Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

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Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Yes, get those FFs back here right now!
13
68%
No thanks and good riddance!
3
16%
Yes, but don't tell anyone I said so...
3
16%
Who?
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 19

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grae313
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Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:03 pm

You know this place *** sucks without you guys...

RG, I want to know if we are going to hang out at any of these open houses. Quizivex, I want to know if you got into a school that you wanted to go to.

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dlenmn
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by dlenmn » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:17 pm

What did RG say when he left anyway? I never got to see his post.

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grae313
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:26 pm

dlenmn wrote:What did RG say when he left anyway? I never got to see his post.
He apologized for hurting or offending anyone and said that people wouldn't have to worry about it any more because he wasn't going to post any more

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dlenmn
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by dlenmn » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:30 pm

Interesting. That was before quiz left, right?

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grae313
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:35 pm

dlenmn wrote:Interesting. That was before quiz left, right?
Um, I'm not sure. They both left around the same day or two.

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grae313
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:21 am

all of you Americans out there need to start voting more...


:wink:

400nm
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by 400nm » Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:11 am

No one made them leave. They can come back any time they want. But I still plan on speaking my mind when I disagree with them (and I'm not going to drop it if they say disrespectful things to me).

If any of them are truly sorry, and can learn to be considerate of others' feelings, then I don't think they will have problems. Otherwise, people will get upset and tell them off. Whether or not they want to post and deal with the consequences is their choice.

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dlenmn
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by dlenmn » Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:31 am

Things certainly are less exciting around here, but I don't think that the level of dissent we had was healthy or sustainable. The fact of the matter is it's hard to ignore people's posts, which is what twistor believes is the solution. It's also the only solution I can think of that would have have allowed the the forum to continue as it was, but it's more of a theoretical solution than a practical one. Case in point: quiz and RG both left because they couldn't ignore people's comments.

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grae313
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:31 pm

400nm wrote:No one made them leave. They can come back any time they want. But I still plan on speaking my mind when I disagree with them (and I'm not going to drop it if they say disrespectful things to me).

If any of them are truly sorry, and can learn to be considerate of others' feelings, then I don't think they will have problems. Otherwise, people will get upset and tell them off. Whether or not they want to post and deal with the consequences is their choice.
Oh, come on. No one said that anyone made them leave. They left because they wanted to. No one, especially them, wants you to stop speaking your mind. Maybe get a sense of humor though...

The argument is whether or not a public forum is the correct place to severely sensor your own speech in the name of being politically correct and un-offensive. I do agree that they should stop being pussies, because I think they should come back and stand for what they believe in. This poll is to let them know how many people want them back, because I'm sure they've been signing in as hidden and keeping updated.


To quiz, RG, twistor, and fermiboy:

STOP BEING BITCH MARTYRS, COME BACK RIGHT NOW, and keep me company, god dammit...


btw, I can read every cuss word I, and anyone else types :mrgreen:

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grae313
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:36 pm

dlenmn wrote:Things certainly are less exciting around here, but I don't think that the level of dissent we had was healthy or sustainable.
Believe me, the "level of dissent" we had here was nothing, and I belong to a forum that makes this look like toddlers in a sandbox. They are the most loyal group of people I've ever seen and if a forum member is ever in trouble, they will group together and do anything to help them out. They visit each other at the hospital, make their spare beds and hot meals available to travelers, fix people's motorcycles when they break, etc, all for people they may have never met in person. Conflict doesn't have to mean hate if it can be done with a little bit of sense.

Also, guys, there is now a "friend" and "foes" section in the user profiles. If RG keeps pissing you of, 400nm, then just mark him as a foe and you'll never have to see another of his posts again.

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grae313
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:37 pm

If this is ever going to be a real community with real friends (and Grant, this is what is most compelling to people) then there is going to have to be a little conflict every once and a while. It is just human nature, and not necessarily bad.

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dlenmn
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by dlenmn » Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:29 pm

grae313 wrote:Believe me, the "level of dissent" we had here was nothing, and I belong to a forum that makes this look like toddlers in a sandbox.
Yes, this place is fairly tame relative to many other forums. However, I'd wager that this place has a significantly different audience and purpose than the other forums we frequent. I think that lowered the threshold of too much dissent.

It's also kind of hard to argue your point with the hindsight we have -- evidently the level of dissent was not sustainable, because, well, it hasn't been sustained.

