Moderator (Nereid): This thread was created by splitting out posts in the Advice for ATM theory supporters thread that are somewhat off the topic.

Haha, I was wondering about that. Excellent post, good points. I hope this means the tone around here will change for the best.

Great post! I wonder if it could be pinned to the top or placed somewhere for reference?

=D> =D> Good Job dgruss. I agree with Byrd. Perhaps a sticky?

__________________
Some try to tell me, thoughts they cannot defend,... - Moody Blues.

Neptune- The original Dark Matter.

The author feels that this technique of deliberately lying will actually make it easier for you to learn the ideas. - Donald Knuth

I totally agree...excellent post! I could learn a thing or 3 from that post. ops: I vote for sticky.

Let me repeat...well done! =D>

[nitpick] In the spirit of the above listing, I believe you hope the tone around here will change for the better. [/nitpick]

__________________
It's just one of those damn things of which there are many few. -- Dan Blocker

I originally had that, but decided "best" sounded even more optimistic.

Well said, dgruss23. Definitely stickyworthy! =D>

__________________
"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

"Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful." - Ian Faith

Wow - its a sticky! ops: Thanks BA! Hopefully it helps you out. If so its paying back some debts I might owe you for any chaos I might have caused on BABB over the last 2+ years.

And thanks everyone for the kind feedback!

BTW - I make no claim that I've managed to successfully adhere to all of those suggestions all the time! ops:

Add away. I like those.

Well done dgruss23. well done =D>

I'm sure BA has better things to do than baby the board. And it's probably no fun having to ban anyone either.

So I propose some special emoticons, only that BA has access to?
3 would be enough. And if you saw one of the special BA Emoticons pop up, you know that the BA is lurking in the backround.

The special Icon list:
1st - The BA is watching.
2nd -Things are getting out of hand, please tone it down.
3rd - I have a gun and know how to use it.

Might save face for a few people and save BA the trouble of having to ban people.

My 2 cents

Okay that's two. Now if we're going to keep the streak you'll need to give 319 more.

(I hate to think of the bandwidth consumed if Normandy6644 jumps into the fray )

__________________
When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror, like his passengers.

Hahaha. 8-[

I must appologize. My high school, senior year English teacher was such a witch about such things that she made me neurotic about them. "What is needed there is a definitive, comparitive! NOT, an abstract subjective!" she would wail in a condecending tone.

She gave a friend of mind an F on an otherwise beautifully written composition for just that mix up. With her, it couldn't have been an A- or some other more reasonable grade.

When my friend took it to the principal, her (the teachers') response was "One either has disiplin in their thinking or one doesn't." :roll: The pricipal flipped the grade (A-), for which the teacher was furious. :roll:

__________________
It's just one of those damn things of which there are many few. -- Dan Blocker

I can see where you're coming from, but rest assured I was aware of the true grammatical construction, but decided to alter it for the sake of....well I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe for the occasion I thought it sounded better.

I accept your explanation and conceid to your point of view. Just don't let Mrs. Lavelle see it.

Actually, it just occured to me that you are safe. She's probably gone to the great English class in the sky. The lady was in her late 50's when I was a senior 37 years ago. ops: :roll:

__________________
It's just one of those damn things of which there are many few. -- Dan Blocker

As far as recently is concerned, I won't take "part" of the blame...I'll actually take Most of it. I gave a pretty poor showing and it makes me wonder if I should be posting here at all. What I mean is that I come here to help, not to hurt...the BA was correct when he personally said to me...

I can tell how disappointed he is with me...and truth be told, I'm pretty disappointed with myself...

I've had my head in the dirt for 6 months or so. What is the ATM Theory?

Thanks for your patience.

ATM = Against The Mainstream. Every theory that goes against the generally accepted ones, from the reasonable (or even the genial) to the wacky, passing by some very disturbing ones on the way
Patron Saint of the ATM'ers: Galileo Galilei.

