Sci.physics as a costume ball.

It doesn't surprise anyone, probably, that physics newsgroups attract
all sorts of people, including working physicists, talented amateurs,
curious hobbyists, and of course loons, goofballs, cranks, and
occasionally the obviously mentally ill.

Personally, I have no problem with the above.
However, newbies to the group should be also warned about two other
kinds of posters, and there are LOTS of these.

- Vandals, who are motivated purely by a desire to take physics and
physicists down a peg, and who are contrarian for the sake of
contrarianism. These are no better than guys who come to football
games solely to start drunken fist-fights and teenagers who bash in
mailboxes with tire irons. Their trail is often accompanied by
maniacal laughter and obscenities.

- Posers. Posers are those who aren't really interested in physics,
even at the hobbyist level, but want to give the *appearance* of being
interested in physics. These are the ones that like to tart themselves
up and post a string of jargon that is meant to *look* like something
that would appear in a physics book or what they *imagine* a physicist
would say. But when pressed, they begin the squirmy dance and say "No,
not for you. I wouldn't dream of opening up my ideas to the likes of
you." What this means, of course, is that there is nothing under the
face paint. People who do this take the group to be an open costume
ball, kind of like Mardi Gras or Carnivale, where you can dress as you
like and be what you like and no one will try to peek under the mask.
It's a common assumption by the poser that everyone is here for the
ball, and that everyone else is also a poser dressed up in paint --
and at that, the main point becomes not the substance but the
prettiness of the costume. For some, the point is to have the most
outrageous costume around.

The problem with a vandalized costume ball is that the signal-to-noise
ratio is very, very small. As a source of information, the group
becomes less and less useless, particularly to newbies and occasional
guests. This suits the vandals and the posers just fine, because they
don't WANT it to be a source of information -- they want it to be a
costume ball.

That is the cost of an unmoderated newsgroup. Those looking for
*information* might well look on moderated groups, where the flow of
information is slower and sometimes less interesting. Of course, if
you're fine with just looking at face paint and cheap costumes, this
is the place. Some of us here will still be trying to pry off masks to
reveal what's really underneath. That's where all that high-pitched
shrieking is coming from.

PD
.