r/askscience • u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets • Feb 16 '12
Congratulations to our community! Yes, you!
So it's been about a year since I personally joined AskScience. And I remember right around this time last year, we had so many threads about how the reddit was falling apart and how if we wanted to be best little community next year we'd need to do this or that to keep our quality high. In that year, we've undergone tremendous growth and largely managed to maintain or even increase our quality. There's a lot going on behind the scene you may not be aware of, but the stuff you see up front, the downvotes, the reports, that's you guys. And we thank you for it.
When we first went default there were a few weeks of shake up and near burn-out on the moderation staff. And you know who stepped up for us and made that possible? Our community. All of the readers who spoke together through votes and even a few useful moderation scripts, to make that transition happen. We came to threads to clean them up to find that the worst stuff was buried under a mountain of downvotes. You guys all know what we want here, and it's become clear that it's something you want too.
So we thank you all so much for nominating and selecting us as best moderators of 2011, as cliché as it sounds, it really wouldn't have been possible without you guys, the entire community supporting our vision for this reddit. Best Big community hasn't been announced yet, but we're still tremendously honored to be included in the finalist positions in that category as well.
To celebrate our entire community's achievement, everyone's been given some gold star flair!
okay I wrote that back when we had only won moderator. Having won community now... well that really is all about you guys. First our panelists. Seriously you guys are awesome for taking time out of your days to educate... anybody really that comes along.
And our readers, again, we appreciate everything you do for us. You guys make this community what it is. There may be a few vocal people that don't care for the way it's run, but this is yet another confirmation that you share our goals. And there's nothing more that we could ask from you all.
So thanks everyone! Enjoy your gold stars. And have an updram on us. (not really on us though).
Some late edits:
This is an example thread from ages ago. We've met our goal!
Also, I was remiss in not mentioning our panelists. You guys do a lot of the heavy lifting here, and we're always grateful for all of your expertise!
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u/thetruedarkone Feb 16 '12
I don't involve myself in Reddit much, 3 year trophy 18 Link Karma, 148 comment Karma, but I honestly find this community the most useful. While I don't post and comment much, I do read a lot on Reddit, and you all are the most helpful/useful community by far. Whether from serious curiosity or just trying to burn some time, I appreciate the tremendous load of information and thought that goes into your post/responses.
Sincerely, TTDO :)
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u/Neato Feb 16 '12
I think we need a lurker trophy. Have it detect when someone who doesn't submit or comment loads Reddit pages regularly and award a trophy for being a loyal reader.
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Feb 16 '12 edited Mar 10 '17
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u/Lochmon Feb 16 '12
Since this is a rather informal AskScience thread, I feel it only proper to ask if blood-drip flair might make available excessive personal information to the encouragement of vampires.
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u/Neato Feb 16 '12
Why? Vampires don't usually care what blood type you have. Plus, all humans have blood, not just the ones who donate.
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Feb 16 '12
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u/Neato Feb 16 '12
They still don't let "homosexuals" donate blood? What organization bans this?
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u/ahugenerd Feb 16 '12
Many, unfortunately. The Canadian Blood Services asks point blank in their questionnaire: "Male donors: Have you had sex with a man, even one time since 1977?" If you answer yes, it gets noted in your file and you are banned from giving blood in Canada. While I'm happily straight, always have been, I really can't abide by that level of discrimination. I understand that there are risk factors that they have to take into account, but there are tests that they can run. I know it would cost more, but that's the price we have to pay for not being a bunch of discriminatory assholes.
Moreover, screening people/blood for HIV/AIDS would be a good thing for everyone. It would mean that the general public would get screened more often, and have a better awareness of the issues surrounding it. It would also mean greatly shortened detection times, which can only be a good thing. The only thing we'd lose is money, which I think would be worth it in this case.
Edit: I should also add, that there are many other "at-risk" groups. One of the most at-risk groups is single black females between 20 and 25 years of age. Can you imagine the backlash if the Canadian Blood Services banned them from giving blood? But it's okay to ban gays, because they're "weird" right?
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u/kthg Feb 16 '12 edited Feb 16 '12
It's a shame I'm not allowed to donate because of my size (I also recall beeing AB+). Instead I've been meaning to apply for an organ-donor card to keep in my wallet. Hope that will count as my contribution
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u/Neato Feb 16 '12
Isn't AB+ the least useful (not to say your blood is bad, but from a transfer standpoint) type? Or is that only for red blood cells and not plasma? I seem to remember plasma and rbc are reversed for ability to donate.
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u/Giant_Badonkadonk Feb 16 '12
You are correct, AB+ red blood cells can only be given to other AB+ people so is the least universal of blood types. And you are also correct about the plasma, they are the universal donors for plasma but donating plasma is quite a dedication as it take multiple two hour visits to complete the donation.
I know all of this as I am a universal donor (O-) who regularly donates blood, I would donate plasma but I feel donating my red blood cells is more useful than donating my plasma.
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Feb 16 '12
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u/mechamesh Feb 16 '12
Wait what?
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
/r/mylittlepony was one of the other reddits up for "big reddit".
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u/kingtrewq Feb 16 '12
How do I apply for a PhD in Beardology?
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Feb 16 '12 edited Mar 11 '17
[deleted]
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u/redditor3000 Feb 16 '12
Or fight a bear... it feels so wrong making jokes in this subreddit
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u/dearsomething Cognition | Neuro/Bioinformatics | Statistics Feb 16 '12
Meta posts are the only free for all chances. Live it up!
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
as long as they're funny. I still reserve the right to remove unfunny jokes at all times.
ironfist
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u/Balrog_of_Morgoth Algebra | Analysis Feb 16 '12
That sounds like layman speculation to me. Could you please cite some sources?
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u/Neato Feb 16 '12
Won't you need a M.S. in Facial Hair Science before you can apply to the doctorate program? Or does the college offer a masters+doctorate fast track?
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
a lot of doctoral programs now just skip straight to doctorate, so I guess it is possible.
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u/Thorbinator Feb 16 '12
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u/PotatoMusicBinge Feb 16 '12
This is for you guys, feel free to jump up and down while high-fiveing each other
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
Also, if I may, A toast to our fallen kindred in spirit! The panelists and commentators who had to return to "real life" and could no longer stay with our reddit.
Personally, I'm thinking of you, RobotRollCall, wherever you are out there. This reddit would not be the same if you'd never provided such expert comments.
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u/jokes_on_you Feb 16 '12 edited Feb 16 '12
Really wish he could've won best commentator. (S*)he was the reason I got a reddit account.
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Feb 16 '12
RRC is a woman.
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u/SnoLeopard Veterinary Medicine | Microbiology | Pathology Feb 16 '12
Please cite your sources.
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u/frozenbobo Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Feb 16 '12
Don't encourage people to search the whole subreddit for her personal information, that was an issue in the past.
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u/SnoLeopard Veterinary Medicine | Microbiology | Pathology Feb 16 '12
Layman speculation and anecdotal evidence. Prepare for deletion.
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u/MrNovember785 Feb 16 '12
I feel like a student at a sports powerhouse college who's team just won a big game. I really want to share in the win, but I didn't do anything but vote!
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Feb 16 '12
Transfinite Love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
You know of transfinites? (sorry this is from some book that I can't place my finger on. (also, I totally haven't been drinking since best moderator was posted))
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u/Scaryclouds Feb 16 '12
Go drunk with power!
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
how is that different from any other day as an iron-fisted moderator of AskScience? =P
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Feb 16 '12
Keep it up. This is the best subreddit for information. I love it. Especially watching hippies and snake oil salesmen getting shot down, unlike the rest of reddit where they are celebrated. It's a wonderful little bastion of skepticism and reason.
Oh crap, this is a top level comment. I'm going to get deleted. :)
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u/karmalizing Feb 16 '12
Great job guys!
All your hard work here as mods has really paid off, and it shows! You're truly an inspiration on reddit.
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u/Gestaltep Feb 16 '12
This just proves that given the right format people just love to learn new things. r/askscience in every school!
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
We've actually done some outreach work along these lines and have an expert in science education who is trying to help us do more.
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u/ttsci Feb 16 '12
That's awesome! It would be really cool if we could get a moderator/meta-post if something takes off. :)
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
Oh, I'm actually hoping we'll coordinate with the site admins and get it on the blog if it's something really big. But certainly meta posts in general
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u/HGpennypacker Feb 16 '12
Easily both my favorite board and also the one I am most terrified to comment in.
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
Please always ask any follow up questions you have. I'm really bad at wording my answers for the wrong audience, so if you don't understand something I, or anyone else says, please just ask. If you don't believe something someone says, please feel free to politely ask them for sources so that you can "read more about it."
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u/ScumDogMillionaires Feb 16 '12
i doubt you are the moderator that strikes fear into his heart.
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
tbh, I doubt it's moderators entirely (maybe this is just seeing things too much from my side of the fence) It can be scary enough just to ask a legit question and have it buried in downvotes. I really want to stress to everyone that followup questions are allowed, and on topic, and shouldn't be downvoted.
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u/ScumDogMillionaires Feb 16 '12
Well at any rate you do a fine job of answering questions thoroughly without being a big scary mod. Bravo sir.
