Why do you use CR4?

Very simply, so that one day I can have "Guru" next to my name like you do....

It' quantity, not quality. I've been here a couple of years.

Maybe admin should give a on topic & #of stars rating [average per post], or some other quality measure?

Here I go "off topic" again, though I won't mark as such [let the public vote]

Come on case492, don't let the GURU status go to your head! I turned GURU a few weeks ago but I really do excel at being quite thick on occasions! I think a new system should be adopted with ratings such as:-

0-100 Toe Dipper

101-250 Oily Rag

251-500 Management

501-1000 Addict

1001< Enlightened

Ok, Not too sure about the 'Enlightened' but, what the hell!

I feel so privileged to be in the presents of so many gurus and so enlightened.

....what after 1001 enlightened "retired" , even guest should get some rating on comment or question how about "googly"

Your system looks good to me. Only one edit required:

1001< Enlightened

should read : 1001< Recommended for Rehab

cASE

If you'll notice I did pop back & actually try to be helpful

I sold off my old beater yam xs650, which is a fine replica of a triumph, so I have my own retro leanings. The thing ate light bulbs & speedo's as a regular diet. Bought it as a wreck job, tinkered & putzed w/it for years. Parts are cheap & plentiful.

Got a KLR for snits & giggles [another wreck job].

Once I get my financle house in order, gonna buy a new(er) daily driver.

probably a v-strom,kawi versys,Ktm on/off/supermoto..... not sure have to see what comes up?

verticle twin

an xs750 is a copy of a bsa triple w/shaft drive

Feeling nostalgic so I'll tell the story of the cb500 [also a twin]from hell!

I bought the cb as a wreck job [your probably sensing a trend here]. The former owner wouldn't even show me the bike, I delt w/a mutual friend. He got rear ended by a garbage truck & sustained grave injuries. I paid $100 welded up the subframe & replaced the rear wheel. Had myself a nice little beater. Other than some flakey electrical problems: the plastic fuse box fell off [ I'was airborne from catching air crossing a bridge] on my way to work, crushing the flasher in the chain & leaving me broke down & 4a w/no tools or flashlight. I stripped a short piece of wire & jumpped the main fuse. I was only 5 minutes late.

a couple of months later I was doing the speed limit 50mph, headlight on,boots helmet & wearing farmer style overalls. A older gentleman pulled out in front of me, I hit him in the rear 1/4 panel. I flipped over the car & was relativly intact, the buckles on my trousers left bruises on my chest & twisted my ankle.

The real damage was I lost my driving priveledges since I had no insurance.

I sold the bike to the friend of a friend. He replaced the front end. W/in 2 weeks he got run off the road & broke his leg. we took it to a scrap yard & watched it be crushed!!

Don't hold your breath, I think as I am writing this I am on 505 or something and I am still power user. I saw some other post at 503 and he was guru????

Secret handshake I think

Opium works faster; and much less short-term grief.

S'pose that's why it can be disheartening to move from Active Contributor to (lethargic) Power User.

Off topic my ars. Mr. Steve from Houston wanted to demote himself from Active contributor to Guru (whatever that might be in terms of "engineering"). How is that an "on topic" answer to 'Why use CR4?'? To give the straightest, and most historic means to actual Gurudom...certainly that reflects the "engineering" approach to Steve's quest...? Or was Steve saying he wanted enough posts credited such that there was no further need for genuine contribution? In that case, I stand corrected; go ahead and give me some more OT's.

Somehow I fell into power user instead..Is that a promotion or a demotion?

All posts on topic or off contribute to your number of posts credit. I suppose the question is what does becoming a Guru really gain a person... a handsome reward? Entry into the secret CR4 society meetings? What does CR stand for (that conference room stuff can't be the real meaning), and why are there four of them?

I am a Guru in my own mind, if not in my own time....

