# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/61 "2001-11-06T01:35:28Z")
10-12-2000 was a busy day: **dwyr** - 330 CaptainSarcasm- 0 ZbbiRose310- 0 EtherProse- 0 Utah Man- 1 CoconutMonkey- 0 Colin Trainer- 43 D- 1 **lno** - 1356 klozsj19- 0 Nude Rick James- 0 adwkiwi- 0 MidniteFair- 0 buffalogal- 85 gmichael- 0 Vahktang- 9 magikm- 0 oded- 3 JohnGalt- 12 jeel- 96 Ebony Despot- 3 ScoopDiehl- 1 Slowhand- 2 Sitarith- 3 JC Freed Me- 0 **Barbarian** -761 **bwk** - 251 cvwildcat7- 3 wolf189- 21 Nobody banned. And I’m not doing too badly (if you don’t count lno and Barbarian of course. :)) ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/62 "2001-11-06T02:48:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Is there any way to search for the posts of a particular poster - within reason, of course; say look for the last 10 days. Sure; you see that little icon at the bottom of every post that is labelled “Search?” Go to any of your quarry’s posts and click on it. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/63 "2001-11-06T02:50:31Z")
I should add that pursuing that option will bring up any thread they’ve posted to in the last 30 days. Happy hunting! ---
**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, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/64 "2001-11-06T06:30:16Z")
Thanks for that, Ringo _even if I will never forgive you for taking Barbara Bach out of the dating pool_; but IF I log on and think “hmmm, wonder if so-and-so has posted lately?” do i have to find a previous post of him/her and then search, or can I kick off a search elsewhere? ---
**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, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/65 "2001-11-06T07:11:47Z")
You can use the ‘search’ function at the top right of this page. You might have to take a couple of guess at which forum they’ve posted in last, but if you know them at all that shouldn’t be too hard. ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/66 "2001-11-06T09:05:31Z")
**algernon** - if you want to know what proportion of all users are still active, simply integrate **kabbes’ formula** above over all time and members. Simple 😉 pan ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/67 "2001-11-06T09:09:38Z")
Oh, and by the data we’ve collected here it seems that almost exactly 2/3 of registers (66.8%) never get to 10 posts. pan ---
**Author:** ![Syzygy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Syzygy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syzygy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/68 "2001-11-06T17:12:32Z")
Well, using **kabbes’** formula, 3/4 of the people registered on my date no longer post. Woo hoo! I’m a survivor! As for others born on my SDMB birthday: June 22, 2001 (bold indicates posted in the last 30 days) **Syzygy** - 316 Dana - 0 **vknowles** - 5 Profound Idiot - 0 rlskinner - 0 Majvac - 0 zorak - 0 perlmongrel - 0 Michael James Tyler - 2 **Big G** - 13 Dominique-Elize - 0 **weeds** - 12 psycho\_boy\_jack - 1 (on his birthday) LN - 0 aprey - 0 William B. Davis - 11 ( **all** on his birthday) jkronstat - 0 Werthers\_The\_Original - 0 PbZep - 2 (last post in a Zeppelin thread, gee) harmonicaman - 0 So, out of 20 posters: 4 still active (and I’m way ahead of them) 4 inactive 12 never posted 0 banned (yay I guess) By the way, you’ll notice that **kabbes’** formula is surprisingly accurate. Way to go, **kabbes**! ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/69 "2001-11-06T17:24:37Z")
Oh yes. I have the POWER. ---
**Author:** ![Syzygy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Syzygy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syzygy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/70 "2001-11-06T17:39:20Z")
It’s not like any of this matters. According to **kabbes** , none of us will be here in just over 11 years. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/71 "2001-11-06T17:49:02Z")
Oh, well. As of, um, earlier this afternoon, the 24th of November 2000 yielded:- d8uv - 2 pfranckly - 2 HannV - 0 HumVee - 0 Medea 79 - 0 questra76 - 0 wiss - 1 KGonzo32 - 1 JoAnneSchmitz - 4 prolar - 0 **Steve Wright** - 531 (yay me) **bcullman** - 25 (not very active, but posted last month) **bagkitty** - 425 runner pat - 27 timothy papantony - 0 [hijack] - 128 and Banned. (This seems to be the same chap who posted earlier in this thread, under a slightly different name) bubbyb - 1 pontiac - 3 Total-Kaos - 1 **PharmBoy** - 67 [/hijack] - 29 (and not banned, apparently someone else entirely?) mjs - 1 **Evnglion** - 456 DASmith - 0 GLCanes - 0 So, that’s, what, 25, of whom 8 fell at the first hurdle, 1 is banned, 9 failed to make double figures, 2 lapsed into inactivity, 4 are still actively contributing intelligent and insightful posts, and 1 is an ignorant linguistician who clearly has too much time on his hands. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/72 "2001-11-06T18:04:31Z")
BTW, I hate to interrupt your fun, but the stuff that taxes the system the most are searches. We’ve asked you to be judicious in your use of the search engine and to consider the rest of the board and our users in your allocation of system resources. Overuse of the search function was a direct cause of the problems we’ve had over the last few days and the reset that had to be forced on the server last night, the system nearly crashed. And all for something that seems to be highly entertaining to some of you but is ultimately pointless. We can remove searches from the system, if that’s what it takes to stabilize it. We can remove access to all the information that you so highly prize over the content of the board. It’s too bad that we’re forced into considering these options. your humble TubaDiva Administrator longing for the day when a poster is judged solely by the content of their posts and not a damn thing else. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/73 "2001-11-06T19:59:14Z")
