signal-to-noise ratio

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 12:40 am

NOTE: this is not a personal attack-at- an individual. this is a rant containing my opinion about a -set of activities-. i know zero-zilch about this individual as a person. however this particular set of activities is really a drain on community resources, IMO. YMMV. TTYL. ROYGBIV.

there is a proverb that goes "don't speak unless you can improve the silence." however, the triple-threat posts penned under de facto/digiman/dvd burner heed no regard to this statement.

no matter what the topic, no matter the discussion, no matter the situation...whether the conversation needs another voice in it or is going along just swimmingly, thank-you-very-much...there is a comment.

a statement.

oftentimes only a sentence fragment.

and a ubiqitous smiley.

Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. - heinlein

these inane posts take up time, take up storage space (over SIX PERCENT OF THE 36,000+ posts on the eplaya so far...and counting!), and interrupt the flow of what, in many cases, could be a very rich conversation.

now, the question for the ages. "why?"

what is the incentive? is it the need to hear one's own voice? is it part of a contest, a snickering side-bet made between friends over a beer on the playa "hey...bet i can have the most posts on the eplaya." is it a particularly virulent form of trolling?

in fairness, there are a handful of posts that are on-topic, that are salient, that do help to promote community. but from my perspective, the signal-to-noise ratio is ridiculously out of whack. your opinion may differ.

there is one thing i do know, however. i know exactly how i'm going to fill up the the first three spots in my plonk list.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:21 am

And you're suggesting a practicable way to measure or rate noise vs. signal?

Alpha · Post by **Alpha** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:25 am

incredulously, Bob wrote:And you're suggesting a practicable way to measure or rate noise vs. signal?

I think it could be done, though I'm not sure it SHOULD be done on ePlaya. Imagine something like Yahoo Groups' "Recommend this post". Imagine instead that the dear reader could vote "signal" or "noise". If a certain post got enough votes one way or the other, it could be labeled as such.

Not that anything should be done after that point, unless perhaps we had a user preference for "Ignore noise posts."

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 10:18 am

How many votes does each family of socks get?

I have a few harsh words.

The thing is -- the previous WebX eplaya was a blank slate nominally divvied up into a few topics, some more topical than others. The current phpBB eplaya is not much different, even though I had in my mind a vision of the web team doing something more functionally creative with this new-fangled open-source treasure trove. Instead, it's still a basically unaltered port of off-the-shelf software, same as the WebX board, with a few additional graphical annoyances.

The good news -- I figure you can design your own experience here to a large extent, same as on the previous eplaya. And there is no one experience that can be designed for everybody.

If you want to avoid the blatherers, stick to the more topical topics and discuss until your fingers drop off. Avoid General Discussion and the sadly unspecific and undirected 2004 (?!?!) Newbies (!?!?) topic areas.

Or, if you wade into General Discussion and want to maintain a modicum of on-topicality, try asking others to stay on-topic; or ignore and post your own stream of on-topic posts.

Avoid polls, or beginning a thread with a stream of questions for which you obviously have your own answers, but refuse to offer them.

Go ahead and be opinionated, especially when you have the time & foresight to pre-edit your post in Word.

The more clever eplaya posts are like shining ropelights snaking through the broken-beer-bottle-like posts of the less clever. Be a ropelight, and link with ropelights of all colors, makes & wattages.

Sure, it requires the patience of a saint, nailed to a tree, bleeding, stuck with the arrows of outrageous de facto fortune, but then so do most theme camps or staff meetings.

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 10:27 am

pre-edit your post in Word.

holy shnikees! Does anyone actually do this? Coal meet ass. Ass meet diamond.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:00 am

And you're suggesting a practicable way to measure or rate noise vs. signal?

like so many other things, "i know it when i see it." and my definition of "signal" is going to vary from bob's, and vary from that of the others who have put thought into their posts.

i'm not suggesting there is a way to measure S:N...or that we even should measure it. the core of what i was clumsily proferring was wonderfully cast here:

bob wrote:The more clever eplaya posts are like shining ropelights snaking through the broken-beer-bottle-like posts of the less clever. Be a ropelight, and link with ropelights of all colors, makes & wattages.

