OT- How many posts to really join up here

Ok, I been hanging out here a little while and have to admit I'm hooked.
If I'm on the net this just plain feels like "home".

But I have to say I feel a bit awkward about posting sometimes.
Kinda like hanging out in the bar and speaking up once in a while.
I'm sure many of my posts have been looked at liked "Who the F... is that that smart ass fool ?"

Do you look at who has posted or how many posts they have?
I know if I see some names I'll read the posts no matter matter what the topic just to gain the info (along with a couple of names I won't read knowing it will just be politics).

I find it interesting that some guys here have a reputation to me as "respected old timers" even though I've never met met them and sometimes I disagree with them.
If I see it's just a first post I wonder who this is. .........Human nature I guess.

Me wonders how long you gotta be here before you feel like a "member of the club".
I guess it has a lot to do with the quality of your posts (in which case this one gains me absolutely nothing, cept one more number in my rating ) .

Just some misc ramblings from Bob

I think that if you start a thread that happens to become a hit then you are "IN".
I started one thread that took off and now I get people pming me and it sounds like they know me.....
It does make you feel like part of the club.
I agree about this site feeling like home.
Politics should never be discussed on the PM. (or religion)
If you've got something to say regarding those two topics, either keep it to yourself or go to some other forum.

Michael M.

It has been made pretty clear over time that politics and religion are not "allowed subjects" on any forum except the mfg forum. They do pop in on occasion, but usually get pretty much ignored.

Different forums have regular posters who often don't appear much elsewhere. Sometimes they were frequent posters in General in the past, but have migrated elsewhere in the forum. Kind of depends on their specific interests and I think sometimes they just get tired of responding to subjects that come up many times in general new.

Because there is a mix of real machinists and home shop types, there seems to be a pecking order, pretty much based on experience. Some people also have a nice writing style that comes across well. In the end it's probably not the number of posts, but the content that brings acceptance.

Bob I like your analogy about speaking up in a bar and you're right this is a great site. Most of the time people will be fair when you post even if you do sorta make a fool out of yourself.

I'm not sure feeling like a "member of the club" is a good thing or not...if it means people will not challenge your ideas. I think it is a good thing when someone challenges your post in a fair way, it forces you to consider other views and new or unknown solutions are often given. Some great discussions unfortunately have ended when a "respected old timer" posts. There are many exceptional machinists in this forum but sometimes a great solution comes outa left field. Dave

Glad to have you here Bob. Have you ever been listening to someone and just weren't getting what they were saying. Then someone else says the same thing just a different way and suddenly it makes sense? That's how I view online forums. Five guys might chime in with very similar information but the different viewpoints makes the discussion richer and more helpfull. So if you feel like you have something to say just chine in. We'll let you know if you are off base

What I do to keep myself in line is to ask myself if I'm really relating first hand experience or am I just repeating something I heard. If the former I go ahead and post without concern. If it's the latter then I think about it overnight; then if I am still passionate about my view in the morning I might post anyway.

Anyway, good talking with you. Glad you chimed up.

Brad

Hi bob,
This is one of my top 5 five sites that i visit extremely often( 3 blacksmithing sites, and owwm.com also) and i like it here best of all the machining forums i visit- although i am only a hobbiest . Politics are generally limited to the mfg forum(on occasion) and especially of late on the gunsmithing forum. This is a great site where i am not afraid to ask questions I just tend to keep quiet when the political crap starts to show up.


Sean

Bob;

I would say you joined up after your first post. This forum and others like it are great places for you to learn and to help others. You share what you know and learn what you don't know. Kind of a wonderful thing really.

All you need to remember is no one here, that I know of, is being charged, paid or graded. Questions and answers are all gifts. Avoid disagreements or the need to always be right. After all, who cares and what is the difference.

I'm retired now and have a shop/business in my garage. I have been making chips for forty years and still learn something every day. I'm willing to help anyone that wants to learn if they are willing to listen.

Here is another great forum:
http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/viewforum.php?f=4

Jim

I tend to have a look at what the forum legends have to say regardless of the topic, as I know I'll always learn something. But I don't disregard posts from new members for sure- a number of times I've been highly impressed with informative posts from folks with a post count of 1 or 2.

I think this board is pretty clique-free, where any question posed is considered valid and a new poster can and will get appropriate responses from the big guys; some other boards I visit have a clear hierarchy and the low count posters often get ignored.

Bob, this is an excellent forum but remember one thing: Besides helping, this forum like most can also turn you into an dependent idiot. Self reliance, observation, struggling with problems and the ability to improvise are key to learning and understanding the whole metal working field and these all come from the individual not a forum.

Just type away your question and see what sort of answers you get

If you know the solution to someone else's problem , then type away.

