assessing a person's behavior on a forum

[bwanaaa]

I would be interested in your observations on how to answer the following question-

after how many posts/years on this board does a person go from asking questions to offering information?

I suppose one could enumerate the users from anandtech using the user list and then collect the posts of each user into an array. Then do a frequency histogram of "any interrogative" (for example, the punctuation symbol 'question mark', the word 'how' or 'when' or 'why' at the beginning of a sentence) on the y axis vs time intervals(month/year or post count as a marker for time).

In an educated subpopulation (like those here) questions may never cease, but I wonder if the data bear this out. Also, I wonder if trolls could be identified this way-or people that never ask questions but only criticize?

And certainly those who have been here for a long time may already have some insight into this question.

 

[DrPizza]

Not sure this is really HT or not; I'm leaning toward not. There are some who have made 1000 plus posts over a number of years, yet zero of them have actually been helpful. That's taken into account when it's ban hammer time. There are others who have made 50 posts in 10 years, and 49 out of 50 have been to help someone.

 

[Howard]

There's little to be learned here (as a direct result of being part of this specific forum) that actually will allow one to be more helpful.

 

[CycloWizard]

There's little to be learned here (as a direct result of being part of this specific forum) that actually will allow one to be more helpful.

Most people first stumble in here because they have a question. Whether or not they stick around probably depends on the quality of the responses they receive and whether they have anything to offer in response to future questions.

 

[f4phantom2500]

i was reading these boards, as well as tech info sites in general, for several years before signing up for these boards. as drpizza pointed out, there are people who have tons of post but haven't contributed anything meaningful. it really depends on the person; some people learn information and share it with those who seek it, while others just aren't helpful and, for one reason or another, want a high post count. post count really has nothing to do with it...although if you are one of those that has a ton of posts and isn't helpful then maybe you should be doing something else with your time.

 

[firewolfsm]

I remember back when I was 15 or so, the HT forum seemed intimidating, I was probably browsing and asking questions more than offering insight.

Now most of the threads seem pretty basic to me, if anything. I'm 19, well into my physics major. I have learned a bit from this forum, but that's only as part of a larger effort which involved classes, books, wiki, and other forums.

That's for the HT forum alone. The computer stuff I learned in a year or two, up until the age of 15. Now there really aren't many questions I would resort to asking.

 

[DrPizza]

I think it's fair to point out though that sometimes over the course of a number of years, you can observe a person becoming more mature in their posts.

 

[Anteaus]

I would be interested in your observations on how to answer the following question-

after how many posts/years on this board does a person go from asking questions to offering information?

I suppose one could enumerate the users from anandtech using the user list and then collect the posts of each user into an array. Then do a frequency histogram of "any interrogative" (for example, the punctuation symbol 'question mark', the word 'how' or 'when' or 'why' at the beginning of a sentence) on the y axis vs time intervals(month/year or post count as a marker for time).

In an educated subpopulation (like those here) questions may never cease, but I wonder if the data bear this out. Also, I wonder if trolls could be identified this way-or people that never ask questions but only criticize?

And certainly those who have been here for a long time may already have some insight into this question.

I think you'll find the answer to your question comes in the form of knowledge and personality instead of sheer postings. While there are many people who come here asking questions, there are also many people who generally browse and chime in when a question fits their particular expertise, so niche content will bring a niche response. Also, I think I wouldn't be off base to say that many people who post here also post in other forums, so just because someone might have a limited number of posts shouldn't be used as a litmus test of their overall forum behavior.

Due to this, I think it would be difficult to get proper sorting to build a curve, but then again maybe you can come up with a way to elimate outliers.

 

[schmunk]

I think it comes more from personal experience and trial and error than how many posts you have. Some seem to offer information from the start, without the benifit of experience.
In my opinion there are two types of forum people posting answers, those answering to try to help and create community, and those who have a need to show others that they are knowlegable.
Can you imagine a high school teacher yelling at a student that their question has been asked before? The mature teacher has patience and gets comfortable answering the same questions again and again, but can shape it and fine tune the answers. Also help someone learn to help themselves.
Sometimes its nice to belong to a forum to get a sense of community and see what other people are up to.
By the way there is something wrong with my post count.