# Newbies **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 1, 2001, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967 "2001-11-01T18:52:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kamandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5daacb/32.png) [@Kamandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamandi)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/41 "2001-11-04T19:12:38Z")
Registered on my SDMB birthday 3-20-01: Chantepleur - 0 Exar\_Kun - 0 pinkflamingo - 0 welbo - 2 Synthoid - 6 vodyanoi - 1 **dlgirl - 705** Skeptic - 0 (what a waste of a good name) chriz - 2 (AOL IM Handle: Egg KooKoo) cmontpetit - 2 vsevolod - 1 Sandy Suggitt - 0 **pegleg - 24** extropalopakettle - 0 joonshin - 8 CaptainHook - 0 (registered 3-19, but what a cool name!) MonkeyChops - 1 taka5614 - 0 alloran - 79 (all within a week. Last post was 3-26) rudejester - 3 stephanie - 1 (location: Singapore) dfrederic - 1 whitdogg - 0 **BayleDomon - 101** **Kamandi - 800+** Nobody banned, but the only one I recognize is **dlgirl**. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/42 "2001-11-04T21:37:10Z")
Here’s my birthday list for **09-06-01** RufusB - 35 theretsof - 59 Tobias - 0 ScriptAnalyst - 92 vze2cmdf - 1 davebanks - 0 tempest2\_2 - 17 kierk - 8 Venoma - 219 Lyc - 0 Lycor - 3 Pepsigirl - 26 frankoma - 8 caleon - 6 Cliffy - 357 BJaneDoe - 15 thetonyblair - 0 freshmeat - 33 Otadeg - 1 holacat - 9 dyingbreed - 2 Trish - 0 Iacio - 2 andrealynne - 0 Prolife For life is a blast - 4 jesse morrison - 103 I’m third place by post count??? I’ve gotta spend more time im MPSIMS! ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/43 "2001-11-05T09:57:21Z")
To quote **Dex** - what hath I wraught? Hmm. Think I’ll fire up the ol’ spreadsheet later and see what these numbers want to tell me… pan ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/44 "2001-11-05T10:40:48Z")
Apparently, I’m not the only person with absolutely nothing to do at 5:00 AM (EDST). Here be the stats, ranging from userid 10037 to 10049: Terry Betts - 2 BlueCabbage - 6 (Complete Twit) ok\_guy - 0 chuteman - 0 Some Genius - 0 \* ctolbert6 - 2 Cerowyn - 255 Some Guy - 248 bluehobo - 0 Mr.Stefano - 8 drewcosten - 8 Qasper - 7 Melissa Jane - 0 In summary: 13 registrations, only two of which (Cerowyn and I) have any sort of active post count - though we both have \<1 post per day; 1 person who is not merely banned, but a [Complete Twit](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=794058#post794058); and one surprising asterisk - an earlier failed registration of mine (the confirmation email never showed up, so I couldn’t activate that account - consequently, nobody’s more surprised than I to see it listed as active…) Yanno, I’ll bet that Cerowyn’s never heard of _me_, either 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/45 "2001-11-05T12:32:40Z")
Well I’ve entered all the data into Excel and the preliminary results are suggesting that the half-life is very well correlated exponentially to the “age” of the doper. The results trend beautifully. Man, you guys should see the graph (sniff). This in itself means that the concept of “half-life” may be flawed when dealing with dopers, unfortunately. One thing may be skewing the results however: back in 1999, the joiners must have ben pretty serious Dopers. The board was tiny compared to now, so the casual registers with 0 or 1 posts were far rarer. A higher percentage of serious dopers possibly means longer life. Certainly the joiners from 1999 have a “half-life” of about 15 months compared to 4-5 months for joiners a year or so back. If we remove this data, there is a better case for a static half-life. Better but not great - I still think that it trends even so. Some results: ```auto time to 5/11 half-life 2.65 16.52 2.60 14.36 1.36 4.62 1.26 5.55 1.22 5.33 1.08 4.78 1.07 4.27 1.02 4.91 0.93 3.46 0.84 4.45 0.72 4.32 0.68 1.91 0.67 2.88 0.63 2.86 0.16 1.87 ``` All this means that a power decay (such as half-life) is most likely inapproriate. Let me inethically bung it through some of our high powered stats tools here at work. We’ll see what we get… And then we can look at number of posts… pan ---
**Author:** ![blur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@blur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blur)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/46 "2001-11-05T14:32:10Z")
My “birthday” 10/24/2001 SFRANK 1 post jaimie311 0 posts **blur 673 posts** thesickpig 4 posts Wallrat9 4 posts WaHiSch 0 posts justjoehere 1 post rees43620 0 posts Lonesome Dub 5 posts TerraeFillius 1 post **Andy Keats 34 posts** (possibly a lurker, last posted in August) Texass4321 0 posts klepto 20 posts nxthree 0 posts 01pwm 1 post NeePravda 6 posts Mughi 2 posts teabag 27 posts bradlee47 3 posts foxer 0 posts CooperCoW 0 posts xspitfyrex 0 posts ibrahrm 1 post afireindside 46 posts Disembodied Head 19 posts easyreader 3 posts I’m the only active one, with one who may be lurking. 8 with 0 posts 12 with 1-10 posts 5 with 11-46 posts 1 (me) with 674 posts counting this one. Total posts by my SD siblings and me = 852. I think handy gets that many in an afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/47 "2001-11-05T15:58:34Z")
