tsgrpt7

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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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