Official Luthiers Forum!

I had intended to post this note over the Thanksgiving holiday, but as so often should and must happen, family takes priority. So a bit late, but here goes:

I have been doing a good bit of reading of late on the subject of gratitude and thankfulness in terms of the role played by others in making our lives richer and more meaningful. As I was researching a repair here on OLF a few weeks back, I happened to note a post with an inordinate number of thanks attached, which as a matter of intellectual curiosity took me into the 'Thanks Toplist' and onward to the 'Thanks List' for a bit of research.

As expected, those with the most posts were often those most thanked, but I also saw a few of those mega-posters with fewer thanks than one might expect. That in turn led me to the notion that some posters generated pearls of wisdom or perhaps just extraordinarily useful posts on a more frequent basis than other posters, with the obvious metric a density function related to how often their posts garnered one or more thanks from the OLF membership. I suspected that a certain number of total posts were needed per poster to avoid the 'one hit wonder' effect, and a bit of analysis suggested a 200 post minimum as a workable filter for those outliers.

When I compiled a list by 'Thanks Metric' (# of thanks/# of total posts), I found that - much as I expected based on my past crawls of the archives - the top spots on the list were all occupied by those that I had previously thought seemed to hit a home run on nearly every at-bat. I would urge those that have read this far to take a quick peek at OLF's 'Thanks Toplist' and 'Thanks List' before moving onto the list below... all three lists are healthy reminders of just how much those named individuals have done to help others here on the OLF.

Mr. Farmer that takes the top spot in the Thankfulness Top 50, which is a natural result of his talent for generating wonderfully pithy, tremendously helpful content every time he puts fingers to keyboard. Close behind are Messrs. Joshnothing, Ford, The Cat (aka, Tounces... forgive me my whimsy as a fellow feline fancier), and Parker, as well as many more of the usual suspects. And #38... Ruby50... I miss you, my friend... rest well, Ed.

So without further adieu, the OLF's Thankfulness Top 50:



PS - I recompiled this list using December 2nd, 2022 data, so this is as up-to-date as possible at time of posting.

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We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)

Wow, thanks for this it is interesting. I'm impressed that many folds are averaging half a percentish thanks/posts. That says a lot. A lot of great names on that list too. Some names I'm surprised weren't on there as well.

Well done all you prolific wisdom posters! And let me say a thank you to all of you. I really get a lot out of reading here (even if half the time I forget there is a thank button).

I shutter to think what my rate is on my 3,000 posts; I definitely get more than I give around here when it comes to info to be thankful for. I should probably read more and type less. That made me wonder about what the rate of thanking other people's posts compared to their own post count would look like but I quickly realized it would be a mess and not tell any realistic story. Some folks don't even remember/use the thank button and some probably are more inclined to think of hitting it than others.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I find that this definitely applies to me. I'm of an age where the thank button is not second nature to me. But that's a reason, not an excuse. I will try harder in the future to use the button more, because I know for a fact that my actual thankfulness is much larger than what is reflected in my use of the thank button. I really appreciate all of the knowledge and wisdom provided by participants here on the OLF.

And thanks to Woodie for the reminder through the use of statistics, as well as her substantive contributions.

Not only do many of us forget to use the thank button, I bet most thankees never know they have been thanked. Unless you go back and re-read posts, there is no way to know someone has thanked it. And who goes back and reads their own posts in a conversation. I bet many of the people on the attached list have no idea they have been thanked at such a high rate. Hopefully they will read this thread!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Dave Farmer is going to get a kick out of this!

In fact, Dave’s shared an amazing amount of knowledge about instruments with me both on the OLF, on the phone, and in person. However, the top advice he gave to me was just a comment in passing during a conversation. He said, remember, the OLF is all for sport, nobody is making any money on it!


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BTW - why am I first in total number of thanks given. Hahaha


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I mentioned the Thanks List in my original post, which with a bit of filtering represents the most thanked persons on the OLF. The top names there with ranking in total posts are: Mr. Breakstone (#1), Mr. Pile (#13), Clay S. (#12), Mr. Steve Smith (#8), Mr. McKenna (#11), Mr. Parker (#57), and Meddlingfool (#9).

Of note is the fact that Mr. Parker occupies the #6 slot on both lists... well done, Mr. Parker.

Also of note: based on my archive crawls over the last 8-9 years, it was rather rare in the earlier days of this forum for the thanks button to be used in lieu of a quick thank-you post in a response, so my Thankfulness Top 50 is likely weighted such that older posts are somewhat disadvantaged.

All that aside, between the OLF's official Thanks List, my little folly of a density function, and all of the thanks I've seen given in response posts over the years, it is apparent that the OLF is a very good place to go for help when needed.

I hope everyone has a chance to slow down a bit and savor the season after the roller coaster ride of the last three years. I'm headed down to Nashville next weekend (three sets of tickets... child-on-Christmas-Eve-level excitement!), and have a full schedule of family and friends events through the new year. Stay safe, stay warm, and stay thankful!

Oh, and thanks so much for the response!

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We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)

If I recall, the thanks button was not originally part of the OLF. I did a quick search and looks like it was added around 2013.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Woodie—

Re: Nashville—If you like comfort food and getting to meet people, Monell’s in Germantown (East Nashville) is a pretty good restaurant. Family style serving, and you are seated with people you don’t know. Some righteous fried chicken. I’ve always enjoyed it.

And I appreciate the special recognition!

The Grateful Padawan before becoming a Jedi?

This place has rarely let me down, if ever, when I needed information.

Thanks Woodie - on the strengths of the detailed information you regularly share with us, you should be at the top of this list. I’m sure I’m not alone in having a folder on my PC where I keep copies of classic Woodie posts on topics such as compression fretwork, neck set geometry and so on for future reference.

I’m really not sure where I would be without access to the knowledge shared on this forum. As anyone who does this stuff knows, such knowledge is hard-won and the generosity with which it is shared here is truly something to be thankful for.

Some of the ratios of posts to thanks are telling.

Thanks again for the recommendation, Mr. Parker... looking forward to a nice lunch with family.

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We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)

Hope you like it! I had the end of Nashville wrong; it is North Nashville, not East Nashville (my family members that used to take me there lived in East Nashville). But you obviously found it. Enjoy the shows you will be seeing down there. It should go without saying, but a visit to Gruhn Guitars is a nice way for a guitar enthusiast to spend some daylight.

Carter's guitars is also very cool. Lots of vintage stuff.

Just a quick post before jumping on my flight home... thanks all for the very useful recommendations for my Nashville trip! Let me just say that despite all of the numerous temptations available in and around the city, I was a perfect angel... no credit cards were max'd out at Gruhn Guitar or Carters Vintage. I know... difficult to believe, but I have photographic proof!

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We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)

Did you catch the Time Jumpers?

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

We got into Nashville Wednesday afternoon, and had to head out Mon AM... I so wanted to stay the extra day for their usual Monday PM show, but as you can undoubtedly appreciate, there is a certain degree of increased pressure on providers this time of year. Ideally, the next visit will be a full week to include the weekend, and include a number of the smaller venues.

I'll be certain to update recommendations well before that, and will be canvasing the membership!

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We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)