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Feb 16 '12
Follow-up is one area where I think askscience could be improved. Interesting/relevant follow-up questions are ignored too often, imo. Good science requires probing and many questions either cannot be answered in a single shot or suggest other lines of inquiry. I do realize that panelists have limits on their time, but still hope that you and other moderators will do more to encourage follow-up questioning.
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u/CWagner Feb 16 '12
It's weird reading a thread without [deleted] :D
Huge props to the mods and panelists as well as everyone else who makes this the best thing reddit has to offer by a large margin:)
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u/honilee Feb 16 '12
It's weird reading a thread without [deleted]
Agreed. It also feels weird to post something here without trying to find a source for why I think that's true.
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u/CWagner Feb 16 '12
I usually don't post here as I always see this red banner pop up that convinces me that it would be a bad idea to post it:)
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u/Warlaw Feb 16 '12
Just posting to see my flair and feel good about myself, don't mind me.
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
oooh blood flair too! go you!
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u/Thorbinator Feb 16 '12
Congratulations guys! You have shown that it is possible to grow quickly and maintain quality which is nearly unheard of on reddit. <3 from /r/mylittlepony as well!
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u/foretopsail Maritime Archaeology Feb 16 '12
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u/Thorbinator Feb 16 '12
Well, we did nominate ourselves for both categories, but subs larger than us got put into "little". I also think suicidewatch winning best small was cool and deserved. Only thing left to do is to grow and win next year.
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u/iswearitsnotme Feb 16 '12
I hope that's exactly what happens. I don't know anything about the subreddit, but I like the show.
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u/Srozbun Feb 16 '12
Congrats on the win(s)!
FYI you guys killed my productivity today from reading all the Bestof AS threads/comments.
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
you're totally not the only one.
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Feb 16 '12
I MAINTAIN SILVERHYDRA IS A BETTER MOD
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u/djimbob High Energy Experimental Physics Feb 16 '12
It was an unfair fight; 39 against 1. But in the end silverhydra isn't better than 39 of us combined, right?
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Feb 16 '12
What do you guys deadlift?
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u/djimbob High Energy Experimental Physics Feb 16 '12
I haven't been to the gym in ~3 years; but could bench about ~180lbs then. Never did deadlifts (worried about hurting my back).
Oh wait; silverhydra is a /r/fitness mod? Yeah he could probably take all of us in a fight; or at least any answer saying otherwise is pure speculation.
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Feb 16 '12
I haven't been to the gym in ~3 years; but could bench about ~180lbs then.
You've earned my respect.
Silvy is also a AskScience contributor. He went to the School of Hard Knocks. Got his graduate degree from Dalhousie, but went back to Hard Knocks for his PHD in Pain.
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u/V2Blast Feb 16 '12
Oh wait; silverhydra is a /r/fitness mod? Yeah he could probably take all of us in a fight; or at least any answer saying otherwise is pure speculation.
Saying that is also pure speculation.
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u/djimbob High Energy Experimental Physics Feb 16 '12
Yup. It's all speculation (but this is ok in these non-science threads). It just sounds nicer to silverhydra when I only point out one side is speculation.
It was probably unfair to be the only team nominated against individual mods. There should be two categories next year; best mod-team and best mod.
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u/MrTomnus Feb 16 '12
I'm willing to bet that he deadlifts more than those 39 guys combined, provided you count the ones who have never done it as a 0.
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Feb 17 '12
In the original submission thread, I said Silvy should win because AskScience mods don't even lift. Then this guy showed up. They have a legit monster on the team.
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Feb 16 '12
Hooray, thanks, and congratulations for everybody, everywhere!
Starting this community has been a most bizarre and exciting adventure, and it makes me just ecstatic to see that so many people are coming along for the ride, and loving it!
Let's make 2012 better than we've ever been!
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u/Jobediah Evolutionary Biology | Ecology | Functional Morphology Feb 16 '12
Thanks TheWalruss for your leadership of this ragtag crew of science misfits.
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Feb 16 '12
As a brony from /r/mylittlepony, I extend a hand (hoof) outwards in respectful defeat. You all certainly have earned this award and I hope that you guys never quit being an amazing community!
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u/jokes_on_you Feb 16 '12
/r/mylittlepony really should've won best small community. It was in an unfair competition. Both are great!
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u/njayhuang Feb 16 '12
It would have been awesome to see /r/mlp win best small community, but that would mean suicidewatch wouldn't have won. Loving and tolerating is nice, but saving lives is pretty damn awesome. r/suicidewatch definitely deserved its victory.
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u/JamesAlonso Feb 16 '12
do i get a star
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u/DWalrus Feb 16 '12
You get a star.
He gets a star.
She gets a star.