__________________
Knowledge is a curse, but ignorance is worse

hmm, add "an" in front of ATM:
Advice for an Against The Mainstream theory supporter.

Not a single theory, any that falls outside the mainstream science, electric universe, etc.

Would it be worthwhile to add a short list of suggestions for those who are responding to an ATM post? That is, those who are defending the mainstream or challenging the ATM ideas?

After all, it's not just the ATM proponents who sometimes lose their cool in this forum. Remember the dear departed JSPrinceton?

(And I've been on the receiving end of a BA scolding, myself... ) ops:

Of course a great irony would occur when a disagreement breaks out over whether or not a new idea should be added - and then the discussion gets heated - and pretty soon bannings result ...

Cool, I was about to ask. To me ATM means AUtomated Teller Machine. And in more professional surroundings Asyncronous Transfer Mode.

Well, the name of this forum should be a pretty good clue... :wink:

Bad Idea! I could never post anything about anything. It implies you need a relatively high level of expertise to challenge the status que, to join in the discussion. It also implies that you must be thoroughly versed in a subject in order to add something meaningful, or ask an insightful question. Quite often, just the opposite is true: a new prospective can provide new insights - especially prospectives from other disciplines. From the mouth of babes...

__________________
jwj

It's a big universe out there...is it really unwinding, really burning out?

But how can you say a concept is wrong if you don't even understand it? That would be like me attempting to correct the scorekeeper at a cricket game.

__________________
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

I think of it in terms of something that happened to me in 2nd grade. I wrote some little thing and turned it in to my teacher, but apparently I misspelled one word. She got angry and said "if you didn't know how to spell it, why didn't you ask me?!" Although I didn't say so at the time, the answer seemed obvious to me - I thought I DID know how to spell it! If I didn't think I knew, I would indeed have asked.

I think many ATM people think they do understand the current theory, even though they don't. Thus asking people to understand the theory before they criticize it won't work - they think they already understand it.

You and I both realize that we know absolutely nothing about scoring a cricket game, but I bet each of us thinks we understand some particular thing that we actually do not understand.

Aporetic

Ok, I think we'll just leave the list as it is!

...or turning it into baseball?

I don't have to understand Microsoft to know something is wrong with it.

For almost a decade, I have been fantacizing about installing a custom garage door opener for Bill Gates. When he pushed the button, it would wait about three minutes and sound a claxon loud enough for all the neigbors to hear before opening. Bill could not drive a new car into the garage without first upgrading the opener. (Needless to say it would get stuck all the time, and take a call to the power company, shutting down the entire local grid to get it working again.)

Degruss's guildlines are good, but they must not be intimidating - thsi is a discussion board, not a thesis defense. Remember Mr. Obvious? He started out with little background but a great intuition for getting to the bottom of things.

__________________
jwj

It's a big universe out there...is it really unwinding, really burning out?

WHAT!! Sacrilege!!! You just can't do that! In fact you mustn't interrupt the concentration of the scorer! Why?? Read on.....

Didn't you know that scorekeeping in cricket doesn't really have anything to do with what happens out on the field, although many people discuss for HOURS how or why it does/should....

No, in fact cricket scoring is actually part of the PRIME MATH that keeps the Universe revolving! Had you ever wondered why a cricket match GOES ON FOR SO LONG? Some International games last 5 days!! (and they could still end in a drawn result.... a drawn result is NOT the same as a tied game!)

This is purely so that somewhere in the world at any one moment there is ALWAYS a game of cricket on SOMEWHERE! Therefore the process of that PRIME MATH can be continued without interruption at all times.

Otherwise, just think of the consequences!!! The prime math stops.... the Universe grinds to a halt!



\/ \/ \/ \/

__________________
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but rather, 'hmm.... that's funny...'
- Isaac Asimov

Are we alone in the Universe? Are we the only intelligent life? Who knows? But the universe is so BIG, it somehow seems such a waste of space if we are ....