Sciencemadness Discussion Board

site going down

azo - 31-5-2011 at 04:25

I have been a member here for some time ,learnt lots from this site and it gives me great pleasure seeing the amount of young people that are engoying chemistry. THE FUTURE LOOKS GOOD
But of recent times i think the site is going down hill,there seems to be a lot of rubbish being posted as well as advertisments.You post something one day and you would be lucky if it is on the same page the next day.

maybe i am wrong.


regards azo:(

hissingnoise - 31-5-2011 at 05:03

Our moods colour our perceptions . . .
The forum isn't going downhill - but we all get our downbeat times, don't we?


LanthanumK - 31-5-2011 at 05:21

If you see an ad, just press the "report" button in the top right corner of the ad and it will send a U2U to all admins notifying them.

woelen - 31-5-2011 at 06:31

I do not agree that the board is going downhill. We indeed suffer from a lot of spamming the last few weeks, but that is not the same as the board going downhill. Still there are many interesting posts and people doing nice syntheses and experiments. Even young and unexperienced people can add interesting ideas and it is good to see young people experimenting and learning and sometimes being bitten by the goddess of chemistry (mewrox99 ;) ).

It would be good if some technical solution can be found to the highly irritating issue of spam. Maybe such a solution is present in the next release of the forum software ??

The WiZard is In - 31-5-2011 at 06:48

Quote: Originally posted by azo  
I have been a member here for some time ,learnt lots from this site and it gives me great pleasure seeing the amount of young people that are engoying chemistry. THE FUTURE LOOKS GOOD
But of recent times i think the site is going down hill,there seems to be a lot of rubbish being posted as well as advertisments.You post something one day and you would be lucky if it is on the same page the next day.

maybe i am wrong. regards azo:(

I would agree only to the extent that there is a lot more
How can I do this then I did this and... or how can I do it better.
However my Tilting at Windmill's days are long behind me therefore,
I except what is. The is- on the whole is not bad.

m1tanker78 - 31-5-2011 at 07:27

I haven't been a member for that long but I've noticed a marked slowing of activity, IMO. I believe a lot of the younger members are busy preparing to take final exams. It seems that a lot of 'super n000bies' get run out of town, too (or get their feelings hurt a little too easily?).

As for the spam attacks, maybe SM admin should implement a system where new members' first 5 or 10 posts need approval before appearing in the forum. Seems to me it would be a lot less burden on the moderators to approve a few new posts than to sort through hundreds(?) of U2U messages where members have reported a few spam posts. This should also cut down on drug-related postings and other prohibited material, IMO.

Tank

hkparker - 31-5-2011 at 13:21

Quote: Originally posted by m1tanker78  
As for the spam attacks, maybe SM admin should implement a system where new members' first 5 or 10 posts need approval before appearing in the forum. Seems to me it would be a lot less burden on the moderators to approve a few new posts than to sort through hundreds(?) of U2U messages where members have reported a few spam posts. This should also cut down on drug-related postings and other prohibited material, IMO.


I think thats something to consider. I don't think the site is going downhill but I haven't been here too long.

BromicAcid - 31-5-2011 at 14:55

Things I've noticed:

<b>Discussions nullified due to safety concerns. </b>

A recent example being:

"Hi, I want to discuss making Cu(II) fluoride as a means to make fluorine."

Response#1
You're Crazy

Response #2
That's dangerous

Response #3
Finally someone joins the discussion.

That post made me dredge up my old post on electrochemical fluorine production where I was thinking about making a cell. Responses were more along the lines of "You know, you can pick up calcium fluoride for your viewing window in a rock shop"

Hell yeah what we do can be dangerous, but everything is dangerous. If you want to enumerate the dangers of a procedure you parlay into them using a relevant response.

<b>Posters being too defensive and / or jumping to conclusions</b>

More people than usual are seemingly unable to admit their mistakes. They defend ideas as they are stripped away until their only defense lies in some mundane wording in the initial response.

"Well, of course when I said there was no orbital interaction in that post I meant the 1s orbital!"

