In praise of PRR

[markeebee]

At the risk of sounding cheesy, I'd just like to say how much I value Paul's contributions to this wonderful forum.

He obviously has a mind-boggling capacity for arcane physical mathematics, but at the same time can relate all that to the real world needs of fumblers like me, with a decent dose of humour mixed in. A very rare combination, I would say.

In fairness there are quite a few others here with those same qualities (you know who you are, we all know who you are), I guess it's maybe coincidence that I've had a bunch of "the penny drops" moments reading Paul's posts lately.

We are blessed.



EDIT:  Dang iPhone spellchecker.  Instead of ".....reading Paul's posts" it said "....wading Paul's posts"  which isn't what I meant at all.

[.Mike]

Agreed.

Since almost every question has been answered in the past, I rarely have to start new topics. But when I have started new topics, Paul often helps me out, and I appreciate it. When I don't have to start new topics, it is often because he's already answered my question for someone else.

Of course, this doesn't mean other people aren't appreciated. There are lots of helpful folks around here.

Mike

[Thomeeque]

PRR's fan club? Count me in! T.

[therecordingart]

Definitely agreed. It's nice to have folks like PRR, R.G., Mark Hammer, and anyone else I'm missing that has so much knowledge and is happy to share it. If you go to certain recording forums you get nothing but bad attitudes and ego from people who have done nothing in their careers to justify it.

Thanks, guys!

[earthtonesaudio]

I've been schooled by him at least a couple times, to my initial frustration... and eventual gratitude.   

[newfish]

Couldn't agree more.

I try to make a habit of reading *anything* with one of the 'old school' names in the 'last posted' column.

Even if it takes me five or six reads through one of PRR's posts (and it often does, given what's being imparted!), the results are always worth the effort.

It's been said before, but the amount of knowledge given freely on this forum, *simply to help other people*, is astonishing.

This place is a real treasure-trove of human decency.

[Resynthesis]

+1

[wavley]

I've been schooled by him at least a couple times, to my initial frustration... and eventual gratitude.   

Same here, count me in on that fan club!

[Electron Tornado]

+1 on all the above.

Paul R and R.G. Keen have the ability to explain things in practical terms, making them understandable to people who only do electronics as a hobby. A lot of us owe them a lot of thanks for the help they give so freely. (And a lot of beer for their patience.) I'm hoping some day they'll each decide to write a book or two that cover the topics on this and other boards they frequent.

[Mark Hammer]

Couldn't agree more.

I try to make a habit of reading *anything* with one of the 'old school' names in the 'last posted' column.

Even if it takes me five or six reads through one of PRR's posts (and it often does, given what's being imparted!), the results are always worth the effort.

It's been said before, but the amount of knowledge given freely on this forum, *simply to help other people*, is astonishing.

This place is a real treasure-trove of human decency.

I too think he merits a "best newcomer" award.  Great impact for such a recent arrival.  Very much appreciated.

As for the treasure trove of human decency, think of it like culture.  This forum has been around, in various forms, for something like 13-14 years, if not more.  Long enough to establish a certain set of values and way of doing things, that newcomers quickly pick up on as "how things are done here", and attempt to align with, thus perpetuating the culture.  Magical how that works, isn't it?

There ARE other sites with bigger membership, but this one has actual personalities behind it, rather than simply a corporate sponsor.  And I think the fact that it is perceived as consisting of people, and of a resident community, just leads people to behave better too.

[fuzzy645]

Yup, ditto here.

I will sing the praises of Paul, RG and Mark Hammer.    All have the patience of saints, and have selflessly shared their wealth of knowledge.

[joegagan]

+1. thanks paul.

[Johan]

+1
..learned and keep learning a lot... 
J

[deadastronaut]

i cook my sausages on one side for 3 minutes then turn them every 28.4 seconds aft.....oops wrong forum!!!..


+1. 

[kimelopidaer]

There are a lot of hours spent
by these learned folks
helping the newcomers like me
desiring a grasp.


much respect
thank-you!
K

[nexekho]

I try to make a habit of reading *anything* with one of the 'old school' names in the 'last posted' column.

+1024

[JRay]

Count me in here too!

Inspirational!

[Mark Hammer]

I try to make a habit of reading *anything* with one of the 'old school' names in the 'last posted' column.

+1024

Some years back (at least 6 or 7, and probably more), I asked members what properties of threads caught their eye.  Was it construction vs modding vs repair?  Kind of effect?  Vintage or new stuff?  Subject headers that were statements, rather than questions?  Design ideas vs troubleshooting?  Close to a winner was pretty much what you describe: many people said they looked for certain member names which, for them personally, were usually a marker of a thread that would likely have some interesting and useful content in it.  I confess to adopting that strategy myself, although the list of people whose contribution usually implies something interesting has grown considerably since that time.  A lot of folks to keep track of!  Of course, one of the more pleasant side-effects of that is that interesting people tend to attract other interesting people, and pretty soon you have a nice "intellectual jam session" going on. 

I might point out that, at the time, the software engine being used permitted all contributors to a given thread to be cascaded, so that you could see who had participated in the thread, even if certain individuals were not the last person to post in it.  Sort of like what you see over at the Music Electronics Forum.  Since there was no way, at the time, of expanding and contracting the cascaded list of posters, it meant that very busy threads tended to crowd other threads off the screen, requiring an awful lot of scrolling to see what else was doing.

[WGTP]

Yes to all of it.  The is the first forum I frequented much and when I started looking at others I realized how great it was and how bad some could be.  Seymour Duncan is another with a good forum "culture".  I have learned soooo much here.  I was too cheap and "anti solid state distortion" to check out the early MXRs and Tube Screamers.  But I have seen the Light.

Now I use the best SS distortions available to anyone.  Cascaded Mu/Srpp's, SHO's, Fetzers, Vulcans, CMOS's, Chaos, Op Amps, Discretes, Filters/EQs, etc. I know what all that stuff means and have 3 bread boards in constant state of mutation. 

Aron should run the world.  The "elders" here should be his cabinet. 

[frank_p]

+1