Signature Lines 13

[XR250]

@Dik and others who have signature lines...

For me, it makes it annoying to follow posts sometimes - especially when the responses are short as I incorporate the sentence into the response I am reading. Are these really necessary?

See the attached thread...

Anyhow, maybe I am just easily annoyed

 

[dik]

Sorry dold... I still prefer mine...

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[KootK]

Your email address is in your profile,

My anonymous burner email is in my profile.

...and are connected with you on LinkedIn.

About 14,000 structural engineers are connected with me on LinkedIn. Lost in a crowd as it were.

That's a bit unexpected coming from you.

You've been thinking of it in terms of my anonymity as a person. That doesn't concern me much. What I really meant, was the anonymity of my ideas. I prefer that my ideas, here at least, stand only on their own merit and the merit of any reputation that I've gained from my prior work on this forum. I don't want my ideas to benefit unfairly from the mere fact that I'm Fazlur Khan's illegitimate love child.

Structural forum members number in the thousands. Of those, maybe fifteen know me personally in some fashion. That's still quite a bit of anonymity for 20+ years on the forum. Granted, the fifteen that I do know are also fifteen of the most prolific and talented people here. Sadly, I fear for the long term viability of this forum. If things go south, I intend load up the arc and rebuild as necessary. That's part of what I've been up to in connecting with others outside of the forum.

 

[KootK]

I don't put my name on here because I don't want Google to snag some post from when I was new (or even now...) asking some really simple question and having a prospective client find it and pass me over as a result.

I would say that you've successfully hidden yourself in plain sight. Based on your your handle, I long took it for granted that you were Vietnamese. It turns out that you're as unexotic as one could be in our part of the world.

 

[TLHS]

Yeah, I don't generally want to be fully cross-referenceable. Being connected to your random spitballing of ideas feels like a bad choice, when you're normally talking in generalities. I'm not sitting at the keyboard thinking "is this always true." Plus this way I get a laugh every year or two when someone forwards me a thread that I was involved in as a reference for something they think I should be considering. I don't hide who I am if people get in touch with me through the forum, but I wouldn't want my name or position connected to my postings.

There's a whole different standard of care that I'd feel like I'd need to present if a reader could say 'a specific engineer that I talked to on the internet who has this license number in this jurisdiction and a long history of comparable work told me something' versus 'some guy on the internet who might be an engineer told me something.'

 

[phamENG]

KootK - fair points all. I think you're version of anonymity is similar to mine, then. Thank you, by the way. I actually only noticed the possible Vietnamese red herring last year when I saw an add for a Dr. Pham.

 

[KootK]

I've solved it.

winelandv = Eddie Wineland 5 = Eduard Wineland, King of the Andals, 5th of his name.

 

[XR250]

I actually only noticed the possible Vietnamese red herring last year when I saw an add for a Dr. Pham.

Wait- what? You are not Vietnamese? That is how I have been picturing you for years. World rocked.

 

[phamENG]

Nope. Nordic/Scottish/Irish heritage. So...I'm white. Sorry to disappoint.

 

[skeletron]

Lol. Chalk me up as another one that blindly assumed phamENG was of south Asian descent. I wouldn't say this blows my mind, but it definitely is hilarious how anonymity, internal biases, etc. works.

The signatures are hilarious when you print threads because every sixth response is someone's tagline. Try to make sense of that in a deep dive column buckling thread!

I kind of like that people do put them only because it shows how some of us (probably a lot) want the anonymity but also want some sort of connection with another like-minded (or contrarian-minded) individual. It's a funny little human experiment these message boards are...

 

[KootK]

...but it definitely is hilarious how anonymity, internal biases, etc. works.

Right? I had a whole back story worked out for pham based on his handle and the only tidbit of personal information that I knew about him for a long time: his military service. I had imagined that he was a second generation immigrant from Vietnam. Probably locked down the naturalization process with a stint working in the armed forces for Uncle Sam. College on a GI bill or an athletic scholarship... baseball maybe? Buzz cut. Hanoi origins rather than Saigon based on his somewhat "regal" writing style.

I've never been so disappointed to find out that someone was Caucasian.

 

[dik]

Call me a square peg... but, I never think about a person's nationality. As a grade school kid, I had a Chinese friend (didn't have many friends)... and it wasn't until a few years back that I realised he was Chinese... just never thought about it.

-----*****-----

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[phamENG]

KootK - I am forever in awe of your cognitive bandwidth. To work as a successful engineer, participate in these forums at the level and frequency that you do, and the copious amounts of other stuff (like my fantastic backstory) is just too much for one person.

You were right about the military and the GI Bill, but I'll call the baseball idea a foul ball. I played until I was 12. Funny enough, I served with a guy who, apart from not being me, fits that back story perfectly.

 

[KootK]

Funny enough, I served with a guy who, apart from not being me, fits that back story perfectly.

Did your "friend" look anything like this?

 

[phamENG]

Close. Uniform's the wrong color.

 

[Scuka]

It's not the users problem.

It's the website problem. This website is abysmally designed. Feels like some amateur work made in the early 2000's.

Non-existing dividers above the signature line is just one of many symptoms of that.

 

[rowingengineer]

Slow news day

 

[WinelandV]

Holy buckets, I shut my computer down at the end of the day, and the thread ERUPTS!

KootK - as for my name, normally online I am fully anonymous. Here, however, since it's a professional forum, I decided to only be mostly anonymous - if I'm going to weigh in with an engineering opinion, I should be able to put my name behind that opinion. Between my handle, the fact that I am a PE, and my location in my profile, you could figure out my full name if you felt that you must.

You are a bit off with your sleuthing - I'm not an MMA fighter, and I haven't been in that kind of shape in 20 years. That V is my actual first initial. I'm named after my great uncle, so don't be surprised if you get a bunch of obits and Social Security "deceased" lists when you google me.

As to the signature, for the longest time (years, really), everyone pretty much got my handle correct. In the last 6 months, however, "winelady" started cropping up. Decided to head it off at the pass and not (politely) point out the mistake on a response by response basis.

Please note that is a "v" (as in Violin) not a "y".

 

[phamENG]

you could figure out my full name if you felt that you must.

Yeah, that was really easy. Just sent you a connection request on LinkedIn.

As to the signature, for the longest time (years, really), everyone pretty much got my handle correct. In the last 6 months, however, "winelady" started cropping up. Decided to head it off at the pass and not (politely) point out the mistake on a response by response basis.

I've noticed it, too....lots of people call me 'pharmENG'. So I just respond with their handle, but put an awkward 'r' in it someplace. They usually get the hint.

 

[WinelandV]

You did it - that is indeed me. Have a LPS.

Forewarned - I don't really use LinkedIn very much. Most of the messages and invites I get are from job recruiters.



Please note that is a "v" (as in Violin) not a "y".

 

[KootK]

Feels like some amateur work made in the early 2000's.

Correct on both counts.