Anonymity

Who writes these posts and threads?

One of the greatest things in life is figuring things out about others. Not for the purpose of using that information against them, but to understand their point of view. My desire in life is always try to understand others based on where they're coming from, though that does not mean that I will believe or act as they do.

So, let me take a few posters and expound.

<b>Emerald</b>
Why does Emerald choose to represent herself with an animated GIF emerald as an avatar? It is a cool avatar to be sure, but why that one? What is meant by the nickname of Emerald? Perhaps her avatar could also be seen as a diamond. Diamonds are stones (gems?) which have undergone immense pressure to become what they are. Diamonds, or emeralds for that matter, usually contain many angles, with smooth, almost linear planes--suggesting an amazing ability to look at an issue from different angles, while still maintaining fluidity and a sureness.

<b>tiassa</b>
Having studied Spanish and being able to speak Japanese, I have often wondered if there was some play-on foreign language interpretation of this nickname. But I haven't debunked it just yet. Perhaps it's just some random nickname, but I don't think so. I think it has some form of historical significance. This tiassa is one of those few people in the world that sees the lunacy of others' thoughts but doesn't try to demean them when he points this out. Since tiassa has an almost inexhaustible means of drawing upon varying references, it stands to reason that tiassa has a most comprehensive (and possibly eclectic) array of literature. Like some of the people on this forum (myself included) tiassa is probably one of those people that reads nearly constantly.

<b>Cris</b>
Despite the hard-lined exterior coating of science-based thoughts, Cris has the ability to convey ideas in easier-to-understand terms. He claims that he is not book-smart (I think?), but I beg to differ. Cris provokes readers with insights into the practicality of ideas rather than as to whether the ideas are right or wrong. But why thumper (as an avatar)? Perhaps it is because thumper was one of the characters that seemed to have his head on his shoulders and was pretty much independent from everyone else.

<b>Malaclypse</b>
Cool nickname. Self-described as the Perturber, Malaclypse quite frequently answers posts with one- or two-liners that don't necessarily offend, but don't really give away any hint at sarcasm or genuineness. In short, Malaclypse keeps people guessing. And, of course, Malaclypse has an excellent avatar.

<b>FA_Q2</b>
In response to one of Lyndale's vain attempts to get fame about his demon-possessing basement, FA_Q2 responded with something that I found profoundly hilarious: "What are you circling? What am I looking at?" It took someone else to point out that FA_Q2 could be pronounced in a different manner. Not quite sure on FA_Q2, but I'm pretty sure he's quite the responsible person. Doesn't leave things unfinished and pursues things until an answer is either found or, at least, addressed.

<b>wet1</b>
Seems like a person that likes to keep things in line; makes sure that things don't get too out of line, so to speak. He would be the kind of guy that would probably mediate a discussion or argument between friends. Most likely well-balanced in his approaches to discussions, and wet1 adds a sense of functionality to his posts.

<b>ripleofdeath</b>
Cracks me up. Some of the things this guy says reminds me of a New Zealander I met while in Japan of all places. But both my friend and rip tend to say some pretty off the wall things, which gets me thinking along different paths than I'm used to. I'd say ripleofdeath has the ability to evoke thought and at least a smile out of the readers of his post.

<b>mirror</b>
Exceptionally selective in his responses. Has an amazing ability to only answer what someone questions him. (Sure there are anomalies). Initially, I thought the identity of mirror was someone I knew until I realized that mirror's thoughts and posts are quite well-thought out, which suggests a fair amount of either perfectionism or an extremely thorough mind. Either one is a positive attribute.

<b>HOWARDSTERN</b>
Has an exceptional natural talent to offend, but every once in a while, he throws out sentences where I have to say to myself, "Wow, that's pretty good. That obviously took some thought to formulate." Not to say that STERN is inept, just that his thoughts are more tangent than linear. But, he's another one that adds a fair amount of humor to the discussions.

<b>pragmathen</b>
Hey, where's my couch?