Sure, it requires the patience of a saint, nailed to a tree, bleeding, stuck with the arrows of outrageous de facto fortune, but then so do most theme camps or staff meetings.

i will continue to strive for that. i also will continue to hit the "preview" button, and think to myself "does this post add to the conversation?" before hitting "submit" (and would hope that others will, too).

Chai Guy · Post by **Chai Guy** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:50 pm

this is my 500th post (Yay!)

only 1,236 more posts until I catch up to DVD Burner / DeFacto

(not counting socks of course, because I can't keep track of them all)

Sensei · Post by **Sensei** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 10:40 pm

I've been lurking (and occasionally posting) on the e-playa for a bit over five years now. We all have to endure a certain amount of B.S. on this (or any other) board; it comes with the place. Having said that, I'll take that creep ALLANON2, or whatever his name was, over our current over-emoting, over-posting irritant. Having to constantly step around his posts is the single most annoying, hell, the only annoying thing about the e-playa. He's everywhere.

So, I'm wishing for a plonker soon and trying hard to be patient.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 4:59 am

Sensei wrote: I'll take that creep ALLANON2, or whatever his name was, over our current over-emoting, over-posting irritant. Having to constantly step around his posts is the single most annoying, hell, the only annoying thing about the e-playa. He's everywhere.

So, I'm wishing for a plonker soon and trying hard to be patient.

I sent one-2-3 in already. You'll have to scream louder to get one implemented. In fact, I don't see any of the genius's on this thread doing much about a plonker or helping the admins in acquiring one. I see a lot of talkers.

On the east coast, people don't talk, they do. Anyone going to step up to the plate?

<sigh>

I did'nt think so.

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 9:15 am

On the east coast, people don't talk, they do. Anyone going to step up to the plate?

Physician, heal thyself.

Last Real Burner · Post by **Last Real Burner** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 8:40 pm

Badger wrote: Physician, heal thyself.

To The Boats

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 9:18 pm

Badger wrote: Physician, heal thyself.

PLONK

Badger realy sucks at this game.

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 1:54 am

Badger realy sucks at this game.

Yeah, and if you're looking for games why not log out and head over to alt.dungeons.dullards

You remain boring. Painfully so.

Tancorix · Post by **Tancorix** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 4:37 pm

Content does not mean smilies.

DF, are you adding content to the board with your posts? Content is king here. Always has been. Always will be.

And rumor has it that you no longer attend the event because it's too big. If your not attending BM, then why are you the main poster on this board? Why are you here instead of elsewhere? You have every right to be here...but this is a BM board. If your not going, if your not actively participating, then your....

just a spectator!

And you know what a vast majority of BM participants think of "spectators".

If your still going I apologize for the misconception. But if it's true than I feel it's a valid question to ask, especially considering your post count and the controversy your posts generate.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 4:58 pm

You know something,

many many years ago when I was in high school, in my senior year I wanted to go to the prom but my parents wouldn’t let me. They said something like, "you go to school for the education not for the parties and the rings nor the piece of paper.
I had a friend named Grace that also wanted to go to the prom but her folks couldn’t afford it. So as far as anyone in school knew, Grace and I weren’t going.

I busted my butt selling and installing HBO and WHT (as it was called at that time.) microwave dishes and made a pretty good living at it, saved my money, rented a limo and brought Grace the most beautiful dress ya ever seen. Of course for myself, all YSL attire, down to the underwear and socks and told Grace not to tell anyone.

Mr. K. you tend to fall for what others tell you from time to time. Go with what you know not what others tell you. Many here have lied about me many times. I've proven this time and time again.

Don’t worry about me. Just worry about yourself. And leave those other people alone. They are not good or healthy for you.

It's all about fun and love and the element of suprise.