Shh, Shh

I'll tell you in about 344 posts. I'll give you a glimpse

Well done on the 500 mark Garthh! Got mine the other day! It is the only way I can communicate with people who speak my language! I live in Spain and find it quite difficult to explain myself in Spanish so I come here to talk about the things that interest me, puzzle me or I want to share with like minded people! I do speak Spanish but not to the extent of describing the internals of an engine or how a computer is connected to a servo motor! When I talk tec to the Spanish, I always get a very blank glazed look back! I like the people who frequent this part of my life in CR4land!

Good question - wish I'd thought to ask it!

Knackered now, will reply tomorrow.

Pretty much the same as Mr. Truman Brain; except I can't claim the language barrier as the problem. I guess I must be talking Swahili, and not even know it.

To paraphrase my PHB: I heard you say "PLC, software, blah, blah, blah"!#$@@#@

I guess most of all, it's all the info I get out of the posts and discussions. I have learned some amazing things on this site!

Being retired, I think I enjoy being involved, a little bit of experience here and there, a bit of advice, but trying not to over step the mark, I'm impressed by the quality of the members, and learn a lot as I go, I see the frustrations of those that are looking for a way to turn, a fact I well remember when I was younger, and that I think is the best recommendation I can give this forum.

Resect for you all JD.

I recieved global spec and CR4 on my personnel email id , i responded imediatly and found this forum quiet amazing , with features unique compared to other interactive sites , Lots of memebers are highly knowledgable and experienced and responsive and "genereous enough" , also little logical humors , cute rudiness , makes this forum addictive , i spend more hours on CR4 than on any other sites like google , wikipedia , my email site and all that.some time ago lots of websites have started live interactive features just like CR4 but are not impressive.

CR4 is fun because I like to read the different scenarios and then try to give my 2 cents (if it's worth that much). I just got registered although I've responded as a guest a couple of times. Thanks for CR4!!

CR4 is fun and also very informative. It can also be frustrating but it never outweighs the good bits.

Is your signature a question for us? We would love to have a go at that one I am sure. Please amuse us even if you know the answer already

Oh I certainly don't have that answer...prolly could redefine the transportation industry if so. I just invite comments because I've always wondered about that or similar since learning the little I have learned about light. Plus I thought it sounded cool!

maybe we should start a scooter abuse thread

When I used to race/ride dirtbikes the butt of many jokes were the quad [atv] riders.

We'd put 80-100km's & come back they'd still be buzzing the camp ground, never wearing safety gear, drinking beer, riding double....

back on this thread

I love the links

Here's a good thread from last year

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/3434#discussiontop

Sign me up for the scooter abuse thread. I've owned two (Bernadet Freres, and Kymco).

Great links thread, which I would otherwise have missed.

Just keep plugging away and you too will someday become a Guru.

To learn! To help me with my daily design challenges. And to spend half an hour to let my coffee fix start taking effect each morning before I can start working.

Hey .. this is my #101 ... am I a Power-User yet??!! I can't wait to find out!

POWER USER! YESSSS!!!!!

Do I have to sit at the adults table now?

YES but only on the low small stools for a while.

Input, need Input. Whoa not that fast

I find the total lack of couch potatoes refreshing, some of the questions are poor but at least they make the effort. Knowledge and wisdom have a flavor here I have yet to find else where.

Ok more input

Brad

I like it. When I first started browsing CR4 it was to learn new things. Some of the topics that come up are interesting and sometimes I actually know something to contribute. It's a good place for learning something.

For the most part everyone here are professionals to some extent with first hand experience or have had experience in some way with the topic. Some may have read something and are sharing.

Often times it's someone asking for help and a lot of people step up to help a brother out.

I look for cross pollination of ideas in applications.

I have learned quite a bit by lurking and seeing how some of the other competent professionals respond to a question. Interpretation of questions is what is really being taught here.

As a student and teacher of problemsolving in Industrial applications I find CR-4 fertile territory to see the role of communication impacting the success or failure of the problemsolving process- when OTHERS are involved.

The other reason is that I want to save people from folly- Hipocrates said in the first place do no harm, and I believe that the first step of engineering is to protect our customers and society from stupidity and ignorance- theirs, ours, or their customer's.

So i have stepped up a few times to point out that the emperor was wearing no clothes.

I grew up during the vietnam war so the body count (numbers of posts) issue is not so important to me. Quantity doesn't wwin the war, it just gives bureaucrats back home data to feel good about. A lot of the high post counts got that high because of an insane number of off topic personal sidebar conversations. (That isn't all bad, but the ratio of blather to good stuff can be very high when one of these streams of consciousness deals takes off.)

So Quality of posts, rather than quantity is important to me.

milo

"Quality of posts, rather than quantity is important to me"

Actually it is important to everybody , almost every body sees the new comment for serious answers , somebody may debate continuously and get diverted to off topic and varied topic were others are unfamiliar , but that is what we call discussion all about , there you find some inovative solutions comming around , that`s the reason i like about this CR4 , you can discover anything here. someday this will be so interactive , all guys around the world solving , designing a perpetual machine ,solutions and alternatives simultaneously , quiet possible in near future .

I like writing and reading

I like to contribute knowledge (I'll be the stupid but honest one and say 'show off')

I come here to get regularly called names like 'traitor' and 'commie' by Del the Cat and his crew.

I want GURU next to my name, to prove I have achieved enlightenment.

I want GURU next to my name, to prove I have achieved enlightenment.

I'd hoped for that too. Sadly, it turns out there is an inverse relationship between nearness to Guruhood, and nearness to enlightenment. Being a guru, in general, means you should get a real job, with a boss looking over your shoulder and keeping you from spending your time on line.

I wasn't sure what my answer was going to be, so I went to my profile to review the posts that I have made. It appears that I use CR4 primarily to have another place to discuss topics about which I have strong opinions, since those around me are probably tired of hearing me get up on my soap box.

I also really appreciate the intelligence level of this forum, both academic and experience-based. I even like the questions that seem simpler, because most of the time it enhances a person's own knowledge of a topic when you try to explain or teach it to someone else.

It's fun to learn new factual and technical information, but the cultural diversity is even more intriguing. It broadens the mind to read how someone from the other side of the world sees an issue. I am finding that I am less likely to jump to conclusions that may seem obvious based only on Canadian or even North American experience. Thanks to everyone for contributing - it's a benefit to all of us.

Now I better get to work! (Even though this is much more fun. Hmmmm - how addicting is this forum? That's a topic for another thread.) (I think that makes 35 posts - when do I graduate from "Associate" and what is next?)

I used to be an associate now look at me, I'm a commentator.

You make enough posts and you too will someday aspire to become a commentator.

I actually really like the functionality of this site over some others. I now participate regularly in three online fourms. I like the look and feel of this one best. I also like the general fourm where all sorts of odd questions get asked, and I really enjoy the fact that having a sense of humor is not only allowed but encouraged here.

I know it is wrong, and I really must repent of it, but I also do get a surge of joy out of the opportunity to tell students from all over the world to go do their own work and quite trying to get others to do it for them.

This is really easy. I can just copy all your reasons:

I like to put in my 2 cents worth

I like to interact w/people of different backgrounds

Primarily I like the education in the free form short attention span sort of way it happens here [CR4]

I like to work on my stream of blather writing skills, I still find I've made glaring mistakes, ommisions, mistatments, when I read what I've written later.....

Any flaming, is in a good natured joking way.

Also, having been a teacher, I am naturally pedantic, and like to ramble on, in hopes that there is something in there of value to others.

Further, it's great to know there are some folks here with specific types of experience -- you get to know them, and can count on their answers.

