Titles personally addressing another poster for participation in a thread

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1

Does anyone ever start a thread primarily to ask another specific poster a question? Other posters may join in, of course. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a thread created specicially adress to another poster (outside of the pit).

I’m asking because I was think about starting a thread to ask some questions of another poster. They are the expert on my subject of interest (as are others on the board, but this person I specifically know is in the field). It’s not a Great Debate. It’s not a flame. It’s not a poll. It’s not a game or joke thread. So I’m not sure if posters have ever done this and if they did which forum they used would put it in.

2

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen threads paging QtM, MD for his assistance.

I think it’s fine if not done too much, and I’d wager a guess you’d place the question in the same forum you’d place it in if you were looking for random answers versus those from a specific doper, i.e. factual questions in GQ, artsy stuff in CS, etc.

Like I said, the only sticky spot I would see is overdoing it – QtM, for example, would quickly get sick of “YO, QTM, OVER HERE” in all of the medical threads.

Course, I’m not a mod, so hang out for the official word.

3

Here’s an example: Energy question for Anthracite. And another: Baryonic matter? (Chronos?). I’m sure I’ve seen more, but they’re hard to search for without remembering specific names.

That said, if your interest is in a particular topic, and not in something specific to the person, I would just leave the name out of the title. Most folks will notice a thread on a topic which interests them even if their name isn’t in the title, and most of the discussion in the thread will probably be by other folks anyway.

(Fixed coding–Veb)

4

Here we are – the threads paging QtM:

Qagdop the Mercotan, your expertise is needed.
So I sucked on a pancreas and a liver. (Paging Dr. Qadgop!)
Blotches on chest - paging Q. T. Mercotan, MD

For more fun, here’s astro telling people to STFU and RTFM instead of paging poor QtM!

Re the paging of QtM, I’m beginning to understand why doctors dread cocktail parties

If I’m not mistaken, Polycarp used to get paged semi-frequently for theological questions.

5

I know in my case I recall a thread started by Ahunter3 to compliment the MacBu on our latest release, and another one in which a poster asked me about Huatulco, having found an earlier thread in which I mentioedn I was going there for vacation.

Of course, in both instances I didn’t find them timely enough, since I don’t really do vanity searches. I just happened to come across them.

6

I think I’ve done this once. I think I addressed Coldfire directly outside the pit. But it’s quite possible it was someone else.

7

It really might be better to mail them if their mail is listed. For example, I love to answer questions on things I know something about, but I sometimes am absent for a week or more at a time nowadays. I try vanity searches but “Una” is too short so I miss out on some threads.

8

I’ve been paged a couple times on the subject of hummingbirds, but somebody else has usually ended up answering the question first. I don’t have a problem with being paged, as long as I get to the thread first!

9

Hah! :smiley: