Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Anyone find SM too quiet?

fusso - 14-10-2018 at 16:00

Do you think SM is too quiet? Do you want people to post more frequently?

j_sum1 - 14-10-2018 at 18:05

I don't think you need to obsess over such things, fusso. The board does have natural ebbs and flows as people come and go and as things happen in people's lives. It is also dependent on how much productive lab time is happening.
I think that activity has taken a bit iof a hit due to the spam problem; people have logged on but been unwilling to wade through tons of meaningless posts to find what they want to read -- and have so logged out again. With this situation improved I think we will see volumes return.

If you are dissatisfied, do some experimentation or some research on something you find fascinating. And then begin a discussion that others an benefit from.

diddi - 14-10-2018 at 21:18

i have to admit i have been sick of the spam

Deathunter88 - 15-10-2018 at 08:39

Quote: Originally posted by fusso  
Do you think SM is too quiet? Do you want people to post more frequently?


I find it quite the opposite, too many people are posting junk (for lack of a better term) that although relates to chemistry, has little to no practical purpose in an amateur chemistry forum.

Amos - 15-10-2018 at 08:45

I and other users I talk to aren't bothered as much by inactivity as we are by the reduction in substance you find on the Today's Posts page. There are far too many posts about the forum and not about chemistry; too many recent users have joined and make hundreds of comments or posts but discuss very little chemistry.

If anyone reading thinks they might be one of those aforementioned users, you might think of actually getting into the hobby instead of lingering on the forum hour after hour making it messier.

[Edited on 10-15-2018 by Amos]

Magpie - 15-10-2018 at 13:55

Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  

... people have logged on but been unwilling to wade through tons of meaningless posts to find what they want to read -- and have so logged out again. With this situation improved I think we will see volumes return.


People should use the search engine to find what they want. Use simple one word terms or at most two word terms.
Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  

If you are dissatisfied, do some experimentation or some research on something you find fascinating. And then begin a discussion that others an benefit from.


Yes, do some experimenting then report the results with an assay of your product, both quantity and quality.

I would do more experimenting but every time I start something I have to stop and order some equipment or glassware. And I have a ton of stuff.

WGTR - 15-10-2018 at 17:50

I would like to perform more work on nitrate-related topics as I have time. I would like to pick up my old thread on electrolytic oxidation of ammonia to nitrate and pursue that further, also testing some membranes that another member here was kind enough to send to me a couple of years back.

I’d like to perform an in-depth design and documentation of a practical Birkeland-Eyde reactor, if my employer permits this.

I’d like to design and perfect a practical acetaldehyde generator. I’ve dabbled with this topic, but need to work through a few significant bugs.

Using labmade acetaldehyde and nitric acid, I’d like to perfect a process of synthesizing glyoxal and bringing the product to high purity in a practical manner. Ion exchangers have been used for this, but I’m entertainingly the idea of developing a capacitive deionization process tailored to glyoxal purification.

All of this stuff that I mentioned are projects for the long term, over the next several years. I simply don’t have much time to do the things that I’d like to do these days, due to “life”, but do plan to occasionally make significant contributions at SM over time.

Magpie - 15-10-2018 at 18:03

I'm retired so have lots of time although duck hunting will soon take up some time. We just need some storms up in British Columbia to kick the ducks down south.

I'm currently taking Philosophy 101 (5 credits) and ME 406, mechanical design (3 credits), so those do take up some time. I have 2 partners in the ME course so we can divide up the work. I'm disappointed in this course as it mostly seems like a technical writing/oral presentation course rather than design. The apparati are already set up. We design the experiment and collect the data. Experiments in my garage lab are much more challenging.

Deathunter88 - 16-10-2018 at 01:26

Quote: Originally posted by Amos  
I and other users I talk to aren't bothered as much by inactivity as we are by the reduction in substance you find on the Today's Posts page. There are far too many posts about the forum and not about chemistry; too many recent users have joined and make hundreds of comments or posts but discuss very little chemistry.

If anyone reading thinks they might be one of those aforementioned users, you might think of actually getting into the hobby instead of lingering on the forum hour after hour making it messier.

[Edited on 10-15-2018 by Amos]

Agree with you 100% on that.

Ubya - 16-10-2018 at 02:07

i have at least 10 projects going at the same time, but due to university (9am-6pm everyday) and social life (girlfriend and family) i have just a few hours a week of free time, and i have to split that little time between many things. i really want to be more productive and show here my projects:)

Heptylene - 16-10-2018 at 05:06

Sciencemadness is slow paced because actually running an experiment, collecting data and writing a post/report takes a lot of time. One of the limiting factor is how much free time you have (with work or studies, that leaves the week-end if that).

Another limiting factor is having to buy something you don't have but need for an experiment. I needed to make a heating element/tube furnace for my Ostwald reactor, and I've been waiting for weeks now for the last piece to arrive in the mail.

I'd also like to do some more organic chemistry, I've been buying some nice reagents like p-nitroaniline and aniline to make azo dyes but I'd also like to continue the Ostwald reactor. The funny thing is that I don't actually need nitric acid... If it turns out the reactor can make even one liter of 68% nitric acid I'll be hard pressed to find a use for it!

Melgar - 16-10-2018 at 08:15

Quote: Originally posted by diddi  
i have to admit i have been sick of the spam

Has that improved over the last week or so? There was an issue where if someone deleted spam between when my script saw it and when it tried to delete it, it would stop running. That's fixed now. It seems to get a new spam message every 5-10 minutes, looking at the logs.

If I had a place to set up my lab stuff, I'd be contributing for sure. :(

WGTR - 16-10-2018 at 09:34

Quote: Originally posted by Melgar  
Has that improved over the last week or so?


Yes it has. Thank you, very, very, much for your efforts Melgar.

symboom - 16-10-2018 at 11:04

It's only noisy with so much spam if it was noisy with discoveries and experiments that would be great.