P.S. I, of course, meant no offense in this. Also, if I forgot some other posters (and I'm sure I did), I'm sorry--time constraints. It just acted as an exercise of thought, something to think about. I know I portray myself in certain lights to specific readers. Just letting you know how one reader sees you. I guess the cool thing about Anonymity is the potential to say what you really think.

thanks,

prag

 

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Actually, I prefer OUR Howard

Seattle had a disaster: our prize morning show (Bob Rivers) departed KISW 99.9 FM. The new morning show apparently sucks. To be honest, I occasionally listen to NPR and a few low-dial stations now and then (KPLU 88.5, KCMU 90.3, KBCS 91.3 ... I feel like endorsing public radio for a moment, excuse me ....) but I generally don't listen to the radio. In fact, some friends and I won a trivia contest for cash at a local bar, and during the a hometown trivia segment (a badly-written series of "grunge" questions that resulted in a near brawl over the location of the Cobain rally), the host asked how many people listened to the radio; nobody raised their hand, and I'm kind of proud of that, in a weird way. Anyway, to replace the failing morning show, KISW has rolled over and booked Howard Stern feeds for their morning show; Seattle is no longer Stern-free, and I'm just a little upset about it.

Our Howard, despite the rants that even I have excoriated, gives a damn, at least. He is, to my impression, more intelligent than Howard Stern, but that still sounds insulting, so, Howie, I'm sorry to compare you to Senor Stern at all.

A note on the Tiassa: see http://www.dreamcafe.com

A tiassa is a cat-like creature in the mythical world of Steven K. Z. Brust, pjf. Mr Brust has accomplished something rarely done: he has added a number of fantasy novels to my bookshelf. I envisioned myself a horror writer, but presently I'm outgunned by my idols, Bradbury, Barker, and Lovecraft. I'll meet science fiction halfway: again, I have the luxury of Bradbury; Lindholm's Alien Earth is flat-out amazing. ( http://www.sfsite.com/isfdb-bin/pbiblio.cgi?Megan_Lindholm )

A Tiassa is one of the seventeen houses of the Dragaeran Cycle in Brust's tales of Vlad Taltos. As the houses bear certain characteristics of their animal namesakes, a Tiassa is, well, a tiassa. ( http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/brust/cycle.html )

It so happens, that, beyond the obvious choice of Vlad as my favorite of Brust's Taltos-cycle tales, there is also the premier Tiassa, one Khaavren of Castlerock, mentioned in the Taltos cycle--introduced, I believe, in Teckla, where we see an aged Brigadier of the Phoenix (Imperial, Royal, &c.) Guard. The Khaavren Romances, apparently a loving tribute to Dumas, center around the adventures of Khaavren of Castlerock. Though the site will no longer reflect it, I believe my original and occasional-since signature line has been a quote of Khaavren's, from Phoenix Guards: Let us not launch the boat until the ground is wet.

Or, as our dear, departed Mr Adams would say (and only because it's the first time the connection has hit me): Don't panic.

I am obliged, however, to go get drunk now. Really. It's my duty.

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thanx much,
Tiassa

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Posters

Always curious to see how others see things. Never thought I made much of an impact other than being opinionated. As I haven't been here very long I am indeed surprised to be included in such company. How odd. However I do enjoy such boards as constantly new things are learned. You just have to hang around a bit.

pragmathen
BTW, I like your avatar. (Been meaning to make that comment.)

 

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Exactly

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<i>Originally posted by wet1:</i>
Always curious to see how others see things.
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I so much agree with this point. When I was in Japan for a while, I would take a break from what I was doing at the time and just find a table where I could eat my lunch and observe people. People watching is fun and soon patterns can be recognized. Noticing patterns from writings is no less entertaining. I realize that people do not like to be classified or categorized, but being quantified does not automatically enclose the person.

I used to give talks on certain subjects and whenever I could, I would use the name and experience of a person in the audience, because I knew what effect it would have on them. People like to be recognized, especially if it's for good. Recognizing the bad in people is a no-brainer, while seeing the good takes a bit of effort and genuine inspection, I like to think.

Suffice to say that I agree with your point, wet1.

BTW, thanks for the comment about the avatar. I wanted an animated GIF, and hunted far and wide for something I could attach my nickname to that happened to be under 2k.

thanks,

prag

 

So right

<b>tiassa</b>,

Howard Stern, the radio dysfunctionist, is such an insult. People that go on the Springer show clearly do not represent the best that society has to offer. In fact, Springer-ites are the antithesis to intellectual development and evolution. Sometimes I think that Darwinian principles take an unlikely detour around the mentality that thinks only in terms of the closest blood relative that's safe to have intercourse with.

So, yes, I agree with you that our Howard has class, while Mr Stern has crass.

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<font size="1">quote:</font>
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<i>Originally posted by tiassa:</i>
<b>A note on the Tiassa</b>: see <url>http://www.dreamcafe.com</url>
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</blockquote>

I checked this site out and I must admit that I had not heard of this author up to this point in my life. But that may be excused since I have not delved too deeply into fantasy-fiction. That may change, however. I have read nearly everything by Asimov and several books and essays by Bradbury, although I must admit I haven't touched Barker or Lovecraft. Though my mother is a horror-book afficianado, I tend towards science-fiction. Hamilton, Simmons, Donaldson (although the door swings both ways for this one), Zahn come to mind. Although I'm not entirely sure what relevance this has to your post, perhaps it gives an inkling into what pragmathen means to me, just as what you wrote gives some meaning into what <b>tiassa</b> means to you.

Since I am one of those people that likes to read as much as is possible, I am sure I will get to those books you mentioned. The <i>Alien Earth</i> one, in particular, I will be searching around for.

As a side question: Does anyone besides me take breaks from books by reading <i>other books</i>? For example, I may be reading some sci-fi from Card, enter a pretty boring part, take a break from it, and then read King's <i>It</i> in the interim. Do others do this as well? Perhaps others read books concurrently. Those that love to read must either take breaks or read books concurrently. Just thought I would ask.

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Well, blast! I don't think I really added much to what you had to say, tiassa, but this is where my mind took me on this jaunt. Thanks for the response.

prag

 

Unfortunately, I left out another top mind (I'm sure).

<b>Boris</b>
Contains a near-encylcopaedic knowledge of science and science-based phenomena, with an equally impressive grasp on language skills, Boris brings a science perspective to sciforums. Seems to me to be the embodiment of the scientific method. Indefatigable.

<b>Rambler</b>
Offers some poignant and very funny opinions and side commentary. True to his nickname, Rambler rarely posts threads, but, instead, feels very comfortable with commenting and replying from time to time.

<b>Porfiry</b>
A.k.a. Dave Watanabe, aka the webmaster (I suppose). Since this site has managed to keep several people for many months, I hope Porfiry sees this as a testament to his contribution on this forum. Seems like he would be one of the kinds of people that others would love to have as a boss. Thanks!

Again, I have forgotten others. But the point is to show that to be heard, one must be seen. So please continue to post thoughts and debates! As <b>wet1</b> said in another post, it's pretty certain that others read what you have to say--they may just not know what to respond with or they don't want to, but it doesn't discount the fact that it was read.

thanks,

prag

 

Prag,

Neat.

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Cris

 

Aaaaahhh ... this is fun

What a scary question.

Not because the answer is yes, mind you--and it is. Rather, it's because for all the people around me think they know me, none ever pay so much attention as to what books I'm carrying. At one point my backpack held Armstrong's A History of God, two or three .PDF's on drug policy, and anywhere between twenty and eighty pages of Exosci printouts (Trebuchet, "smallest" on IE)--even more when Bowser and I lit after each other during election season--and a copy of Salinger's Raise High the Roof Beams Carpenters, and Seymour. I generally try not to think about it.

