# When does one become an "established" poster? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 11, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953 "2014-12-11T16:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/101 "2014-12-14T23:57:42Z")
It’s and old cliche, but in this circumstance it’s probably got a lot of truth: If you have to ask if you’re an established poster, you’re probably not one. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/102 "2014-12-14T23:59:45Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > You asked what we thought of your list, so I told you. > > Yes, like the other those are tongue in cheek. They don’t apply to most well established posters. > > Please don’t. That one was worn out more than a decade ago. It’s something that mostly marks a newbie who is trying to fit in by parroting a poorly understood board meme without understanding that it’s long obsolete. > > I wouldn’t, other than the quality of your posts. Some posters are well known within a few months, while others that have been around for years still poorly known. This _was_ a fun thread, but you’re harshing my mellow a bit. I know, I’m sensitive. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/103 "2014-12-15T00:04:37Z")
> [@Mr.Nylock](#): > > This _was_ a fun thread, but you’re harshing my mellow a bit. I know, I’m sensitive. You’ll never get established if your mellow gets harshed so easily.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/104 "2014-12-15T00:06:28Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > You’ll never get established if your mellow gets harshed so easily.😉 I could not agree with you more. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/105 "2014-12-15T00:20:09Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Same here. I don’t feel established yet. For better or worse some of my threads are memorable. Quite a few are better left in the past. What was I thinking? 😛 > > **I battle insomnia and posting helps pass the hours**. Bolding added. Thank you for posting this, **aceplace57**. I frequently have insomnia as well. Knowing this about you, I will look at your frequent posting and thread-starting with kinder eyes than I have heretofore. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/106 "2014-12-15T01:46:04Z")
when you create or join in a Pit thread about a poster. when you get in threads in ATMB because you care about the place. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/107 "2014-12-15T01:47:14Z")
> [@Mr.Nylock](#): > > What do you think of these criteria: > > 1. 5000+ posts > 2. Join date oder than 3 years > 3. At least 1 mod note or warning > > That should narrow the field a little, right? Oh wait! I remember getting a warning from Dex about Liberal, of all people. Man, how quickly we forget, And by “we” I mean “me”. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/108 "2014-12-15T01:49:13Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > when you create or join in a Pit thread about a poster. > > when you get in threads in ATMB because you care about the place. Ok, I might be on my way then. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/109 "2014-12-15T02:32:15Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > . . . > > Please don’t. That one was worn out more than a decade ago. It’s something that mostly marks a newbie who is trying to fit in by parroting a poorly understood board meme without understanding that it’s long obsolete. > > . . . Am I the only one who disagrees with this? I would be very sad if it went away. I’ve never understood why some people find it annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/110 "2014-12-15T05:24:51Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Am I the only one who disagrees with this? I would be very sad if it went away. I’ve never understood why some people find it annoying. It was originally used to needle Opal, and she herself said she wished it would go away. Especially now that she’s passed away, there’s no reason to keep it. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/111 "2014-12-15T06:33:57Z")
I have more than 5k posts, I’ve been here over three years, and I have received a Mod warning (albeit a really weak one.) But I know I’ll never be “established.” That’s ok. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/112 "2014-12-15T09:55:06Z")
I thought it was when you had entered the Celebrity Death Pool at least five times and never had a hit. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/113 "2014-12-15T12:17:09Z")
It’s not longevity, as I think there are only 3 of us left who remember “Manny people ask me, so now I wonder…”. Of course, I wouldn’t count as I took a long hiatus. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/114 "2014-12-15T13:41:56Z")
