What sort of forum...

Ben · 08-20-2009

Moderation Note: this post was moved from: Law of Measurement

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 shit 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?

Tormod · 08-20-2009

I think you lack a sense of humor, perhaps?

Donk · 08-20-2009

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 (b) 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.

CraigD · 08-20-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben

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 $\pi$ 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).

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.

modest · 08-20-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by CraigD

...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

~modest

Ben · 08-20-2009

And as I have clearly and absolutely no idea where you guys are coming from with your "sense of humour", I'm done.

Have a nice day

modest · 08-20-2009

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

TheBigDog · 08-21-2009

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

[zany parody of mathematical gibberish] 1 + A =

[/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