But theres 2 things to remember

1. to feel chuffed and happy that you've either asked a very good question thats puzzling lots of us, or given a good answer to a tricky question posed by someone else
and secondly and more importantly
Never get offended when someone says "your're talking outa ya **** again"

Boris

<<spends a lot of time suffering from gastric inversion syndrome

Unlike most internet forums, I honestly don't think PM has an "in" crowd. Here, folks seem to more aptly form opinions based on posted content by an individual, as it should be.
New posters seem to be treated just as well as old timers, unless it's just something blatant. No question is a bad question, but personally, I generally don't read posts where the subject refers to something like "how do I cut a thread on my 10EE", as it's been beaten to death in many previous posts, and tons of information is available if they would do a search.
As well, there are quite a number of posters whom I read any post they make, or have replied to as there is generally something in the thread interesting to me. I read most posts on General new and almost all in the CNC and Shop Management forums.
My interests don't lie in gunsmith work or home shop stuff, so I don't peruse those forums.
I find there is a wealth of good, sound information here, many, many excellent folks with which to converse and share/bounce ideas with/off of and I consider this one of my "homes on the net" also.
The number of posts a person has doesn't play into my thought process though. A first time poster may have some valuable tid-bits that can be locked away for future reference, or I may be able to shed some light on a subject they have questions about.
I've always liked to help others when I can, just my nature and I've found that if I ask a question, I'll get qualified, sound advice from a variety of angles on the subject. Having those varied angles really helps narrow it down to a path that might work.

I would say that you become part of the "in crowd" when ever you start feeling comfortable posting. The "in crowd" is (in my opinion) all of us who are willing to talk back and forth. I think of PM kind of like a family reunion. You go and you might only know a few people out of the whole crowd. Then you get introduced to people and quickly start a conversation and before you know it you know how you're connected to everybody else in the group. That is how I see it.

Well, rats -- Bob, here I was thinking you were one of the "old-timers." Now I'll have to stop looking at your posts with extra respect ...

Seriously, FWIW, your name is one of the ones I instantly recognize, and positively so. I don't really recall what you may have posted that put it there, but in any case I tend to assume you know what you're talking about.

That doesn't mean that I assume an unknown name / new poster doesn't know what he/she is talking about ... but I might be less inclined to give new posters the benefit of the doubt when their questions sound a bit odd. (Note that this is "internal" benefit of the doubt -- I still would cut them some slack if I chose to respond.)

CarbideBob, I don't think it's a good idea to just go by the number of posts a person has made to rank them as giving good or bad info. The new poster may be one of the most experienced persons on the forum but just don't post much and I know there are several of them here. Most of those are currently working and don't have the time or see the need to reply.

People like me that are retired may read the forum several times a day and post often just to express a different point of view or way to do something. I don't think there are "clicks" here so to speak and if you are comfortable posting then your one of us. Oh, and don't worry about getting chewed on for a post because I have been chewed on from all sides at times and may have deserved it.

If your going to worry about whether someone will like you or not for a post then you may have a problem. If it's truely how you think, feel or know then post it if you want to express yourself. One problem I have is I read a post to fast and sometimes miss an important point and post a reply. oh boy do I get flack from that but what the hell I say sorry and go on.

I'm just a self taught job shop machinist and in no way a master of my trade but I like to share what I do know and you should do the same. Just think how boring and slow this forum would be if everyone sat back and waited for a thread and replies from others.

If you see a thread or post and don't understand then ask about it. If you know a different way to do something post it.

As well as a new poster may have many yrs of experience - and knows what he's talkin' aboot, someone with lots of posts - say 6,487 - and could very well be dummer'n'a box'o'rocks and you should take all info from that individule with a grain (or more) of salt.

This subject most be in some way related to that little blurb you put out there on another thread last week? I don't know why you would feel this way? Your posts have seemed inteligent to me. But then that may not be sayin' enything?

I dare say tho that I often wonder just what capacity you are here at? I mean the carbide part...

Are you in the retail sales of carbide? Your posts never lead me to think that tho?

Manufacture it? You seem to know much about the process, but I think you use third party werds when talking this subject?

I know that you have posted that you have many yrs in the auto field, but apparently not these days.


I think I may have asked this to some degree before - but if I got an answer - I Shirley don't remember the answer.



------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

I agree with Tony's opinion that there isn't an "in-crowd" mentality here like there is on some other forums. One of the main reasons I've hung around.

Personally, I consider Carbide Bob and Exkenna the site's two foremost authorities on the intricacies of carbide cutting tools. Someone else among the 40K members may have equal knowledge, but they ain't sharing the secrets if that's the case

I often read posts by members whose ID I don't recognize, simply to see what they've got to say. And I'm often pleasantly surprised to find that new poster obviously knows his stuff.