**TubaDiva** , I agree that these types of posts are pretty pointless (and that’s coming from someone who posted his “birthday” stats here). A minor nitpick, however, is that the way we obtain these stats is by direct profile access which doesn’t involve the search function. It’s about the fastest thing I’ve experienced here so I doubt that it explains the problems the boards have been having. [end nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Borborygmi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/borborygmi/32/217_2.png) [@Borborygmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Borborygmi)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/74 "2001-11-06T20:21:52Z")
[On preview, I see I’m building on **rsa** ’s reply…] Yikes! As someone who posted a list of members with the same registration date, I apologize if I was taxing the system :(. Is this the case? My list, and I think all the others in this thread, were produced by checking profiles… does the search feature get tapped to show a current profile? Also, I was under the impression that searching for posts by a particular poster, which this thread has prompted in some cases, did not put too much of a strain on the server… that the real problem was searching for message text. Asking sincerely… again, genuine apologies if I was choking the server. —Borborygmi ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/75 "2001-11-06T23:01:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kabbes \* > > * * * > > 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. > > * * * > > \*\* Sadly one thing may be throwing off your results when dealing with the earliest SDMB dopers in that some of them had come over from AOL and so would have registered far earlier. And there data, that which states when they registered, is most likely lost. It might be worthwhile to cut off those who joined this site in its first month. I could stare at these lists all day. And I just had to go back and see the list for my day, Sunday Mar 17, 2001. I wont bore everyone with the details but who-ee I dominate on post-count. Plus I was curious as to what you meant by still active? Those who posted in the past week? Those who posted after Sep 11? You know what would be really interesting to see? A chart with userID on the X-axis and post count on the Y-axis. Then you could see where you are. Like little sky scrapers. Then you can do all sorts of fun things. I’m almost tempted to make a list of all March 2001 dopers but wont. Osiris - Scheduled to reach 100,000 posts in 2050. And I will too if its still around. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/76 "2001-11-06T23:09:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TubaDiva \* > \*\*BTW, I hate to interrupt your fun, but the stuff that taxes the system the most are searches. > > We’ve asked you to be judicious in your use of the search engine and to consider the rest of the board and our users in your allocation of system resources. > > Overuse of the search function was a direct cause of the problems we’ve had over the last few days and the reset that had to be forced on the server last night, the system nearly crashed. > > And all for something that seems to be highly entertaining to some of you but is ultimately pointless. > > We can remove searches from the system, if that’s what it takes to stabilize it. We can remove access to all the information that you so highly prize over the content of the board. It’s too bad that we’re forced into considering these options. > > your humble TubaDiva > Administrator > longing for the day when a poster is judged solely by the content of their posts and not a damn thing else. \*\* Whoops. I didn’t realize this was a 2-page thread. And I thought this was MPSIMS. So I didn’t read your warning but I did now and apologize too. Nerds! What is it about us? ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/77 "2001-11-07T00:28:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Borborygmi \* > \*\*[On preview, I see I’m building on **rsa** ’s reply…] > > Yikes! As someone who posted a list of members with the same registration date, I apologize if I was taxing the system :(. Is this the case? My list, and I think all the others in this thread, were produced by checking profiles… does the search feature get tapped to show a current profile? Also, I was under the impression that searching for posts by a particular poster, which this thread has prompted in some cases, did not put too much of a strain on the server… that the real problem was searching for message text. > > Asking sincerely… again, genuine apologies if I was choking the server. > > —Borborygmi \*\* Apparently the way the system works, it can handle requests to read and/or write to the system OR it can handle searches. It cannot do both at the same time. The more intensive the search, the bigger a deal it becomes to the server. Requests to read or write become backed up behind searches . . . to the point where the server finally throws its little hands up and chokes, like it did yesterday. Our hands are tied somewhat; we’re stuck with the server we have, the software we have, the problems we have . . . this board does not make the Reader any money, it COSTS them money and earns them only goodwill. So as we become more of a pain in the patoot to the technical staff the Reader gets closer to the point of greatly diminishing returns. And for what? Nothing much but social chit-chat and meaningless stats. It’s most frustrating. your humble TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/78 "2001-11-07T10:11:00Z")
Dammit you people. I said all the way back near the beginning on page 1 that **Tuba** wouldn’t like tons of these lists being made. But I guess that’s a touch hypocritical of me, since I started it. Sorry **Tuba**. What can I say? Some of us like jazz music. Some of us like numbers. I mean - feel the quality of that formula. That’s workmanship, baby. I was thinking of trying to justify myself at this point by talking about the usefulness to planning of modelling member traffic. But then I thought to myself “ **kabbes** , frood, you’re just kidding yourself. This ain’t no million dollar service system. It’s a couple of hamsters and a wheel. Leave it be.” So I will. Maybe you should lock it up, **Tuba**? pan ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/80 "2001-11-07T10:37:37Z")
And you would be? Presumably someone who has no respect for those trying to do a difficult job. Who close a thread saing _explicitly_ [enough is enough](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=1793507#post1793507). You will excuse me I hope if I don’t listen to someone who wants to hide behind a fake name. pan ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967/82 "2001-11-07T22:16:25Z")
Take it to the Pit, urbane, (A misnomer if I’ve ever heard one) at least until one of the admins comes along to suspend the privileges for this account. I’ve no doubt you have others. This thread is closed since it seems to generate nothing but sockpuppets with axes to grind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newbies/90967.md?page=3)