For the record, that backpack currently contains:

* 1 .pdf, from the CATO Institute Briefing Papers, #50, 8/26/1999: Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments, by Diane Cecilia Weber

* 2 printouts from Sciforums, from a few weeks ago (I was still banging heads with Tony1)

* 1 copy The Economist, 359:8223, 5/26-6/1/2001

* 1 copy The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, by H. P. Lovecraft, added this morning, in fact

* 1 photocopy of a Sufi dervish story, Why the Clay Birds Flew Away

* 1 copy Persian Letters, by Montesquieu, trans. Christopher J Betts

* 1 copy The Myth of Sisyphus & Other Essays, by Albert Camus (I've been neglecting two essays at the end of the book ....)

* 1 copy The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels (really--are you surprised?)

And one CD, Everybody's Angel by Tanita Tikaram (with Belle & Sebastian actually in the walkman), some party invitations, a few dead batteries, a couple of live batteries, and other stuff you don't care about.

But, to be absolutely honest, I'll probably read from any three of those through the bus trips to and from work, and as you can tell, I forget to clean it out from time to time.

To be more accurate, my attention is torn more specifically between the Manifesto, which I read in chunks over the period of years, but have never done in one clean reading; Montesquieu, which I failed to read in college by will of beer and a pain in the ass girlfriend; and Lovecraft, which I've undertaken for the same reasons, and because I'm reading it as a story construction this time: I want to see its bones. I'm neglecting Camus, which sits in the spare pocket with the CD, which gets changed in every couple of days. The Economist is a minor distraction, though some guy in South Africa is claiming that the Union Jack and all its produce is noble, though prompted by an American, and some guy in Thousand Oaks thinks that Europe is morally depraved; though last week's issue offered a touching obit to Douglas Adams, as well as a downright hilarious apologia regarding a prior story on the McVeigh execution; the quasi-retraction containing the phrase, "we should have known all along that the Bureau would cock it up in the end."

But now that I look at it the mess of it in front of me ... it's kind of ridiculous.

Is any of it relevant? No, probably not. Has any of it greater substance than, say, cheap post-libertarian bluster? Well, maybe just a bit. But still ... I excuse myself because it seems the point of the topic.

thanx kindly indeed,
Tiassa

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Just to add my own ...

Here's what's currently in my bag, although it's nowhere near as many books or essays as you've got:

*<i>The Two Towers</i> (this is the one I'm taking a mild break from)

*<i>The Tommyknockers</i> by Stephen King (just added this one today)

*<i>Purity and Exile</i> by Liisa Malkki (about the genocides in Burundi, hence some of the inspiration behind a few of my posts)

*<i>Seeing Krishna</i> by Margaret H. Case (just started this as well)

*A few HTML and Javascript programming books

*<i>One last time</i> by John Edwards (hence my post about the supernatural)

*A soon-to-be-but-as-yet-unreleased paperback copy of <i>The Sea of Silver Light</i> by Tad Williams (final volume in a four-book series)

*<i>Our Dumb Century</i> by The Onion

*<i>War and Peace</i> by Tolstoy, though I've been on a sabbatical from this one for well over two years (read the first two hundred pages and then it abruptly switched stories on me)

Naturally, not all of these are in my bag, but these are the current books on my menu. I cannot do justice to how much significance reading has in my life.

thanks,

prag

 

Odd man out

Sorry folks, don't carry a bag. Or at least not one for books. Did I say that?

I am occasionally guilty of cracking more than one cover at a time. But those are rare happenings. I like to get into a good read and then submerse myself into the authors creation. Get a good walk-a-bout within that world.

 

What matters, <b>wet1</b>, is that you read. Out of all the people in my family (us kids, that is), I'm the only one that loves to read books constantly. My younger brother runs a decent second, but the other two don't even come close. Perhaps as they get older, that will change, but I have reservations as to that prognosis.

Wouldn't it be interesting to have (accurate) lists of the books that various people have read just to see if they've read some of the obscure ones as well?

On a completely different topic, can you believe that <b>tiassa</b> has well over 1700 posts! Amazing.

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So you now see my amazement when I first read the thread! Like you I have only been here since March and that doesn't add up to very long as with some of the true "senior members". For some reason a lot of the members set store by the change in ranking from member to senior and so change it prior to the actual event. If there is such an event.

