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TSG Report 7

Posting Profiles
For
Tech Support Guy
Distinguished Members

by 'oscar51'

Original release: March 2003

Updated and revised:
September 2003
March 2004
September 2004
July 2005
April 2007
For the April 2007 version of this report, the format of the posting profile tables has been modified and the time-history tables have been deleted.
No new data has been added since 30 June 2005. Maybe someday....

Summary

A "posting profile" as defined and presented in this report is a set of numbers that documents the posting habits of a Tech Support Guy™ (TSG) member and provides a quick and easy way to identify that member's area(s) of interest and expertise. As a service to the TSG community, this report presents posting profiles for all TSG Distinguished Members as of 12-midnight GMT+1 on 30 June 2005.

Introduction

The basic assumption on which the credibility and usefulness of the data presented in this report is based is that TSG members will, in general, post more frequently to those forums in which they are interested and knowledgeable and less frequently to the other forums. If this assumption is correct, then a tabulation showing the relative number of posts a member makes to each of the various TSG forums should give a good indication of that member's area(s) of interest and expertise. These tabulations -- what I call "posting profiles" -- could then be perused by visitors and the less experienced members who want to identify quickly and easily the areas of expertise of the more experienced members. Therefore, because I believe they could be useful in this identification process, I have made available in this report posting profiles for all TSG Distinguished Members, i.e., all TSG members with 2000 or more posts.

Data Set

The data set used to generate the results reported below consists of a tabulation of the date, time, and forum of each post made by each TSG Distinguished Member as of 12-midnight GMT+1* on 30 June 2005. These data were acquired via the "Tech Support Guy Forums > Search Forums > Advanced Search" using the "Search By User Name" and "Show results as Posts" options. Therefore, because these data were obtained by searching, the total number of posts shown below for each Distinguished Member is not necessarily the same as the total number of posts shown in each member's personal profile. There are several reasons for this disparity but a discussion of these reasons is beyond the scope of this report.
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* This cut-off time represents clock-on-the-wall Daylight Saving Time in the Prime-Meridian time zone. To help simplify my data-processing task, I assumed that all TSG members were on Daylight Saving Time in their respective time zones at this moment in history and then adjusted the times for all posts accordingly. I know this assumption is not correct for all members but the effects of its 'incorrectness' on the numbers presented below were negligible.

Posting Profiles

Definition and Example

A posting profile as presented in this report is a tabulation of a set of numbers that show for a specified TSG member the number of posts made by that member in each of the TSG forums. For example, consider the posting profile for "AcaCandy" shown in Table I. Row 1 shows that AcaCandy has made a total of 384 posts to the TSG forum "Business Applications" and that these 384 posts represent 0.734 percent of the 52,335 posts she has made as of 12-midnight GMT+1 on 30 June 2005. The data in rows 2 through 26 may be interpreted similarly.

Table I - Posting Profile for "AcaCandy"

Posts per Forum
Row Forum Name Posts Percent
1     Business Applications 384 0.734
2     Games 160 0.306
3     All Other Software 893 1.706
4     Digital Photography & Imaging 107 0.204
5     Multimedia 34 0.065
6     Hardware 17363 33.177
7     Development 29 0.055
8     Windows 95/98/Me 12868 24.588
9     Windows NT/2000/XP 2980 5.694
10     UNIX/Linux 19 0.036
11     Apple Macintosh 6 0.011
12     DOS/PDA/Other 75 0.143
13     Security 3570 6.821
14     Networking 795 1.519
15     Web & Email 1208 2.308
16     Web Development 21 0.040
17     Announcements 339 0.648
18     Civilized Debate 4338 8.289
19     Photo Album 528 1.009
20     Random Discussion 5613 10.725
21     Thread Games & Arcade Discussion 28 0.054
22     Reviews 71 0.136
23     Tech Tips & Tricks 172 0.329
24     Site Comments & Suggestions 734 1.403
Totals: 52335 * 100.000
* Because of rounding, percents may not add up to exactly 100.

If my assumption as given above in the Introduction is correct, then the relative sizes of these 24 separate percentages indicate that AcaCandy is quite interested and knowledgeable in the areas of personal computer hardware and Windows 95/98/Me operating systems and somewhat less interested and knowledgeable in the topics considered in the other forums. Now, this may be a somewhat unfair conclusion because it is based only on the quantity and distribution of AcaCandy's posts and does not consider the quality of those posts. But lacking an in-depth review of the applicability, comprehensiveness, technical depth, and overall helpfulness of her posts -- a task assigned to the TSG moderators, one of which I am not -- no other conclusion can be reached in this report. The posting profiles for other TSG Distinguished Members can be interpreted similarly and may be viewed via the links in Table IV below.

Extended Posting Profiles

For those readers who would like more detailed information about a Distinguished Member's posting habits, I have made available what I call Extended Posting Profiles. These extended posting profiles show for each Distinguished Member the total number of posts made during each hour of the day and the total number of posts made during each day of the week. The extended posting profile for "AcaCandy" is shown in Table II.

Table II. - Extended Posting Profile For "AcaCandy"

Posts per Hour | Posts per Day
Hour (Z-06) AM Posts Hour (Z-06) PM Posts | Day Posts
0000 - 0059 86 1200 - 1259 4419 | Sun 5729
0100 - 0159 42 1300 - 1359 4286 | Mon 7813
0200 - 0259 12 1400 - 1459 4270 | Tue 9232
0300 - 0359 1 1500 - 1559 4113 | Wed 7896
0400 - 0459 1 1600 - 1659 3834 | Thu 7812
0500 - 0559 1 1700 - 1759 3525 | Fri 7710
0600 - 0659 29 1800 - 1859 2670 | Sat 6143
0700 - 0759 607 1900 - 1959 2205 | - -
0800 - 0859 2983 2000 - 2059 1951 | - -
0900 - 0959 4520 2100 - 2159 1710 | - -
1000 - 1059 4806 2200 - 2259 1203 | - -
1100 - 1159 4529 2300 - 2359 532 | - -
Total AM: 17617 Total PM: 34718 | Total: 52335

In this table, each day is divided into 24 one-hour blocks. For example, the first line in Table II shows that during the first hour of the day (the hour labeled 0000 - 0059), AcaCandy made 86 posts and during the 13th hour of the day (1200 - 1259) she made 4,419 posts.* This first line also shows that 5,729 of her posts were made on a Sunday. The other lines may be interpreted similarly. The last line in Table II shows the number of posts made during mornings and during afternoons. Extended posting profiles for all TSG Distinguished Members may be viewed via the links in Table IV below.
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* To generate the "Posts per Hour" data, I made an effort to determine the time zone for each Distinguished Member. I was not totally successful in this effort. So if I got your time zone wrong and your post numbers do not look quite right when compared with your daily schedule, just slide them up or down until they do. For those members not on Daylight Saving Time when it is summer in Greenwich, see note on time following paragraph "Data Set" above.

Simplified Posting Profiles

While the formats used in Tables I and II are useful for showing complete posting profiles, those formats are not suitable for quick reference and ease of reading, nor are they suitable for display in a member's personal profile where space is limited. An example of a Simplified Posting Profile format that can be read quickly and easily and is suitable for display in a limited space is illustrated in Table III.

Table III - Simplified Posting Profile for "AcaCandy"

Simplified Posting profile for "AcaCandy" based on 52335 posts:
    Business Applications 1%  ]
    All Other Software 2%  ]
    Hardware 33%  ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
    Windows 95/98/Me 25%  ]]]]]]]]]]]]]
    Windows NT/2000/XP 6%  ]]]
    Security 7%  ]]]]
    Networking 2%  ]
    Web & Email 2%  ]
    Announcements 1%  ]
    Civilized Debate 8%  ]]]]
    Photo Album 1%  ]
    Random Discussion 11%  ]]]]]]
    Site Comments & Suggestions 1%  ]
(Because of rounding, percents may not add up to 100.)

This simplified posting profile shows data only for those forums to which AcaCandy has contributed 1% or more of her total posts. Each line shows the name of the forum, the percent of total posts contributed to that forum, and a horizontal bar with length proportional to the value of the percent. The character "]" is used to form each bar so that the profile is a text-only file. This profile is compact and easy to read: One glance shows that most of AcaCandy's posts were submitted to the "Hardware" and "Windows 95/98/Me" forums. Simplified posting profiles for all TSG Distinguished Members may be viewed via the links in Table IV below.
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Note on rounding: Fractional values of percent equal to or greater than 0.5% were rounded up; fractional values less than 0.5% were dropped. This method of rounding means that a value of 0% can represent any value less than 0.5% and does not necessarily mean 'none'. It also means that a given value of percent may represent a wide range of number of posts thereby creating a sometimes noticeable amount of imprecision in the simplified posting profiles.

Distinguished Members

Table IV provides links to posting profiles, extended posting profiles, and simplified posting profiles for all TSG Distinguished Members as of 12-midnight GMT+1 on 30 June 2005. The member names are listed alphabetically from top to bottom in three groups of three columns each. Click on the letters "PP" in the columns labeled "Profiles" to view a member's posting profile. Click on the letters "EP" to view a member's extended posting profile. Click on the letters "SP" to view a member's simplified posting profile. The third column in each group is labeled "Days" and shows the number of days elapsed between a member's first post and his or her 2000th post, i.e., the number of days it took for that member to become a Distinguished Member. Parenthetical notes are at the bottom of the table.

Table IV - Links to Posting Profiles (PP), Extended Posting Profiles (EP),
and Simplified Posting Profiles (SP) for TSG Distinguished Members

Member Profiles Days | Member Profiles Days | Member Profiles Days
$teve PP EP SP 511 | F | P
700mb80min PP EP SP 415 | FinestRanger PP EP SP 363 | Paquadez PP EP SP 185
A | Firejay PP EP SP 573 | Pat C PP EP SP 329
AbvAvgUser PP EP SP 606 | flavallee PP EP SP 547 | plschwartz PP EP SP 1007
AcaCandy (1) PP EP SP 125 | flrman1 (1) PP EP SP 348 | poochee PP EP SP 211
Al-Firdaus PP EP SP 384 | franca PP EP SP 918 | pronute PP EP SP 238
AlbertB PP EP SP 481 | G | putasolution PP EP SP 134
Alex Ethridge PP EP SP 1587 | gbrumb PP EP SP 622 | pvc9 (1) PP EP SP 63
angel PP EP SP 1851 | Gibble PP EP SP 438 | pyritechips PP EP SP 243
angelize56 (1) PP EP SP 132 | GoJoAGoGo PP EP SP 184 |  
anlore2001 (1) PP EP SP 551 | gotrootdude PP EP SP 75 | R
AnyKey PP EP SP 1013 | GreenIs PP EP SP 730 | RandyG PP EP SP 653
ashes@work PP EP SP 49 | griffinspc PP EP SP 1135 | raybro PP EP SP 361
B | gws226 PP EP SP 192 | Raziel_Storm PP EP SP 248
bandit429 PP EP SP 441 | H | Rep PP EP SP 787
bassetman PP EP SP 445 | hewee (1) PP EP SP 131 | rhettman (2) PP EP SP 661
bd PP EP SP 607 | hotskates PP EP SP 899 | rkselby98 PP EP SP 800
Big-K PP EP SP 78 | I | Rockn PP EP SP 264
BillC PP EP SP 701 | iltos PP EP SP 233 | Rollin' Rog PP EP SP 302
Bob Cerelli PP EP SP 584 | IMM PP EP SP 581 | RSM123 PP EP SP 454
boyoh53 PP EP SP 295 | Infidel_Kastro PP EP SP 245 | rude PP EP SP 253
brendandonhu PP EP SP 167 | iXneonXi PP EP SP 197 |  
brianF PP EP SP 410 | izme PP EP SP 68 | S
brindle PP EP SP 810 | J | SavvyLady PP EP SP 81
brite750 PP EP SP 1018 | jbcalg PP EP SP 1189 | sekirt PP EP SP 688
Brooks PP EP SP 296 | Jedi_Master PP EP SP 491 | Servant of Eru PP EP SP 450
brushmaster1 PP EP SP 806 | JewisHeritage PP EP SP 348 | SexyTech PP EP SP 176
Bryan PP EP SP 361 | jimi PP EP SP 962 | Shadow2531 PP EP SP 1312
buck52 PP EP SP 892 | joe2cool PP EP SP 196 | Shadow Bea PP EP SP 300
buckaroo PP EP SP 1080 | john1 PP EP SP 565 | shortnpretty PP EP SP 169
buddhafabio PP EP SP 648 | johnwill PP EP SP 125 | simpswr PP EP SP 784
