How about an "Expert" designation in the user profiles?

[duxservit]

There are a growing number of threads where posters with few prior CA posts provide strong statements of opinion (often worded as fact) about one point or another, as though they were experts on the subject. They then get into arguments with others here whom I know are true experts on the relevant subject, but other readers might view their disagreement as a legitimate debate.

 

Might it make sense to add to the "Newbie, Freshman, Junior, Senior, etc. listings an "Expert" designation?

 

The people I pay attention to (even when I don't agree with them) include (in no particular order): tailspn, AudioPhil, audiventory, Miska, barrows, vortecjr, bmoura, Superdad, PeterSt, Musicophile, elsdude, mansr, Kal Rubinson, Jud, Priaptor, tranz, ted b, John Swenson and, of course, Computer Audiophile. I also read, but give a bit less weight to folks like wgscott, One and a half, firedog, PaulR, Guidorf, orgel, Topspin70, and Wisnon who are all knowledgeable, but often like to have some fun and thus create noise as well as signal. I'm sure I'm forgetting others and apologize for the memory lapse.

 

Obviously those who post the most and often those who raise controversy keep sites like this alive and fresh, but I'd love to see some designation of those who others here regularly would identify as having high signal to noise ratios -- which means someone actually does need to know their stuff (disqualifying interested learners like me).

 

Thoughts?

 

Make me a perpetual newbie, so that I can perpetually learn from the experts :-)

 

This would allow me to depart from threads when they devolve due to the "experts" duking it out over some triviality or ego. See the recent thread on "Do I need DSD".

[mrvco]

I would like to see a classification for Industry Member, who don't post many, but have a valuable input, Moffat from Schitt for example.

 

I concur. For normal folks such as myself, I think post count says enough rather than trying to assign arbitrary status to select posters that may not always be handed out (or revoked) based on merit.

[noway]

Post count has nothing to do with expertise and this isn't the only forum on the internet. Forum users as a group are here because it's their hobby, not because they are experts at audio. With some exceptions, most of the experts are just too busy and absorbed in their work to be posting on internet forums. I bet if a list was made of the top 100 most influential audio pioneers most of them haven't posted once on the internet.

 

Why hi-fi experts disagree (dated 1963):

[davide256]

Believe I saw people actually gaming post count on Headfi-org... least wise when you have several thousand posts and most say "Cool" ,"right-on", there's not a whole lot of useful information for others happening there, just status ranking manipulation.

 

I value the doers who like Edison recognize discovery is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. Many experts in my experience don't want to perspire.

[wgscott]

.....

 

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

[rrwwss52]

The "Expert" label is in the eye of the beholder. Glad I'm nowhere near that category. All I can share is personal experiences from equipment I have owned and/or tested - some good, some not so good. If you don't like or trust another user's opinion, there's always the block feature.

[GregWormald]

How about an "Expert" designation in the user profiles?

 

No.

 

Greg

[Melvin]

Melvin: It is interesting that you mention Barry Diament as he is someone I was thinking about when I made the suggestion. I thought Barry had a lot to add given his own recording studio experience. But Barry wasn't always as patient in dealing with neophites (and maybe even experts) who strongly disagreed with him. That doesn't mean I or others agreed with everything he said, but I much prefer having someone like him contribute without getting bombarded by "know it all" ignorants.

 

Maybe One and a half's suggestion as "Industry Member" would solve this as that would certainly have covered Barry and give newcomers a heads up.

 

I think a little respect for these industry heavyweights would be a good start. Agreement with anyone, including an "expert", isn't necessary to have a respectful and interesting conversation. I remember quite a few threads going down the toilet because of hobbyist righteous indignation (i.e., "you couldn't possibly believe 24/192 is transparent to your mic feed" .. blah, blah, blah).

 

Isn't there already a rule here for industry folk being required to identify themselves via signature if they want to chat about their product? Doesn't seem to matter to some members who continue to disrespect.

[Jud]

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

 

Trouble is, all the evolution and global warming denialists have the same belief.

 

Reflex, either denial or acceptance, doesn't provide the opportunity to learn. Thoughtfully considering arguments does (and being considerate of those making the arguments, as Melvin suggests, leads to further interchange and hopefully further learning).

[Gary.D.Olson]

Newegg used to allow customers to self-designate level of expertise. The most dis-helpful reviews always came from the "experts".

 

How about an "Expert Advice" button visible only to seasoned posters? If, say, Jud finds a post particularly helpful, he hits the Expert Advice button in agreement which boosts the poster's Helpful rating.

[Gary.D.Olson]

Newegg used to allow customers to self-designate level of expertise. The most dis-helpful reviews always came from the "experts".

 

How about an "Expert Advice" button visible only to seasoned posters? If, say, Jud finds a post particularly helpful, he hits the Expert Advice button in agreement which boosts the poster's Helpful rating.

 

Let me clarify: such an added button would remain out of the signal path.

[wgscott]

I think all the labels, like "objectivist" or "subjectivist" on some level wind doing more harm than good.

 

The whole idea of establishing truth by some sort of consensus, especially on a (mostly) anonymous internet forum, is inherently problematic.

 

We already have three more buttons than we need. You get to vote on the popularity of someone's comment, and you get to thank them for it as well.

[wgscott]

Trouble is, all the evolution and global warming denialists have the same belief.

 

Unpleasant as they are, the skeptics serve a function. Some of the most cogent arguments I have seen in favor of evolution emerged in the Dover trial.