Something does not add up here. Tiassa has well over 1700 posts! And a date that does not match the admin's. I suspect that there are two reasons.

• 
  
  [*]That the post totals are carried over from an earlier version of the exosci than the present reincarnation.
  
  [*]That the admin has recently changed his avatar and very possibily reregistered for what ever purpose.
  
  

I was the luckly one in that my mother was a school teacher and set me on the road to reading at a young age. Somewhere along the way I discovered that not only could you get meaning from the printed word but you could get help whenever you needed it, night or day, at your disposal and at any time. Got a problem with the computer? The car? The job? Relationships? You name it and you can find it. It is indeed rare to have such experience in the classroom if you study. Rarer yet to have it on call if and when needed on demand.

 

The answer is A

Dave mentioned he'd get around to fixing the number; nearly 1500 of those disappeared from the count (but not the archive ... no, no, no ...) with the new Sciforums. It happens; it took Prag's mentioning it for me to realize that the number was corrected. (Thanks, Dave

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)

If only my fiction was this prolific ....

thanx,
Tiassa

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A & B are both correct. B is correct as I added the "Porfiry" account when I set up the new software earlier this year (formerly known as "DaveW"). There are a total of 26000+ posts in total (many of which are in the Archives), a large percentage of were imported from the old system -- likewise many of our members joined pre-sciforums. I've been meaning to count the bytes / words posted in total, because I'm sure I'll be blown away by the sheer size. It's quite the massive accumulation of information.

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An interesting statistic is the posts per day for each member -- you can find this under the profile. According to this, wet1, you're actually outpacing tiassa!

 

Really, I'm not doing the Hulka bit ... I swear!

And one to be proud of. Dave, you've given us the means, and look how many people have contributed. Anyone here remember when they groaned at the notion of a 500-word essay in school?

It has been determined, recently and while running through a couple of Mac-related posts in the Feedback forum with a friend of mine, that should I ever be so interesting to the world as to require a biography, this site will receive more than cursory mention.

Though it's been mentioned and inquired (in general) before, there are two primary reasons I started posting here: Exercise (even if my fictional creativity is in the ditch, at least I'm using words) and education (I've come to realize more difficulties in communicating with an audience via the written word than I've ever encountered or conceived).

But there's a hell of a lot of information here, with a tremendous quantity of thought-based electricity devoted to it.

And as Howard mentioned in another thread, there's a civility generally present here that doesn't exist elsewhere. Even amid our worst fights, we do not resemble the rhetorical trash flung about as high art at other sites, where "F--k the Jews!" is considered a solid thesis.

And, since I've digressed to that point ... Dave--you mentioned the cross-section of society in response to Howard's observations abroad. Ever catch Maher's PI Poll? The only significant point I can raise is that every now and then the opinion result is humorously askew, at which point Bill has reminded his audience to, "Remember that these are people who spend that much time in front of their computers." It was clearly a slam at internet users, but what I find ironic at least is the notion that the culture has largely swung to meet it at least halfway in many respects. Check the proofreading of a metropolitan newspapers: the greater the automation, the less precision in the proof. Some newspapers now resemble netspeak in that most of the words are misspelled, modernized, buzzwords, or even brand new words made up by underqualified writers or editors. Sentence structure is ludicrous and the result of focusing journalism on "career" aspecs--e.g. finance, lexical economization, PR, portfolio "design", &c.--is becoming rather quite apparent. The e-culture is meeting the Culture, and it is not annexation, conquest, or dominance taking place, but a nasty mesh of individualist convention that would make anarchists proud, if only they would chill out long enough to subscribe to an ISP.

I remember a strange thing at Exosci, whereby the forum participants eventually admonished people for picking on spelling and grammatical difficulties; insofar as we could understand the posts, it seemed no reason for people to reject ideas just because the wrods wren't speled write. Subtle, perhaps, but it's amazing what that accomplishes. Personally, I've been in the thick of some of our ugliest mudslinging, and also a motivating factor on several occasions. (I mean, really ... at some point it becomes apparent to all of us that I've abandoned my initial principles and enacted my childish reserves here and there; turns out it was fun, and I still think I was right, but please don't ever find me holding those periods among my proudest work ....) But even the nastiest fights we've had here don't resemble an irie day at other boards.