Finally, I hate to see science trashed, and so will help debunk, especially, the stuff that reeks of fraud. I'll also try to point the woefully naive in the direction of opening up a physics text: Might there be some source of "free energy" out there? Sure. In fact, the term has several perfectly valid scientific meanings. Might spinning permanent magnets around in circles be a way to tap into "free energy?" Of course -- it has the same probability of success as does shaking a bag of potato chips while standing on one foot in a field of sunflowers. Would you follow me in my potato chip quest, which has the astoundingly large advantage that is has not been tried many thousands of times before, and shown not to work each time?

"Eat all you want, we'll make More"- Frito Lay

milo

Isn't it funny how good questions make you go, why did I not ask that one?

I come here for my daily fill of abuse about my Harley

I thought I came here because the other participants were clever but I was wrong, they are not. Jeremy Clarkson is clever and everybody here tries to emulate him. By being extremely funny.

On a slightly more serious note, I love coming here after work each day and wind down. It is easy to spend a few hours on line hopping on and of threads while you do other things such as e-mails and e-bay. You learn something and , if lucky, a subject comes past that you know some about and you can in turn help another needy soul out.

Started to look at other areas more now such as the blogs and discussions other than the questions by participants (have not got the slightest idea where they do come from but hey, that is why I am on 506 and still not a guru yet). These offer good stories with a real world twang to it.

Your guruship will be bestowed on you soon, be patient. It is in the post.

Jeremy Clarkson

That's it!!! I was trying to think of his name when I was describing my avatar to you elsewhere. I don't want this vehicle to be so unfun that Jeremy Clarkson describes driving it as torture -- you've probably seen the bit on French "exotic" cars, with the crash of an electric car into a table.

I cannot believe anyone here would talk about Harleys in anything but glowing terms!!

I see that your guruship showed up! Congratulations!!

Yeah it did and you know what, it feels nothing different.

Honest

Yeah. Those events make about as much impact as crossing a state line in the US. Any thump you feel is all in your imagination.

Or mine, anyway!!

Being inventive down to the bone

CR4 is what I call home!

Solutions to problems tricky or not

Most of the answers the gurus have got.

The ones with good humor and whit

Let the milk flow from the brain and not the tit.

CR4 beats a broad spread any day. At least at my level of education. What the....

Go you good thing. Ky.

I work alone about 80% of the time. Another 15% is spent with 2 or 3 mech engineers (for whom I do the control system stuff). The remaining 5% is on customers' sites - the nearest I get to a 'real' common room.

Engineering types I meet in the pub are generally commercial programmers, civil engineers or pure electronics hardware guys.

I very rarely get a chance to talk to people on an even field who may have any idea what I'm talking about!

CR4 helps fill the gap. (Much like a Kit-Kat, I suppose ).

I came here for the usual reasons. But after being here awhile I get the impression that I am a in the company of a special lot as the internet goes. Almost an Alex in wonderland feeling.
I have learned something every visit. I am trying to organize my interest using the user tags & the pathfinder tags. A little sloppy right now! I don't quite understand the concept of the user tags.

It is a place I can be enlightened by the guru's and at the same time laugh my butt off. There seem to be limitless issues with great and funny advice, intersting ideas , and the tangents taken amaze me. I do get a kick out of someone (usually students) getting thumped for something they should be doing on their own, or at least doing a simple search.

It is also a place of people similiar to myself, that are smart, helpful, witty and seem to enjoy life.

Cheers .

All the above! Being older than dirt and retired it is a great place to swap ideas. It gives me a break from the book I am writing, Twelve Useful Diseases and How to Catch Them. (rimshot)

It's a dull life if you don't learn at least one new thing per day. I guess some things are imponderable. Things like, why do we park on drive ways and drive on parkways? For the rest there's the forum.

When you reach guru status do you become an intellectual? Can you listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger? Guess I'll have to wait and see?

"When you reach guru status do you become an intellectual? Can you listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger? Guess I'll have to wait and see?" - No, no and yes.

Looking forward to reading your interesting-sounding book - are you going to publish on the 'net?

Welcome Skelley,

Here's 105 comments @ least some are on the subject of Guruship

Are addictions diseases?

Does CR4 addiction make the top 100?