Roughly counted 20 members are frequent forum users.

I kinda hope this place it more lively.

Perhaps coffeehouse lurkers should say hello in this thread so we can see who else is around?

Additionally, don't forget that C9 is much more that just the coffeehouse, so there are a lot of 9ers who don't come in here.

Herbie

7 minutes ago, magicalclick wrote

Is it me or this forum is basically consist of single digit frequent members? Maybe not exactly single digit, but, certain very few. All I can remember is the typical *MS haters*, about 3. 1 super MS supporter. 1 guy who always complains LCD and shooter games. 1 guy who post politics. And randomly have some threads talking about geeky toys or stuff that I cannot comprehend, which is about 10 people. And then there is me being me.

Roughly counted 20 members are frequent forum users.

I kinda hope this place it more lively.

Its getting lonely here, isn't it? It must be like it felt on Novell forms around 1997. If you count me as MS hater, you're wrong. I certainly don't hate MS, just some of its actions. Currently I hate its lawsuits targeting open-source projects like linux, and almost none of the few members say anything.

Herbie

2 hours ago, magicalclick wrote

Is it me or this forum is basically consist of single digit frequent members? Maybe not exactly single digit, but, certain very few. All I can remember is the typical MS haters, about 3. 1 super MS supporter. 1 guy who always complains LCD and shooter games. 1 guy who post politics. And randomly have some threads talking about geeky toys or stuff that I cannot comprehend, which is about 10 people. And then there is me being me.

Roughly counted 20 members are frequent forum users.

I kinda hope this place it more lively.

well i do not know if or how you counted me but to be honest half the time i do not post due to how often the thread is

a) started by a troll

or

b) a troll has jumped in and all the other replies are to the troll

for example a recent thread started to have a good chat about the fate / future of MS and turned into a troll fest and charles had to lock the thread.

for a long time we have had that problem of folks feeding the trolls ... i guess it's never going to stop.

I am glad that the current C9 software is way more stable than the last one ... i think that time period of the site hurt the membership, i think we lost a lot of folks during that time.

and so it goes...

I'd contribute a lot more but I don't want to waste everyone's time.  

W3bbo, Dr. Herbie, figuerres, ian2, magicalclick, dovella, Bas, Charles, jamie, who am I missing?

4 hours ago, magicalclick wrote

All I can remember is the typical MS haters, about 3. 1 super MS supporter.

That seems to be the typical ratio for most tech sites. It's surprising that it's no different even on a Microsoft property.

A certain way to get more traffic is not to be so heavy handed on trolls, but then the site becomes terrible as the flame-ways are fought.

I am sure that the C team are more focussed on the content delivery, with the forum as a bonus. Stack overflow is great for answers, but no real dicussion occurs there. Commenting on Arstechnica articles can reach the many hundreds, and again that is rather fragmented.

3 hours ago, Sven Groot wrote

Me.

D'oh! I knew I'd miss people. Sven and vesuvius.

8 hours ago, Dr Herbie wrote

Perhaps coffeehouse lurkers should say hello in this thread so we can see who else is around?

"Hello"

I'd post more, except I'm a wee undergrad and too busy with CS work. I can't keep up with everything that comes out these days, so I'll end up in one of three cases: 1) Like magicalclick, I wont know what the heck any of you guys are talking about in regards to any of the cool stuff or 2) I'll finally read up on something cool, but then there will be a post on here discussing it to great lengths that I can't exactly contribute something other than "This is awesome" or 3) You guys just know too much. Yeah. Don't want to be naive.

Herbie

8 hours ago, Dr Herbie wrote

Perhaps coffeehouse lurkers should say hello in this thread so we can see who else is around?

I'm normally lurking in the forums, post once in a blue moon.  Think I've watch 80% plus of all the videos on here, though the influx of marketing vids (pretty much anything under 5 mins) is reducing my ratio these days 

So somebody posted some opinion about Microsoft or technology you don't agree with. Just let it go. This is just an internet forum.

People on other forums are able to let opinions they don't agree with go as opinion. In better Universities this happens. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was able to speak at Columbia without there being any type of inflammatory behavior for example.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=773638342167920349#

People don't love Microsoft and all their technology. It doesn't matter that Microsoft pays for the staff and hosting for this message board. This board is not htauth protected and is open to everybody. Keep that in mind.

By no means do I want my opinions to demean the hard work of the niners who run this site, produce the videos, etc. It's a daughting task I'm sure. I just hope for all of the trouble that it's worth it. Thanks niners for keeping this site going for all of these years.

-Josh

13 minutes ago, Bas wrote

I wonder if most communities don't just have a dozen or so prominent members next to hundreds of less visible but just as frequent visitors.

Here's a social graph I made a while back from randomly scanning 100 threads for some other message board.  It proves exactly that...there are a dozen or so individuals (the big vertices labeled "common") that are next to less visible users (small vertices).

I wanted to do it for C9, but the way I choose random threads (url thread id) is incompatible with C9's pretty urls.

I did that many times too. I type something and gave up.

I love the coffeehouse and being able to chat with you all. I think it is important for us make sure people are aware it exists and can join in too.

But I still have the C9 RSS feeds in my googlereader. And even if I don't usually read them all, I do scan them sometimes and pop in if I have something to add.

Herbie

When I think about it I tend to post tech stuff on my own blog site, social stuff (crap) on Facebook and things I find amusing (mostly) or directly related to things going on within Channel 9 / Microsoft here. 

I've been around here for Donkeys years (I used to post under my real name "Ian" but now use a clever 'nom de plume').  I'm probably a typical geek - like Star Trek and Gadgets (plug this), fairly crap social skills (but can wing it), like to keep myself to myself  most of the time.

6 hours ago, Dr Herbie wrote

Actually, now I think of it, I have noticed that several long-term niners have joined Microsoft as employees -- and no longer seem to be as prolific as they were prior to joining. Is MS keeping you all too busy, or are you worried that you'll be accused of inherent partisanship?

Herbie

Both. Plus the inevitable assumption by a lot of people that now anything you say can be taken as a MS position.

Although I'm here more than most because I can delete your posts and ban your butt

Herbie

25 minutes ago, Dr Herbie wrote

@gadget: If I didn't post if i didn't have anything intelligent to say, I doubt I'd post much at all. This post is a case in point

Herbie

Exactly.  Its a bunch of niners sitting around a virtual table sipping coffee and occasionally looking up from their computer screens to say a thought or two.

17 minutes ago, davewill wrote

*snip*

 

Exactly.  Its a bunch of niners sitting around a virtual table sipping coffee and occasionally looking up from their computer screens to say a thought or two.

I stopped drinking coffee.

6 days ago, Dr Herbie wrote

Perhaps coffeehouse lurkers should say hello in this thread so we can see who else is around?

Hello ;]

@Craig_Matthews: that sounds like a horrible track record.  i know i have lost posts before but never as regularly as you describe.  hopefully you aren't seeing that frequency in the new channel9 rev.

@mikexkearney: Dovella reposting links is a great example of the current scattering of information.  People run across things that they feel they shouldn't have run across (i.e. it shouldn't involve the act of seeking in the first place) so they post them for the benefit of others.  I can't fault them as this is the nature of the web it seems (sadly).

I wonder what your experiences would be if a Channel9 app were the interface rather than a browser.