All of this, I suppose, to say that not only have folks laid down a tremendous amount of information, it is also of impressive quality and of dignity that is perhaps exemplary. We debate, argue, even lay into one another. But if y'all look at how we behave here, y'all're Anarchists at heart. (I couldn't resist .... Well, you are.

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And shall we see how many silly contractions I can invent tonight?) But seriously, I'm not joking when I say the posters should be proud of their work.

And Dave, I am not sarcastic about the importance of these forums; even if I resign myself to writing merely for exercise, and sack the intangible benefits of this sometimes-odd form of human interaction, I'm still producing more words and ideas than when I was concentrating solely on fiction. Truly, this site is just one of those things that is. It doesn't sell, it doesn't beg. It just is, and it accomplishes a good deal more in relation to its intent and purpose (for each user, not just our good Designer and Admin) than any commercial site. I'm tempted here to make a point about Apple and Windows, but that tells me I'm rambling too long here. So ... aw, heck.

A Windows designer would hire you for your technical skill and your ratings popularity (I mean, the user base is growing at a silly rate, I think, and especially for a non-commerce site). An Apple designer would recognize that you're more than simply competent at your work, and you also have a strange sense about the work you produce that can't be quantified, and that's why they'd hire you. As silly as it sounds, I can't pin down what's so damn unique about this site: Thus, it simply is. (Does that make it God?) But Exosci and now Sciforums is the evidence.

Okay ... must stop. I will stop now. This is what happens when you let a Tiassa think.

But, as to the massive accumulation of data ... I'll throw my initial guess at between 1.3 and 1.5 million. 26,000 posts at, say 500 words apiece (yeah, someone else work out the bell-curve on post length) ... and I'll throw my own contribution at just under 900,000, based on the simple multiplication. Last irrelevant note: buy RAM, kids ... I turned off my damn calculator extension for gaming ... how lazy am I that I won't buy 256 at fifty freakin' dollars?

Ah ... and since you're considering the count ... this post is exactly 6198 characters long.

There'd better be a God if you ever decide to clock our usage stats; God help me, then, if we ever have to see how much time I actually spend here. But, yes, everyone who participates ought to be real impressed, both with themselves, and moreso for Dave.

I swear I'm not doing my Bill Murray bit. I promise. Really, I'm not.

thanx,
Tiassa

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Dammit! I swear ...

That post is how I know Bill Clinton inhaled. Really, it's all proper sentiment and all, but heavens to begosians, I promise I'm not in love with you, man. I feel like I should do the Bugs Bunny routine, one lump or two, and smack you a couple of times just to offset the mush. But I won't retract a word of it.

I should extoll my fellow posters some more to camouflage myself. Yeah. That's it.

I'm going to go smoke a cigarette and ... I dunno ... grin at myself, or something.

thanx,
Tiassa

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It seems to be opionated is to be noticed. The more you are the more you have to say. Take a look at Howard or Tiassa or any of the othe posters mentioned. I really don't think that as a poster I'm am anything unusual. Most probably very much to the norm.

Bugs Bunny, uh? I might ask where the side kicks are. Supporting cast so to say. But I already know. It is the Exosci community. Each is the star and the rest the supporting cast.

 

Finding fact in others Lives

I personaly have learned a very good lesson on discovering others information. I was into genealogy! I found that not only are people set off by others that have found information, they do take this as a plot of some kind that must be designed to undo them. This results in putting ones self in a very dangerous situation, because people will try to undo you! It makes them feel vulnerable, and no matter what you tell them they feel threatened!

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JW

 

Was there ever unless you were a hermit or a mountain man?

What do you think 'gossip' is all about? And that's been around for a while ... quite a while.

 

NO OPINION ABOUT THECURLY1? I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS...

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LOL