel.

Jim

Crepuscular rays....

Yes, I saw some news footage taken from the air and saw sunbeams converging on a patch on the ground and immediately realised it was all about perspective.

Here is one I haven't answered myself. When I set my toaster to brown 2 slices, why does it blacken the bread when I put in only 1 slice? The open slot should allow heat loss. The radiated heat is still the same. The heat load for 2 slices is separated by a mica sheet so I would expect to be able to consider each slice as a separate load.

Sometimes I wish I had been able to go to uni.

Which brings to mind a question I have often wondered about. (No more off topic than the sunrays). If I take some "pure" water and dissolve some sugar, then leave it open for a period of time (so some life forms like bacteria enter it), then seal it why does it build up pressure? Obviously it is producing carbon dioxide (fermentation) but each molecule (cubic meter or whatever) of CO2 made consumes a molecule (volume) of oxygen. What causes increase in volume of gas?

There are aerobic and anaerobic types of bacteria....

..."Alcoholic fermentation converts one mole of glucose into two moles of ethanol and two moles of carbon dioxide, producing two moles of ATP in the process. The overall chemical formula for alcoholic fermentation is: C₆H₁₂O₆ → 2 C₂H₅OH + 2 CO.

The Process of Alcohol Fermentation. The basic equation for alcohol fermentation shows that yeast starts with glucose, a type of sugar, and finishes with carbon dioxide and ethanol. ... The main purpose of alcohol fermentation is to produce ATP, the energy currency for cells, under anaerobic conditions.Jul 28, 2015"...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7919/

Thank you. I hadn't thought of anaerobic activity. Learned something. Now I'm not quite as dumb as I used to be.

Another possibility is dissolved gases in the water. You might try an experiment with two jars, one without sugar and see what happens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast

Because you actually require dehydrated compressed air bubbles.

There is wild yeast in the air. That is how beer and wine were made thousands of years ago.

Wild yeast is getting in your solution and causing fermentation, which creates CO2 and hence your pressure.

Yes. Yeast. That is what I meant by "some life forms like bacteria".

No. I think you might be confused.

Bacteria are single celled organisms (Solar Eagle mentioned the anaerobic and aerobic types of amoeba). These organisms are not capable of causing fermentation because they can't reproduce sexually. The amoeba are lab cultured and used primarily as digesters in wastewater treatment systems.

Yeast is a fungus and CAN reproduce sexually. When exposed to sugar water they reproduce in huge numbers converting the sugar to CO2 and alcohol. Eventually there are so many of them, they create an alcohol content so high that it kills them.

Interesting question about your toaster. Some toasters have a timer, some measure heat buildup (thermostat), and some may even have a photocell to measure reflectance off the toast.

https://www.explainthatstuff.com/electrictoasters.html

(Ones I've seen usually have one slot assigned to 1 slice, but I've never seen a selector for 1 or 2 slices.)

If your toaster is controlled by a timer, a single slice be should be toasted the same, or maybe less due to heat escape. If it's got a sensor, the absence of the second slice of bread must be influencing the sensor.

Just a guess...

Or you might have a toaster like this.

http://www.danielsen.com/jokes/objecttoaster.txt

G'day, in reply to you and JpFalt I thought I would run a test. The toaster is a smart one that has a microprocessor and servo motors to lift the toast. It is a 2 x 2 and has buttons to "lift and look" and to select for crumpets or fruit bread.

One slice cooked for 2' 53" and two slices cooked for 2' 57" I let it cool down for 10 mins after cooking 2 slices ( they were very pale ) and then cooked one slice perfectly.

My gut tells me thermodynamics are at play but my reason argues that the heat source doesn't give a damn about the load.

No, there are no sensors that I can see. I have a dead toaster that I have pulled apart! Just good old fashioned mica boards with nichrome wire wrapped around them. 3 per side. No selection for 1 or 2 slices. Only the control part is fancy.

Jim

"Come on in - the water's lovely." _{- Anonymous Poster #0}

Perhaps I am an older engineer. And, with that territory comes a need and desire to pick the minds of the best down at the corner cafe rather then blindly grabbing something off the internet.

I learn a lot from reading what others post here. My fear of posting myself is that what I would potentially post lacks the depth and insight of what others post. But the sharing of ideas on this site is second to none.

I do not wish this site away and will do what I can to keep it. But, the times I do feel I can contribute, somebody else has already said what I wanted to say, so I just mark their post as a "Good Reply".

Perhaps you don't value your replies as highly as others would... it never hurts to have another opinion...

I'm here for the same reason you are, to learn new things. You can learn a lot not only from other people's answers but also from other people's questions, which many times bring up issues you've never considered before.

Maybe you just don't have a sense of humor....?

I tried to conceal my lack of humor... but you uncovered me!

Please also read my other post about this topic (# 26)

OK you outed me as a link poster...I do sometimes just post a link, usually because the page that the link leads to has a much better explanation than I could write in few quick clumsy lines...I assume if that didn't satisfy the OP that further questions will follow...and that is usually the case...A lot of times, ok most of the time, the questions posed are not clear, and it takes some time to get to the meat of the problem, having the OP look at a general explanation sometimes helps to narrow down the actual crux of the difficulty....In other words it's a process....

Now to your statement...It does say a lot about you as a person to respond in this way...I'd say you're used to being in charge....bear in mind we are not on your payroll, just volunteers who are willing to lend a hand....I might add that communicating on the internet in general, thin skin is not an asset...

I agree there is no excuse for bad manners, and yes I've seen a bit here....I tend to ignore it and offer what help I can to try and minimize the impact...some people are less tolerant than others, I don't mind, it's all part of dealing with the public....How's your boat coming along we haven't heard much lately....

Very few on this site have any humour at all. Maybe they have become caught up in their status icons, Guru, etc. I agree, many need to lighten up and cease the touchy feeling attitude. The recent post of underwater speed humps and dehydrated air bubbles was funny, and well written and thought out. Imaginative! So, good for the author. But few even tried to see the humerous side, all serious old goats actually. One reply i saw: "Whats your point?" Seriously!

Ah well, I enjoyed the article as a break from all the serious cr1p that goes on here and in life.

guru: Sanskrit term for a "teacher, guide, expert, or master" None here

modern guru: know it all, smarty pants. Say no more Alfred.

Seriously,,,,what's your point?

It is the sharp pointy bit at the front, if it was at the back it would be no point at all.

"It is the sharp pointy bit at the front" The distally arranged solid portion of former tree branch with the primary purpose of relocating faeces to the elevated end of a ramp.

Does it sound like i have learned something on this forum?

Jim

I think the commercial preludes before the main topics of interest may be one reason.

Too many dogs for the number of shapes available in the fuzzy pumper barber shop.

Rectum? Nearly killed 'em.