Well I haven’t a CLUE whether anybody reading this is still interested, but I’ve done the first bit of the analysis: Assuming _n_ posters join at time _t_[sub]0[/sub], the number _y_ expected to still be posting at time _t_ years later is (drum roll please…) **_n_. 0.009134[sup]2.3[sup]-_t_[/sup]._t_[/sup]** Phew! What that means is that we can say that _t_ years after a poster starting, the probability that said poster is still active is: 0.009134[sup]_t_. 2.3[sup]-_t_[/sup][/sup] This I declare the new **kabbes’ hypothesis**. For stat-heads out there - the above shows a 99.8% [sym]C[/sym][sup]2[/sup] probability level, meaning it fits very well indeed! pan ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/48 "2001-11-05T16:01:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by blur \* > \*\*My “birthday” 10/24/2001 > \ > (me) with 674 posts counting this one. > \*\* WOW! 674 posts in less than two weeks! [sub]I think you meant 10/24/2000[/sub] 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/49 "2001-11-05T16:01:25Z")
And hence the new sig: ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/50 "2001-11-05T16:06:02Z")
I’m interested. Or, I would be if I understood it. Some of us didn’t do maths at Oxford y’know 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/51 "2001-11-05T16:11:17Z")
_ **OXFORD!!???** _ Are you implying that I am a dark blue bugger? **Fran** - you know I love you, but some insults just won’t stand! Unless you’re saying that The Other Place was YOUR alma mater for philosophy, in which case I reluctantly forgive you. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/52 "2001-11-05T16:30:48Z")
I know there are some things that go beyond insults, and I shall understand if you never wish to speak to me again. I humbly beg forgiveness and sacrifice virgins to Great Alumni in the Sky. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/53 "2001-11-05T16:32:29Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **WEW** _ > > I guess I’m a moron too. > > Where are you guys getting this info? I second that emotion. When I try to access the _members_ function I am told it has been disabled. Where is the source data? ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/54 "2001-11-05T16:52:33Z")
Under every post there is a button marked “profile”. Press it and you shall be illuminated. With searchlights and stuff. Beware the Clique! **Fran** - you shall be forgiven. But first you must bring me… A SHRUBBERY. Something nice. pan ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/55 "2001-11-05T17:11:33Z")
Click on the profile button under one of your posts. At the end of the url is your userid. Subtract 1 from your userid and look to see if the registration date is the same as yours. Repeat until the registration date is earlier than yours. Add 1 to your userid and look to see if the registration date is the same as yours. Repeat until the registration date is later than yours. There is no one-click way to do it AFAIK. ---
**Author:** ![dead0man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@dead0man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dead0man)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/56 "2001-11-05T19:55:26Z")
Date registered: 4-21-00 user id 5872 24 total registered on that day acitve: # last post Crown Prince of Irony 190 10-18-01 kiffa 687 10-29-01 dead0man 75 11-05-01 carnivorousplant 2031 11-05-01 looks like i lose. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/57 "2001-11-05T20:47:23Z")
This may be a bit of a hijack (I’m a newbie… please go easy on me), but I have a couple of closely related questions. 1. I wonder what percentage of registered users have fewer than, say, 10 posts? (from reading through all these “birthday” lists it seems a very high percentage of users have very few posts) 2. I wonder what percentage of registered users are currently active? (e.g.-- have posted at least 10 times in the last 90 days) Anybody have any idea if there is a way to find out the answer to these questions? (without a lot of manual labor at least). ---
**Author:** ![blur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@blur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blur)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/58 "2001-11-06T00:09:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rsa \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by blur \* > > \*\*My “birthday” 10/24/2001 > > \ > > (me) with 674 posts counting this one. > > \*\* > > WOW! 674 posts in less than two weeks! > [sub]I think you meant 10/24/2000[/sub] > 🙂 \*\* I previewed and everything. ---
**Author:** ![warmgun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@warmgun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/warmgun)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/59 "2001-11-06T01:00:20Z")
As of this writing: warmgun (me) - 688 (banned then reinstated) (1.52 post per day) CW@theOpera - 1 alumshubby - 9 WhyteTyger - 1 bubster - 2 Gamma\_Assasination - 0 Faheem Abdus-skaur -0 (no status?) John Doe -1 Lady Bear -10 Airplay -1 RedDawgEsq -32 authintium -5 DTraf -0 Raybo -1 dd -1 Shaf - 32 Steve Hipps -2 FarTreker - 169 (banned) Out of 18: 1 (or less) post - 9 2-10 posts - 5 1- banned 1- no status Am I kickin’ ass (for my b-date) or what? ---
**Author:** ![BalmainBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@BalmainBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BalmainBoy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/60 "2001-11-06T01:10:17Z")
Is there any way to search for the posts of a particular poster - within reason, of course; say look for the last 10 days. Thanks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967.md?page=4)