In addition to Carbide Bob's obvious carbide knowledge, he's also made some posts on the mfg forum based on his close working relationship with the US auto industry which have tended to blow holes in the commonly held belief that the industry is still populated by thousands of people who show up and sleep all day in the nearest corner. We all tend to form opinions in many cases, about things where we have little or no real knowledge, that end up being about 180 degrees away from the facts. Its always good to get an insider's view, and particularly so when that view tends to go against our commonly held, but baseless, beliefs.

Now if we could get Bob to direct Boris toward some of Detroit's mahogany row, so he could apply some Mr Slammy therapy to their heads, things could really start to turn around fast for the industry

Back to Bob's original question though... I'd say you passed the full fledged contributing member test long ago, and passed with flying colors.

I know he used to make / design custom cutter bodies/inserts. We used to use em. I don't know what all he is into now, manufacturing-wise, other than custom inserts. He does know his stuff.

metlmunchr said:

Now if we could get Bob to direct Boris toward some of Detroit's mahogany row, so he could apply some Mr Slammy therapy to their heads, things could really start to turn around fast for the industry

Click to expand...

Sadly Mr Slammy is no longer with us,

Once He brought fear and loathing to many an errant operator, with his quick fire wit and even faster beating some sense into his victims, but like all of us, he mellowed with age, content to merely glare at an operator who put a part in wrong, with the result the operator would run and hide.

And then old age caught up with him and he had to retire hurt to the shelf in my garage where he'd mark the passing days by nailing bugs to the wall, and on a cold quiet winters morning, he was found to have gone to the great toolbox in the sky, where no doubt , he's leading a wonderful existence (or more likely , gone below to enjoy himself torturing the damned )

However, the foolish operators who thought they'd be safe from retribution have had their hopes dashed, because Son of Slammy is on the loose bringing fear and terror once again into their lives

Boris

PS Note for new readers :Son of Slammy and Mr Slammy are/were my number 2 copper/hide mallets I use for both adjusting the machines...... and operators


PPS I'm also a master of the thread hijacking

How many Posts ?

Hey Carbide

I think the short answer to your question is "One".

I lurk around here a lot more than I post. I think an old-timer called me a "Post-Whore" once, and it hurt my feelings for about a nano-second. Then I moved on.

This Forum is fun and informative - that's why I'm here.

What I can't figure out is how some find the time to spend so much of it here. I sure can't.

So Post when you can and don't care too much what others think. I figure if you get out of place somebody will send somebody to take care of bidness .

John

Hi guys,
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I guess I'm just feeling a little unsure of myself nowadays. Must be the depression around here (both economic and emotional).

Even though many would consider me a computer geek, I stayed away from the internet for a quite a while as it just seemed to be a big time waster at first.
Coming here was my first exposure to forums so I was truly a greenhorn to posting. I did see some vendors come in peddling their products on their first post and saw what kind of reception they got so I made a decision not to push my products here.
I remember seeing ExKenna show up and thinking "Man, this guy is gonna get burned", but he has done a excellent job of providing technical info with just a little bit of "Oh by the way, I can get theses tools for you". An excellent lesson in salesmanship.

Somewhere along the line I should have introduced myself...duh.
I own a 8000 sq ft carbide insert fabrication shop just outside Flint MI. Basically we buy rough carbide blanks, do all the grinding and edge preps and send them to outside houses for coating. CCGTs, SPGs, NG and NVs, custom form tools, and like. We also design and build toolholders and milling cutters. When things were better we also did quite a bit of outsourced grinding work for the big carbide companies along with private labeled inserts for some tool distributors.
Being here in Flint I've always been pretty much all automotive work so I've never cut a piece of inconel or titanium in my life. I've been doing carbide applications since 1975. The nickname "carbidebob" was given to me by the engineers at Buick quite a while ago.
In the 80's I began to build my own cnc retrofits and grinders along with doing machine vision inspection applications for the auto plants.
Sadly all this work has died. What once was a 45 man shop is now just me and my dog.
You'll still find me twice a week walking the floors of the auto plants chattin with the operators ("How are the tools holding up, Whats today's material comin in like, What the heck is that squeal I'm hearing on machine #3?") and buggin the engineers ("When you gonna put those tools on I gave you 3 months ago? , You gonna fix that spindle on #3 or are ya just gonna let it blow up?"). Right now the auto plants don't buy anything. This week I got asked "Bob, we found these Kennametal inserts we bought 20 years ago in the crib. Do you think you could tweak the speeds and feeds on the op 10s so we could use them?"

When I first signed up I would see some old timers who knew each other joking back and forth in some posts and I made some feeble attempts at poking some humor in some posts (Ox's pics of his sleds in the mountains comes to mind). Not hearing anything back I would come to think that I didn't know these people well enough yet to be posting silly responses. This gave me the opinion that some of the "old-timers" here regarded me as a jerk.

Of course my other bad habit is that I tend to write long and winding posts.
Thanks again guys.
Bob Hem