No one is suggesting that the forum should be conflict free, just that there can be too much (again, some of the people who left did so because they thought it had been too much). Debate can be very useful, if intelligent and civil...

I don't think the friend or foe thing will be that useful, because threads aren't that simple. You get people replying/commenting on/quoting other people's posts. There's no way to make a thread look like a certain poster wasn't involved or to remove their influence from it.

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grae313
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:25 pm

dlenmn wrote:Debate can be very boring, if intelligent and civil...
Fixed, free of charge :mrgreen:

I don't think the friend or foe thing will be that useful, because threads aren't that simple. You get people replying/commenting on/quoting other people's posts. There's no way to make a thread look like a certain poster wasn't involved or to remove their influence from it.
Well, I think it would help a lot.

twistor2
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by twistor2 » Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:33 pm

And ruin my perfect 666? Not without an outstanding reason.

I don't agree with the censorship policy of this site, and furthermore *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ******. *** *** *** *** *** and in the first place *** *** *** ***.

VT
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by VT » Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:35 pm

I want to read twistor2's post, but all I can read is star(*). How the hell do I change this feature? help plz.

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dlenmn
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by dlenmn » Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:42 pm

I have the feature turned off and I still see only stars... I'd wager that's because the stars are from him, not the filter.
Last edited by dlenmn on Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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dlenmn
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by dlenmn » Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:43 pm

To turn it off, go to Control Panel -> Board preferences -> Edit display options -> Enable word censoring and select No and hit Submit. Then curse at will...

Will *** sucks. What a worthless piece of *** :)

(Sorry will, just wanted to provide a test sentence for VT)

VT
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by VT » Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:59 pm

hahaha, I got it now dlenmn. Thanks.

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grae313
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Sat Mar 01, 2008 2:14 am

twistor2 wrote:And ruin my perfect 666? Not without an outstanding reason.

I don't agree with the censorship policy of this site, and furthermore *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ******. *** *** *** *** *** and in the first place *** *** *** ***.
I'm going to outpost you soon and I don't like that :(
turn your filter off and curse that man with me! c'mon, you know you want to....

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fermiboy
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by fermiboy » Sat Mar 01, 2008 3:22 am

OK, the people have spoken and I have returned. Someone sent me a PM so I logged in and saw this poll. You knew I couldn't stay away for too long. Right now I'm chillin in Eugene checking out the U of O. So far it's my only acceptance. I just got the Stanford smackdown today. I'll put my profile back soon. I did miss posting here, I was being childish when I left. I love all of you!

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dlenmn
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by dlenmn » Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:35 am

Yay! It's the second coming of fermiboy! Members of the 700 club, rejoice!

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quizivex
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by quizivex » Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:15 pm

ok here I am!! I'm too busy now to catch up on all the posts I need to make, but I'll be back soon. My "spring" break starts next weekend and I'll try to liven this place up again! I really hope RG comes back too!! I so wanted to meet that dude!

I'm sorry again for any comments that either worsened the nervousness the rest of you feel or made those of you striving for non top-10 schools feel bad. I'm very sorry, I have a ton of respect for you. But still, in light of that thread that said 60% of profs at decent universities come from the same 8 schools... if I really want to go the academic route and be successful, insted of relying on myself to be one of the exceptions, I'd prefer to go to one of the 8 schools.

I figured instead of bashing the admissions system over and over again I should just wait until decisions come in to see if all of my concerns that seemed legitimate are worth losing sleep over. I was used to getting harassed by physicsdude and scolded unnecessarily by a few others, but when one of our favorites, fermiboy, was upset by one of my comments, it was time to go. But seriously, after all the courses I've taken and the GRE, I'd hate to have to settle for something less than my dream... and knowing these schools only enroll like 30 students per year, and most of their accepted students are guys like geomar, nvanmeter, drken, gcensr and who knows how many others outside of this forum, compared to whose profiles, mine is a mere proper subset, who applied to all the top schools and got into all of them, I had to wonder whether I could get in without bonus points. For instance, with all due respect to grae313, aanaa and company, I've never seen male applicants with similar profiles kick so much @$$ in the admission process. I'm very happy for you both.