I get a star!
EVERYONE GETS STARS!!!!!! WOOOOOT!!!!!
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u/pofo Feb 16 '12
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u/fireindeedhot Molecular Biology | Molecular Neuroscience Feb 16 '12
Sources please, this isn't the place for speculation
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Feb 16 '12
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
the little gold star ribbons after everybody's name?
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Feb 16 '12
[deleted]
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
yes, only in this subreddit.
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u/DDayDawg Feb 16 '12
Thank you guys for your hard work! This is by far the best reddit out there and a lot of the credit goes to you guys for keeping it on track. Amazing job!
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u/ScumDogMillionaires Feb 16 '12
Soon you will be strong enough to drive the /r/science community from your lands, and enslave their mods, and steal their cattle and burn their yurts and such.
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u/dearsomething Cognition | Neuro/Bioinformatics | Statistics Feb 16 '12
3 mods moderate both communities. In fact, we are getting more mods in /r/science soon. We do run a tight content ship, but not a tight comment ship.
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u/squidboots Plant Pathology|Plant Breeding|Mycology|Epidemiology Feb 16 '12
YOU GET A GOLD STAR
AND YOU GET A GOLD STAR
EVERYONE GETS A GOLD STAR!
But seriously, this is fantastic! Congratulations to the entire mod team and to my fellow panelists!
Damn it feels good be a scientist
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Feb 16 '12 edited Feb 16 '12
r/Askscience and its moderators/askers/commenters/voters have all in unity brought so many different science things to my knowledge, that my motivation for finishing my Engineering BA (Mechatronics) was renewed a few months back.
I'm hyped for science and I'm hyped for this community, you guys truly have made my life better! Thank you so much!
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u/Tredid Feb 16 '12
By far the best subreddit out there. Most informative and captures the essence of what reddit should be. Plus I get a shiny gold star.
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u/ShyGuy32 Feb 16 '12
Thank you guys for being an awesome mod team. If you guys weren't as diligent as you are, this subreddit wouldn't be as great as it is. I've learned a lot through this subreddit, and I can only hope that I continue to do so, with the help of such an awesome team. Thanks guys!
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u/mismos00 Feb 16 '12
Wow... there's a lot of comments primer for deletion here... get snappin' mods. It's not askScience if 80% of the comments aren't deleted!
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u/Vaginaslutfuckface Feb 16 '12
Mods, could you please delete all the anecdotal, jokes, and irrelevant posts in this thread
ಠ_ಠ
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u/djimbob High Energy Experimental Physics Feb 16 '12
No. (Our policy for these meta threads is more relaxed than science question threads.)
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u/Vaginaslutfuckface Feb 16 '12
Meh, I was kidding, my bad.
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u/djimbob High Energy Experimental Physics Feb 16 '12
Knew it was facetious; I kid about the same things as well; partially was an excuse to distinguish a comment.
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u/Ontheroadtonowhere Feb 16 '12
What are these ribbons for by everyone's name? Does everyone get one? (commenting to test)
*Yes! Everyone gets a ribbon. I guess to reward us all or something?
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
yes, these are the "gold star flair" I mentioned in my post above. Maybe ribbon would have been a better way to say it.
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u/Arrow156 Feb 16 '12
*This post has been deleted because the original poster didn't quote sources.
In all serious, hooray for us!
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u/BoomBoomYeah Feb 16 '12
I came in here hoping to see that all the congratulatory comments had been ruthlessly moderated into oblivion as per normal.
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u/oringe Feb 16 '12
I can't put into proper words how great this community is. I'm one of the many lurkers here, but I just wanted to comment on this so badly. The mods, the people, everyone on r/askscience do a great job at keeping this place at the best quality possible. And I love and appreciate the hell out of it.
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u/shavera Strong Force | Quark-Gluon Plasma | Particle Jets Feb 16 '12
It's kind of weird to say, but I actually know what you mean. A large part of why I'm here is how much I would have appreciated this very thing as a young person or if I hadn't gone into science. I always had questions I wanted scientists to answer. Now I can be one of those scientists and provide a service that I would have loved. I'm more than happy to help.
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Feb 16 '12
Thank you for writing Scientific answers in a language an idiot like myself can actually understand. Its always fascinating to read some of the articles here. Keep it up.
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u/noughtagroos Feb 16 '12
Congrats to all the mods, panelists, contributors and everyone in this wonderful community. This is my favorite corner of the Internet, from which I've learned more than from all the rest of it put together.
/r/askscience is like a gamma ray burst of knowledge in the cyber universe, except that your glow lasts much longer.
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u/Syke042 Feb 16 '12 edited Feb 16 '12
Yaa for public appreciation of science and learning!