~ An EMBARRASSING Apology (and Some Questions) ~

[Spookie Monster]

When I allow my cursor to hover over Elliquiy U, I read the following:

A forum for questions about science, technology, history, and other topics of an academic nature.

Hmmm.

"Questions."

Well, I've posted pretty regularly in Elliquiy U, but I'm not sure that I've ever started a thread because I needed a question answered.  "Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds," Butterflies' Wings and the Alphabet, Sea Serpents and Whale Wangs, Stratfordians, Anti-Stratfordians, and The Tempest, Look!  Up in the sky!, And people think that Wolverine is a tough guy!, The Spitzer Space Telescope, The Puppet Masters, Migrating Stingrays, The Periodic Table of Videos, Prince Rupert's Drops, OpenCourseWare, The Punk Rock Turtle, I Can't Place the Name, but the Butt Seems Familiar, The Colors of the Moon, Super Spores! -- not one of them really begs for an answer from the fine members of Elliquiy.  Size doesn't matter?, Fugly Buglies?, and How Many Licks? technically pose questions, meanwhile, but I imagine that it's clear that I posted them simply because I felt that at least a few individuals out there would enjoy the subjects addressed.

Basically, it appears as though most -- all! -- of the threads that I started in the forum are in fact OFF-TOPIC.

Now, I know that I'm not the only guilty party, but that doesn't excuse my own MORTIFYING negligence.  I apologize, therefore, for my -- well, I can't call it my oversight, per se, because I've known for a while now that Elliquiy U was a place for questions -- for my submission to akrasia.  Aristotle was probably shaking his head sadly; Nietzsche was probably fuming.  (On the bright side, Socrates was probably just scratching his butt while he drank some wine.)

Anyhow, sorry!  Honestly.  I understand how important organization is to such a large community!

That said, I now have a couple of questions.  Where should I post my nerdier and artier stuff?  Posting in News and Events seems to be a possibility; posting in Off Topic seems to be a possibility.  Posting in both News and Events and Off Topic seems to be the most reasonable choice.  What are your thoughts?

Spel


O.K., I'll grant that I wrote most of the above with my tongue tucked into my cheek.  (The apology is genuine.)  And I should note that I'm always more interested in the spirit of the law than in the letter of the law.  Still, I think that my observations and my questions are valid.  I think, too, that there would be both advantages and disadvantages to returning Elliquiy U to its roots -- that of a forum for questions -- and to nurturing it on the course that it's taken.  WHAT SAY YOU?

[Greenthorn]

Wow personally I think Elliquiy U was perfect.  To me it's more of a "learn something new about our world and discuss it".  I think I even posted my 5 mad scientists there *frowns*

[Moondazed]

I guess I wasn't paying attention either, because I thought Elliquiy U was for informational posts, questions, etc., so what you posted seems to fit here.  That being said, I don't think I've ever posted to it :)  I don't know... I guess we'll have to wait for someone 'in the know' to come along :D

[Sherona]

To me:

other topics of an academic nature.

Means Informational topics...academic is learning correct? So posting things to expand knowledge of a factual/theoretical  nature would go there. I think.

[Inkidu]

"Tongue in cheek"? You mean it moves! I thought it just stuck to the bottom of your mouth, Spel. Anyway, I find your topics do fit into the realm of academia, they just fit into the more eccentric (Lets not say mad scientist, they don't like that. They're angry at best.) side of it. :D

[Moondazed]

Mad scientists are mad sexy! *giggle*

Sorry... I couldn't resist :P

[Trieste]

Damn right.

[Chris Brady]

"Mad?  MAD??  I am not mad!  A little perturbed at the world situation, maybe, but I am not MAD!"

[Moondazed]

Hmmm....

Perturbed scientists are perturbed sexy!

Sorry, that doesn't quite work :P

[Spookie Monster]

Thanks very much for the constructive and encouraging words, maidens and monsters.  If the consensus is that Elliquiy U is proceeding in the proper direction, well, goodness, I'm cool with that.  I simply feel that we need to remember two things:

1) If we're to keep the Elliquiy community tight, we should support our fellow members.  One way that we can do this is by insuring that our fellow members' questions aren't drowned in the ocean of great threads in Elliquiy U.  We should watch for questions, and when we spot questions that we're qualified to answer we should do our best to answer them in a timely fashion.

2) We might have occasional confusion about where a particular subject, thread, or post might go.  If I myself wanted to discuss this current World Series, for example, I might post in Xana's World Series thread.  If I wanted to note that this World Series offered the first suspended game in a century of World Series history, however, I might be inclined to post in News and Events, while if I wanted to discuss a sabermetric analysis of this World Series I might be inclined to post in Elliquiy U.  Why, though?  Why hither, thither, and yonder?  I don't know; all of my posts would ultimately be about the World Series, after all.

Then again, our minds, subjective as they are, are probably never going to organize entities or phenomena in the same way anyhow.  Although the concept has been described many times by many people, I myself am going to reference Borges's famous El idioma analítico de John Wilkins just because I'm especially fond of it:

These ambiguities, redundancies, and deficiencies recall those attributed by Dr. Franz Kuhn to a certain Chinese encyclopedia called The Heavenly Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge.  In its distant pages it is written that animals are divided into

(a) those that belong to the emperor;
(b) embalmed ones;
(c) those that are trained;
(d) suckling pigs;
(e) mermaids;
(f) fabulous ones;
(g) stray dogs;
(h) those that are included in this classification;
(i) those that tremble as if they were mad;
(j) innumerable ones;
(k) those drawn with a very fine camel's-hair brush;
(l) et cetera;
(m) those that have just broken the flower vase;
(n) those that at a distance resemble flies.

Anyhow, I'm going to return to starting new threads in Off Topic, News and Events, and Elliquiy U.  If all goes well I'll choose fora like a butterfly, post like a bee.  That said, if anybody does find any of my threads ill-suited to the homes that I've selected for them, please don't hesitate to move them, to leave them where they are, to dress them in little sailor outfits, to whatever.  If it's good for you, it's good for me!

Thanks again, everybody.  I have to get back to my experiments.  Best wishes!

Spel