[Jud]

If the Like and Thanks buttons aren't sufficient for this, perhaps a Helpful button, and if enough people considered it helpful, Chris might make it sticky or otherwise more permanently findable?

[Jud]

Unpleasant as they are, the skeptics serve a function. Some of the most cogent arguments I have seen in favor of evolution emerged in the Dover trial.

 

That was in the legal context where there are rules of evidence and regarding expert testimony. I was thinking more along the lines of the folks who waste everyone's time at various science blogs.

[wgscott]

This is why a free-for-all internet forum isn't the best medium for obtaining reliable information. Science isn't a democracy. Ideally, it is a meritocracy, complete with its own "rules of evidence." Fortunately, when functioning properly, our own legal system has a similar vetting process.

 

Maybe the answer is to have an "ask the expert" sub-forum.

[semente]

On most other sites I would have agreed with you and never made this suggestion. What has amazed me about this site is the general level of maturity and willingness to tolerate different views, particularly amongst those with expertise. That being said your "ego" concern is a fair one.

 

My main purpose in making the suggestion was to offer relative newcomers here a way to figure out how to make sense of the disagreement that exists on almost every subject. Read, for example, the post on http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-dac-digital-analog-conversion/do-i-need-direct-stream-digital-29367/ If the OP isn't completely confused by the volume of contradictory information contained in the responses, I'd be surprised.

I wonder if this could be solved with a Technical sub-forum driven by hard evidence with room for discussion of plausible theory but not personal opinions...

 

But then again I wouldn't expect it to be a very active area.

 

R

[Paul R]

Trouble is, all the evolution and global warming denialists have the same belief.

 

Reflex, either denial or acceptance, doesn't provide the opportunity to learn. Thoughtfully considering arguments does (and being considerate of those making the arguments, as Melvin suggests, leads to further interchange and hopefully further learning).

 

Actually, an active opposition to even the most accepted theories is - at least in the long run - a *good* thing. It encourages people to be sure of their beliefs and usually manages to root out any false assumptions or just plain bad ideas.

 

It doesn't work in some places that believe they are taking a hard "scientific" view of things, because the temptation to squash any and all non-conforming ideas is just too much for untrained or inexperienced folks, or folks that are excited by science but have never spent the time and effort to actually learn how to do real science.

 

Real science is drudging, repetitive, very difficult work, punctuated by occasional moments of delightful insight and epiphanies of understanding. It ain't at all like what people see in the movies. That applies whether one is in academia or the commercial sectors.

[Gary.D.Olson]

I wonder if this could be solved with a Technical sub-forum driven by hard evidence with room for discussion of plausible theory but not personal opinions...

 

But then again I wouldn't expect it to be a very active area.

 

R

 

I wonder how many newbie questions could be answered using the FAQ page. Other than the latest equipment, how many different questions come up? If it's a manageable number, perhaps the FAQ should be expanded with a sectioned content page, then heavily advertised to newbies.

[sdolezalek]

Ok, forget the "Expert" idea.

 

How about adding one more little button at the bottom of the screen that is a little "H" for helpful. If you thought someone's post was helpful just click on the H. Then, in the individual profile settings, not in plain sight, Chris could log the number of H's that a user was collecting. Over time, if you wanted to check how credible/helpful a poster was, you could look at their profile and see how many H's they had. If you don't care, just play on and don't look.

 

I think that is what the "Thanks for this post" button was supposed to do, but it seems the only ones that get clicked are the "Like" and "Dislike" buttons.

[wgscott]

I wouldn't abandon the idea, maybe just tweak it a bit...

 

Maybe the helpful thing would be better than like/dislike. Most of my posts are neither helpful nor unhelpful. I like to think (maybe I am deluded) that a few of them have been extremely helpful to some people with a specific problem (usually a Mac OS X issue).

[duxservit]

If the Like and Thanks buttons aren't sufficient for this, perhaps a Helpful button, and if enough people considered it helpful, Chris might make it sticky or otherwise more permanently findable?

 

+1 Good Idea!

 

Yes a "Helpful" button will help newbies like me, and also direct other newbies to the post. (On Amazon reviews, I typically sort reviews based on their helpful score).

[Jud]

I like to think (maybe I am deluded) that a few of them have been extremely helpful to some people with a specific problem (usually a Mac OS X issue).

 

From personal experience, yes.

 

Speaking of which (and apologies for the OT), I have a Linux script I would like to run on my MacBook, but the script stops at the Linux lsblk command, which OS X doesn't have. I tried installing a Linux utilities package through Macports, which supposedly included lsblk, but the script stops with the same error. Any thoughts?

[wgscott]

If the shell script doesn't have the full path to where lsblk is located (/opt/local/bin or whatever macports uses -- I use one called ... fink).

 

diskutil list

 

That lists everything, whether or not it is mounted.

 

Possibly

 df -h 

will do what you want?

 

is the native OS X equivalent (assuming you want a listing of disk devices).

[sdolezalek]

Speaking of which (and apologies for the OT), I have a Linux script I would like to run on my MacBook, but the script stops at the Linux lsblk command, which OS X doesn't have. I tried installing a Linux utilities package through Macports, which supposedly included lsblk, but the script stops with the same error. Any thoughts?

 

If the shell script doesn't have the full path to where lsblk is located (/opt/local/bin or whatever macports uses -- I use one called ... fink).

 

Possibly

 df -h 

will do what you want?

 

 

Ok you two, I think you both just qualified yourselvs as "EXPERTS" (since I have no clue what you are talking about) and as "NON-HELPFUL" (at least as far as this thread is concerned).