These are usually the same posters that jump into something and say that a given reaction is impossible or someone is flat-out wrong without any backup. ANYONE can say someone is wrong, but when you do it with a one word answer, well, anyone can do that too. If you're going to answer a post, answer a post or let it sit.

<b>tl;dr</b>

If you're going to respond to a thread, at least read it, the phosphorous thread is pretty bad in spots from the same ideas coming up.

<b>Picking apart answers</b>

We have all kinds here. Some people are arm chair chemists, some bench chemists, some wish they were chemists, and others are backyard chemists. There are others too and lately there have been more people on this forum that would make a nice one sentence reply like:

You forgot research chemists :P

Let's face it, chemistry tends to stretch to the infinity along the horizon and we could fill books (and some people have) with exceptions to rules or trying to give the most comprehensive answer to a question (A comprehensive treatise on inorganic and theoretical chemistry anyone?). Sometimes I don't like to answer posts to questions I cannot answer with 100% certainty because I know someone will come along and think of the exception and then post that with a cocky little emoticon. So long as the overall picture is correct it's a good answer, that's what really counts. And exceptions should be explained, not pointed out with glee as if by pointing out the failure of the previous post you boost yourself up to International Hazard level.

Wait... what was my point here?

woelen - 31-5-2011 at 22:24

One of the persons in this thread pointed out that there is a slowdown of real activity and yes, I can confirm that. More people are posting in all kinds of threads and sometimes the most weird (and most likely impossible) reactions are posted, but I would say: experiment more and then post your results.

Exotic chemistry can indeed be very interesting but just posting at random some reaction equations without any scientific backup and using chemicals which are beyond everyones reach over here and even beyond the reach of most respected labs is not interesting at all.

azo - 1-6-2011 at 00:38

glee as if by pointing out the failure of the previous post you boost yourself up to International Hazard


I don't no who you are refering to bromic acid but personly i couldn't care.
The amount of time i have being visiting this site i could have posted a lot more times than 100 times , and besides the only hazard i am worried about is hazard to myself.
Also thanks lanthanunk for the tip on the report button i was not aware of that,i suppose the quicker the moderators no the the faster they can attend to it.


regards azo

starman - 1-6-2011 at 11:24

It depends on how you define "going down". I've been studying (non professionally) chemistry for more than 30 years and still I learn something new almost every time I visit here.
(maybe i'm a slow learner;) )
Still a little more patience and kindness wouldn't go astray.When researchinig through the older threads there seems more of a camraderie and less analysis of motive.
A little more debating a topic on merit and a little less character assasination.

LanthanumK - 1-6-2011 at 12:03

Some analysis of motive is needed for a potentially illegal question like "What is the best way to blow up a house?" For a more legitimate post, entire replies should not be comprised of safety concerns; instead, a 1-sentence addition to the reply can be added on, stating the dangers of the process if the process has extraordinary dangers, such as the production of F2 gas.

The WiZard is In - 1-6-2011 at 16:50

Quote: Originally posted by LanthanumK  
Some analysis of motive is needed for a potentially illegal question like "What is the best way to blow up a house?" For a more legitimate post, entire replies should not be comprised of safety concerns; instead, a 1-sentence addition to the reply can be added on, stating the dangers of the process if the process has extraordinary dangers, such as the production of F2 gas.

entire replies should not be comprised of safety concerns...

Forsooth!

Too mention safety here is to shake the trees
and watch the nuts fall out.

djh
----
In nature there are neither rewards
nor punishments;
there are consequences.

Robert Green Ingersoll

quicksilver - 2-6-2011 at 05:12

Quote: Originally posted by LanthanumK  
Some analysis of motive is needed for a potentially illegal question like "What is the best way to blow up a house?" For a more legitimate post, entire replies should not be comprised of safety concerns; instead, a 1-sentence addition to the reply can be added on, stating the dangers of the process if the process has extraordinary dangers, such as the production of F2 gas.



Let's see how long a post lasts here with the interjection of a questions such as "What is the best way to blow up a house?"

In fact, where has such a query existed?

Eliteforum - 8-6-2011 at 04:32

All forums have swings and roundabouts. Spam is a problem you have to deal with on any forum.