2016 PF Betterment Survey

[Greg Bernhardt]

Physics Forums is a diverse community consisting of many age groups, nationalities, education backgrounds and professions. To improve, it's important for the community to communicate its frustrations and needs. It is your duty as a member to provide such feedback. After all we're all in this together. Let's all do our part in making PF the best it can be. Now is your time with this easy 3 question survey. Do not hold back and feel free to list all those little things you've thought about when using the community.

To help provide more incentive than just helping make PF better, if you provide your username you'll be put into a drawing. 5 members will be chosen to receive a PF t-shirt and 5 members will receive gold membership. The drawing will occur on Jan 26th.

Fill out the survey here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SFKV7NX

 

[Drakkith]

My only complaint is that the last batch of PF T-shirts only came in sizes Small, XXL, and Corgi.
Greg, you should give away free gold memberships to all members who put their corgis in PF shirts. For science!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

My only complaint is that the last batch of PF T-shirts only came in sizes Small, XXL, and Corgi.
Greg, you should give away free gold memberships to all members who put their corgis in PF shirts. For science!

Truth be told half our members are actually Corgi's

 

[Drakkith]

Truth be told half our members are actually Corgi's

@phinds, did you sign your extended family up?

 

[phinds]

@phinds, did you sign your extended family up?

Nah, my only litter of two has flown the coop and the wife refuses to have another. Says we're too old. My daughter's in Laos, which is not too bad, but my son is living in another culture entirely. He's in Brooklyn.

 

[Drakkith]

My daughter's in Laos, which is not too bad, but my son is living in another culture entirely. He's in Brooklyn.

Oh! The horror!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Already some really great feedback is coming in!

 

[davenn]

OK , voiced my complaints ... the list is a mile long haha

 

[Isaac0427]

I didn't put this in my submission but just out of curiosity, why do we have a relationship forum?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I didn't put this in my submission but just out of curiosity, why do we have a relationship forum?

General Discussion was being overrun by such threads. We thought it better they be stored in a subforum.

 

[argus733]

Predictable.

 

[UncertaintyAjay]

why do we have a relationship forum?

You're kidding. Who would ask about that on a physics forum?

 

[haushofer]

When your marriage is suffering under your PhD, to name one thing. :P

 

[UncertaintyAjay]

Haha

 

[Jerry sanka]

I think it's good have just joined

 

[Isaac0427]

You're kidding. Who would ask about that on a physics forum?

That was my point. I didn't get why we have one.

 

[Drakkith]

That was my point. I didn't get why we have one.

Well, why have a general discussion subforum at all? Who would want that on a forum for physics?

The answer is that this site may focus on physics, but people enjoy discussing other things too.

 

[UncertaintyAjay]

The answer is that this site may focus on physics, but people enjoy discussing other things too

Hmmmm. Touche.

 

[Jenny Sumler]

Nice

 

[Yashbhatt]

My complaint is that users shouldn't be awarded points on each and every post. The points should somehow reflect the quality of the posts of the individual.

 

[phinds]

My complaint is that users shouldn't be awarded points on each and every post. The points should somehow reflect the quality of the posts of the individual.

So, fill out the survey and say that.

 

[EJC]

Suggestion based on personal experience:

PF is a great place to get career/school guidance. I know because it worked wonders for me. However, the one issue I remember having is there being a proper forum to start one of these threads in. It seems like a small issue, and it probably is, but adding a forum that was specific to this sort of discussion would probably result in fewer threads started in improper forums.

Overall, PF =

 

[phinds]

Suggestion based on personal experience:

PF is a great place to get career/school guidance. I know because it worked wonders for me. However, the one issue I remember having is there being a proper forum to start one of these threads in. It seems like a small issue, and it probably is, but adding a forum that was specific to this sort of discussion would probably result in fewer threads started in improper forums.

Overall, PF =

It seems like people are missing the point of this thread. Greg did not start this thread so people would put their suggestion HERE, but so they would go to the survey and put their suggestions THERE.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

My complaint is that users shouldn't be awarded points on each and every post. The points should somehow reflect the quality of the posts of the individual.

In some ways, the "Likes received" functions in this way. Maybe this could be displayed alongside the post count.

 

[Drakkith]

Points? What points?

 

[Borg]

Points? What points?

I think that he's referring to the post count. I have no idea how posts would be rated for quality - or who would be responsible for rating all of the posts each day.

 

[Yashbhatt]

So, fill out the survey and say that.

My apologies. I failed to notice the link in the original post.

Points? What points?

I mean the number that is displayed alongside the profile photo. That seems like the most obvious way to interpret it.

 

[phinds]

My apologies. I failed to notice the link in the original post.I mean the number that is displayed alongside the profile photo. That seems like the most obvious way to interpret it.

That's not "points" it's just the number of posts a person has made, whether they are jewels of wisdom like Drakkith's or crap like mine. See, if we rated for quality, he'd have tens of thousands and I'd have about 3.

 

[OmCheeto]

That's not "points" it's just the number of posts a person has made, whether they are jewels of wisdom like Drakkith's or crap like mine. See, if we rated for quality, he'd have tens of thousands and I'd have about 3.

3 times more than I would award myself.
Can't remember the post, but I'm sure it's in here somewhere.

 

[DPQ007]

Physics Forums is a diverse community consisting of many age groups, nationalities, education backgrounds and professions. To improve, it's important for the community to communicate its frustrations and needs. It is your duty as a member to provide such feedback. After all we're all in this together. Let's all do our part in making PF the best it can be. Now is your time with this easy 3 question survey. Do not hold back and feel free to list all those little things you've thought about when using the community.

To help provide more incentive than just helping make PF better, if you provide your username you'll be put into a drawing. 5 members will be chosen to receive a PF t-shirt and 5 members will receive gold membership. The drawing will occur on Jan 26th.

Fill out the survey here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SFKV7NX

I don't understand why threads are closed.
I have something to add to
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/spaceships-utilize-hydrogen-as-fuel.112291/#post-922957

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I don't understand why threads are closed.

That thread is closed because it is 10 years old :)

 

[dlgoff]

The answer is that this site may focus on physics, but people enjoy discussing other things too.

Yep. We're a family here and it's just like sharing thoughts around the dinner table.

 

[phinds]

Yep. We're a family here and it's just like sharing thoughts around the dinner table.

Well, not quite. At the family dinner table if the crazy uncle goes overboard with the craziness, he's still an uncle and you can't throw him out. Here they get thrown out.

 

[Yashbhatt]

That's not "points" it's just the number of posts a person has made, whether they are jewels of wisdom like Drakkith's or crap like mine. See, if we rated for quality, he'd have tens of thousands and I'd have about 3.

Okay. Then alternatively, some kind of reputation score should be displayed alongside the profile picture instead of the post count.

 

[phinds]

Okay. Then alternatively, some kind of reputation score should be displayed alongside the profile picture instead of the post count.

I agree w/ you.

"likes" used to be "thanks" and was, I believe, much more indicative of reputation for helpfulness but Greg decided he wanted to be more like Facebook so changed it to "like".

For example, I've got a whole ton of "likes" but that's just because I make smart ass remarks that are sometimes funny whereas the people here who really know what they are talking about and are very helpful in providing solid answers don't always get as much credit as they deserve. I argued w/ Greg about that change when it happened but I lost. I doubt if he's going to re-open that whole can of worms for you.

Deciding what "reputation" is and how it gets determined is a tricky and touchy subject, so I can't entirely blame Greg* for not wanting to complicate it.
* Actually, I COULD blame him but he's a nice guy so I don't