Okay, I have one other method one might try to see if zooming in on the key players might be done more or less mechanically, without relying on others’ memories, etc. 1. Locate the biggest (number of posts) threads in each forum – this can be done by sorting on “number of replies”) 2. Select the top five or ten 3. Capture the “Who Posted” data and save it to a work file (do this on each of the Big Threads) 4. Eliminate the names of those who posted only a minimal number of posts (you decide the cutoff) 5. Continue the process until you have collected the major “Who Posted” names from the bigger threads in each forum 6. From your work file combine the numbers by Doper so you have a total from as many source threads as you have collected 7. sort that final list by total posts That should give a ballpark reading for who posts the most and over the most threads. An estimate, but one based on some reasonable data. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& As an example of what I mean, here is the “Who Posted” breakdown of one of the bigger **IMHO** threads ([The Ongoing Online Dating Advice Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=564799) which was started 05-27-2010, 01:50 PM and which has its latest post – #3467 09-02-2014, 09:14 AM # === The Ongoing Online Dating Advice Thread melodyharmonius 09-02-2014 09:14 AM by JackieLikesVariety 3,466 314,974 ++++++++++++++++++++ Who Posted? Total Posts: 3,467 User Name Posts Joey P 531 Shot From Guns 273 Robot Arm 218 Invisible Chimp 210 Sicks Ate 159 AClockworkMelon 153 Mauvaise 151 Misnomer 150 Bosstone 111 Edward The Head 95 lindsaybluth 90 melodyharmonius 75 Cinnamon Imp 70 Kaio 61 Man from Mars 33 even sven 32 pseudotriton ruber ruber 27 EvilTOJ 27 jsc1953 27 PookahMacPhellimey 26 pricciar 26 elmwood 25 MeanOldLady 24 wolf in second hand clothing 23 tr0psn4j 22 ReticulatingSplines 22 Fear Itself 20 DivineComedienne 20 Sierra Indigo 18 ArrMatey! 18 Trom 18 Green Cymbeline 17 FoieGrasIsEvil 16 Nutty Bunny 16 Shagnasty 15 Muffin 15 Alice The Goon 15 RickJay 14 TheWhoToTheWhatNow 14 SenorBeef 14 Brynda 12 umop ap!sdn 12 Ephemera 11 Blackberry 11 Jaguars! 11 pancakes3 11 The Punkyova 10 gwendee 9 Mississippienne 9 rhubarbarin 9 Ostrya 9 ataraxy22 9 Valgard 9 purplehorseshoe 9 ñañi 9 interface2x 8 Jimmy Chitwood 8 Time Stranger 8 CandidGamera 8 Tanaqui 8 Maastricht 8 sisu 8 kmshrader 8 want2befree 8 Quasimodal 8 Ruken 7 Macnbaish 7 Munch 7 DiosaBellissima 7 Weeping Wyvern 7 Rex Goliath 7 Curiosity Kills Her 7 The wind of my soul 7 amanset 7 Tom Scud 6 JackieLikesVariety 6 Rasa 6 cuauhtemoc 6 Noodles Fellicini 6 JessMagic 6 Rachellelogram 6 you with the face 5 DingoelGringo 5 Green Bean 5 Agent Foxtrot 5 SeamusMcCool 5 Ellen Cherry 5 2gigch1 5 Rala 5 GIGObuster 4 d1a1s1 4 Khaki Campbell 4 jayrey 4 Really Not All That Bright 4 mittu 4 The Tao’s Revenge 4 stpetey77 4 vandal 4 BigT 4 Purple Scottie 3 Fuzzy Dunlop 3 2ManyTacos 3 xizor 3 Bad News Baboon 3 Yumblie 3 Bijou Drains 3 Qin Shi Huangdi 3 Yes, I Know That Color 3 Slithy Tove 3 ~Olive~ 3 colander 3 alexandra 3 Bexan 3 FBJJ 3 MannyL 3 Madeline\_m57 3 OpalCat 2 Omar Little 2 wayward 2 SirRay 2 breaking-reality 2 Fried Dough Ho 2 grama 2 slm2955 2 BlinkingDuck 2 Cicero 2 fifty-six 2 A Spoonful of Awesome 2 MareIt 2 Stendhal Syndrome 2 doctor krieger 2 Love Rhombus 2 lavenderviolet 2 Dervorin 2 Sleeps With Butterflies 2 Bri2k 2 Darth Sensitive 2 Disposable Hero 2 \<\<\< Deleting all the 1-post names \>\>\> Show Thread & Close Window ++++++++++++++++++++ ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/115 "2014-12-15T15:01:48Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > IMO, it takes at least 15 years and 24,000 posts to become an established poster. I should be there in about 5 months. > > In all seriousness, I think it is the point when people start associating your user name with specific content, even things that you wrote years or more before, and can refer to it from memory. I don’t really want to be associated with some of it in my case but I wrote it so it is a fair target. You mean like your posts about high school perversity in 1980’s rural Louisiana? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/116 "2014-12-15T15:38:36Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I always felt bad that person who actually said “Hi, Opal” doesn’t get remembered or credit for the board meme to nearly the same degree as Opal did herself. > > Anyone remember who was the poster who created the meme, because I don’t right now. I was curious about this as well, so I spent some time digging into it. It apparently started during the AOL days, from which records have not survived. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/117 "2014-12-15T16:11:30Z")
> [@jimbuff314](#): > > I was curious about this as well, so I spent some time digging into it. It apparently started during the AOL days, from which records have not survived. I think after Opal died someone mentioned the posters name in the memorial thread. I’ll try to check there. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/118 "2014-12-15T17:16:22Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I’ve met **Quasimodem** (now apparently **Quasimodal** ) in real life. I think that counts. > > Super nice guy, if you’re wondering. > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > A classic newby mistake, combining two different posters into one. 😃 I still consider myself a newbie, even after a decade… ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/119 "2014-12-15T20:07:13Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Same here. I don’t feel established yet. For better or worse some of my threads are memorable. Quite a few are better left in the past. What was I thinking? 😛 > > I battle insomnia and posting helps pass the hours. I’d say you’re quite established, ace. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953/120 "2014-12-15T22:45:36Z")
> [@bump](#): > > You mean like your posts about high school perversity in 1980’s rural Louisiana? 😃 That’s one of the first posts by Shagnasty I ever read; imagine the first impression I got :eek:. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-one-become-an-established-poster/706953.md?page=7)