III · Post by **III** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 5:58 pm

>>you go to school for the education

apparently they were wrong about that, as well.

btw , kinetic - i'm not sure attending the event should be a criteria for posting here. after all, most of us are *not* at the event while we're posting, which leaves most of the rest in the "have attended" or "will attend" camps, both of which may have valuable contributions regardless of how they actually feel about the event itself.

precipitate · Post by **precipitate** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 11:33 pm

> And you're suggesting a practicable way to measure or rate noise vs.
> signal?

For a herd of cats? No. For me? Yes. I'd like to be able to fairly easily
eliminate posters who exceed the 94% fluff posting rate.

But, as it's been pointed out, none of the smartypants has written
something to do that.

So, what's the community response to that? Do we ignore the 94% fluff?
Can you legislate that? Are we smart and strong enough to do it? Do we
need a separate forum to determine who warrants ignoring? Am I wearing
pants?

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 1:00 am

precipitate wrote: Am I wearing
pants?

Yes.

Suggestion: Stop taking the steroids and testosterone.

precipitate · Post by **precipitate** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 1:07 am

Suggestion: brain transplant.

:) you illiterate fuck

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 1:08 am

precipitate wrote:Suggestion: brain transplant.

you illiterate fuck

There is no way I'm giving my brain to you. You'll have to ask somebody else.

precipitate · Post by **precipitate** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 1:21 am

Once again, you deliberately misunderstand.

I suggest that your brain become brains and eggs. The best possible use I
could conceive.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 1:24 am

precipitate wrote:Once again, you deliberately misunderstand.

I suggest that your brain become brains and eggs. The best possible use I
could conceive.

It's ok, I understand. I can tell by the length of time it takes for you to think up some of this weak funky stuff.

S-L-O-WWW M-O-T-I-O-NNNN

III · Post by **III** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 8:02 am

tony - don't you find it pathetic that you have to drag a thread titled "signal to noise ratio" down into the dirt?

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 8:05 am

III wrote:tony - don't you find it pathetic that you have to drag a thread titled "signal to noise ratio" down into the dirt?

You dumb dumbs ask me a question and expect me to answer. I do accordingly.

Dont you get tired of fucking with me?

SO STOP!

Plain and simple.

Fuck Off.

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 8:53 am

DVD,

You told me yourself, in person, that you don't go to Burning Man anymore. Remember? We were smoking a cigarette outside of Alice's house, and you told me that you stopped going a while back and don't want to go anymore because it had gotten too big.

This is no lie. So can you address Tancorix's question now?

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 8:58 am

Dont you get tired of fucking with me?

And I'd ask if you don't get tired of continually opening yourself up for the torrent of ridicule that your half-wit posts consistently garner?

tony - don't you find it pathetic that you have to drag a thread titled "signal to noise ratio" down into the dirt?

It'd be really interesting to see you take a stab at actually answering III's question rather than the usual deflection you exhibit when someone corners you on your routinely vacuous replies. Hell, we're still waiting for you to elaborate on what part the 99% of e-playans aren't 'getting' about your insufferable posting history or what you sought to prove by running the e-playa into a ditch a while back when you blasted us with 1000+ posts of vapid nothings as part of your little social experiment.

Still waiting for those answers Tony. Starting with II's would be a good start though.

herself · Post by **herself** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 9:12 am

Oh my god the same people are having the same arguments as before!!!!!!!!

[maybe the other forums will be better]

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 9:39 am

So now that was the quickest way that I could get that outta the way for y'all at the same time. no need for me to broadcast for any longer length of time. If you did'nt read the last retracted post then too bad or PM me.

herself wrote:Oh my god the same people are having the same arguments as before!!!!!!!!

[maybe the other forums will be better]

Wow!

Hi Harriet. Nice seeing you again. Yes the same 'ol BS. sad to say.
And they just keep increasing my post count over some simple shit.

How are you?

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 11:12 am

S/N
QED
or perhaps
QEI

DangerMouse · Post by **DangerMouse** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 11:44 am

This thread is quickly becoming what I'd imagine a train wreck on the Playa would look like...

signal-to-noise ratio

signal-to-noise ratio

Fore-e-e-e-e-e-e!!........