Byteman PP EP SP 398 | Jonesiegirl PP EP SP 139 | Skivvywaver PP EP SP 1251
C | JSntgRvr PP EP SP 206 | sleekluxury PP EP SP 126
Cédric PP EP SP 765 | Jtoast PP EP SP 524 | slipe PP EP SP 879
celticsong22 PP EP SP 175 | K | Sooky 47 PP EP SP 631
cheese PP EP SP 657 | Kento PP EP SP 290 | Squashman PP EP SP 249
Cheeseball81 (1) PP EP SP 255 | khaki PP EP SP 83 | steamwiz PP EP SP 161
Chris A PP EP SP 1167 | khazars PP EP SP 460 | Stoner PP EP SP 299
ciberblade PP EP SP 138 | kilowatt1 PP EP SP 984 | Styxx PP EP SP 796
clskrk PP EP SP 30 | kiwiguy PP EP SP 185 | sweets1981 PP EP SP 141
CoasterFreak PP EP SP 575 | L |  
columbo PP EP SP 903 | LadyLisa PP EP SP 1011 | T
combsdon PP EP SP 810 | LANMaster PP EP SP 60 | tantap PP EP SP 166
ComputerFix PP EP SP 506 | LarryCore PP EP SP 306 | TechGuy PP EP SP 1445
contralto PP EP SP 351 | linskyjack PP EP SP 59 | telecom69 PP EP SP 1019
Cookiegal PP EP SP 302 | littlemar PP EP SP 227 | THoey PP EP SP 1102
CouchMaster PP EP SP 752 | Lurker1 PP EP SP 730 | Tidus4Yuna PP EP SP 774
crjdriver PP EP SP 1099 |   | Toddles18 PP EP SP 852
cybertech PP EP SP 604 | M | TOGG PP EP SP 1104
D | mach9 PP EP SP 425 | TonyKlein PP EP SP 154
dai PP EP SP 178 | MaryBeth PP EP SP 464 | Triple6 PP EP SP 255
Dan O PP EP SP 659 | McTimson PP EP SP 443 | Tuppence2 (3) PP EP SP 47
Dark Star PP EP SP 330 | MFDnSC (1) PP EP SP 87 | TW56 PP EP SP 826
DaveBurnett PP EP SP 500 | mightyqueenc PP EP SP 209 |
Davey7549 PP EP SP 274 | Miz (4) PP EP SP - | V
deh PP EP SP 367 | mjack547 PP EP SP 521 | valley PP EP SP 169
Deke PP EP SP 433 | mobo PP EP SP 133 | vlrbsf PP EP SP 1150
Del PP EP SP 538 | Moby PP EP SP 267 | W
deuce PP EP SP 251 | moonmist PP EP SP 43 | WarC PP EP SP 1198
DiSaidSo PP EP SP 216 | Mosaic1 PP EP SP 277 | wedor PP EP SP 831
DNeurococo PP EP SP 1138 | MSM Hobbes PP EP SP 325 | Wet Chicken PP EP SP 1302
DoyceJ PP EP SP 157 | mtbird PP EP SP 290 | Whiteskin PP EP SP 826
Dreamboat/Anne Troy PP EP SP 597 | Mulder PP EP SP 753 | WhitPhil PP EP SP 972
dugq PP EP SP 316 |   | winbob PP EP SP 242
Dust Sailor PP EP SP 329 |   | winchester73 PP EP SP 270
dvk01 PP EP SP 296 | N | Wino PP EP SP 949
  | n2gun PP EP SP 1090 |
E | NiteHawk PP EP SP 184 | XYZ
EAFiedler PP EP SP 1765 | norton850 PP EP SP 329 | xgerryx PP EP SP 714
eddie5659 PP EP SP 216 |   | xico PP EP SP 778
eggplant43 PP EP SP 445 | O | XL Guru PP EP SP 636
Elvandil PP EP SP 282 | oldie PP EP SP 184 | ymfoster PP EP SP 148
Emtronics PP EP SP 1686 |   | zeddy PP EP SP 364
etaf PP EP SP 277 | oscar51 PP EP SP - | zephyr PP EP SP 83
(1) Had at least one 2K-post month
(2) Includes rhettman5 & Rhettman5.1
(3) Includes pre- & post-membership break
(4) Close enough

Concluding Remark

Based on the assumption that TSG members will make more posts to those forums in which they are interested and knowledgeable and fewer posts to the other forums, I believe the posting profiles available in this report offer a good indication of each Distinguished Member's technical expertise.
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