Ok so let it be said once and for all... it is very possible for a student from a mediocre state school with no connections, no prestigeous awards, no first author publications, no minority status and no prior experience with his listed research interest to be admitted to several top schools based on strong performance on the things we have most control over: coursework and GREs. (by the way, VT no I did not apply to condensed matter, lol)

In the afternoon of the same morning I left the forum, I was admitted to Caltech. When I turn down their offer, I'll be sure to send a personal letter saying that admission to their program was very encouraging to me, and that I'm going elsewhere entirely out of research interest. This research interest is fusion, and the next Monday I was admitted to my dream school, Princeton's plasma physics program. I'll now be in a perfect suburban environment reasonably close to home doing the research I had really hoped to do from the first day I decided to major in physics.

I was also accepted to Stanford yesterday. I'll turn down their offer, along with Caltech's and UPenn's this coming week as long as nothing awful happens at my visit with Princeton Plasma. I'll get to meet the legendary forum user schmit.paul!!! I'll also get to walk in the footsteps of Einstein, but that will be offset by the fact that physicsdude also walked these steps... ewww...

I hope you all understood where I was coming from. Afterall, just a week ago I hadn't been admitted anywhere, was nervous as hell and never imagined things would work out so well. It didn't help that I saw an old forum comment from someone who had past experience with MIT's fusion center saying, "the MIT fusion people won't even consider you for their dept unless you're absolutely committed to it." But just like the rest of my applications, I listed multiple research interests in the app/SOP because I heard over and over again that if you pick too narrow a field you have a much higher chance of being rejected because they may not have openings in that area. Is it a coincidence that MIT is just one of the two places I haven't heard from, the rest of which I've been accepted to??

So it looks like I may have missed out at MIT because of some absurd impersonal factor in the system, no surprise since there are tons of stories on here about MIT being fickle, whimsical pricks when it comes to admissions. Good thing that wasn't my top choice. This confirms my point that nobody should scold another student, regardless of his profile, for being worried about his chances. Many of us have that one dream school we'd die to attend (well, dying would defeat the purpose but you know what I mean)... so we could be the perfect applicant, get in to 9 out of the 10 schools we applied to, but miss out on our dream school for any random reason. That would still hurt badly regardless of the other options we have. How could nvanmeter be rejected by Stanford??? Makes no sense.

To give an example of one of the additoinal reasons I was worried... when I looked at Princeton's and Caltech's websites of their former grad students, I saw the majority came from elite universities or other reputable private schools. Ok fine, there were still plenty of exceptions as we'd expect!! BUT... a quick google search would reveal that most of the students from podunk universities were Goldwater winners... so until I was accepted, I had to wonder whether students from podunk schools are expected to win this damn award to prove themselves.

Anyway, I'm glad this chapter of my life is over. Now I need to catch up on my undergrad physics and try to prepare myself for Princeton's grad program. A few of their faculty had called me with a few questions before I was admitted and they seemed like awesome people! I must try my best... I'd hate to disappoint them, or the world who I hope to help bring fusion energy to at some point in my life!

Sadly, very sadly, I don't think I'll get to meet any of you. RG, nvanmeter, grae didn't apply to princeton... and as much as I'd love to visit Caltech and Stanford too see their campuses and meet you guys there, I'll do the right thing and decline their offers promptly. Also, one of the things that surprised me is they only reimburse upto $300 and $250 for travel costs... there's no way that would come close to adequate for those of us back East.

RG, get back here now!! I want you back more than garden! Are you visiting UPenn??? Let me know cuz we could meet up!!!

Until next week,
quizivex
Last edited by quizivex on Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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dlenmn
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by dlenmn » Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:36 pm

@ quizivex

Good to have you back.

schmit.paul
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by schmit.paul » Sat Mar 01, 2008 3:05 pm

jesus, what did I miss? got some email in my inbox saying there was a reply posted to a thread I had commented on months ago, and when I come back to the forum it looks like the aftermath of an overdramatic spanish soap opera! At least you all have hopefully had your paranoia quelled with a few acceptance letters from your preferred universities :-P I guess I know what I'm going to do now when I get sick of cranking out solutions to magnetohydrodynamics problem sets--curl up in the warmth of my 10x12 foot mansion of a dorm room, light some candles, put on some easy listening, and indulge in the last few months of drama you guys have managed to stir up! And they said physicists don't have feelings...

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grae313
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Sat Mar 01, 2008 3:20 pm

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!

:D :D :D :D :D :D

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grae313
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Re: Who wants RG, quizivex, twistor, and fermiboy back?

Post by grae313 » Sat Mar 01, 2008 3:21 pm

Someone PM RG!! He needs to at least tell us what open houses he is attending.



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