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Chemical
06-27-2010, 05:20 PM
Tell me, if a post is posted and no one reads it is it still a post?
Discuss.

Raistlin
06-27-2010, 05:30 PM
Ashley! :love:

A post that no one reads is still a post because "and people have read it" is not in any definition of "post" that I know. Otherwise the post I am making now would not be a post until the first person reads it, which is absurd.

Rantz
06-27-2010, 05:44 PM
If a post is made on a forum, and nobody has the authority to run a SELECT query on the database, is it still a post?

~*~Celes~*~
06-27-2010, 06:26 PM
Why must the good die young? :cry:

Del Murder
06-27-2010, 06:28 PM
Yes, because all of Raistlin's posts still count, don't they?

Raistlin
06-27-2010, 06:33 PM
http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/50547933/955545

qwertysaur
06-27-2010, 07:38 PM
Only on days that are not thursday :p

Tavrobel
06-27-2010, 07:59 PM
If a man speaks his mind in the middle of a forest, and no woman is around to hear him, is he still wrong?

Jiro
06-28-2010, 06:20 AM
Berkley.

Laddy
06-28-2010, 06:36 AM
Nobody reads my posts.

That statement answers your question.

Hythloday
06-28-2010, 06:55 AM
No. :mad2:

qwertysaur
06-28-2010, 06:57 AM
Dividing by zero is step 3.4 to getting the answers you all seek :p

Mo-Nercy
06-28-2010, 08:33 AM
DO NOT READ THE SPOILER TAG

Let's find out shall we?

Jiro
06-28-2010, 10:14 AM
I saw your warning and ignored it :monster:

~*~Celes~*~
06-28-2010, 10:19 AM
I ATE THE LAST COOKIE or maybe it was your kitten.

oddler
06-28-2010, 11:39 AM
Why am I the first one to reply to this awesome thread?

Edit: Seriously, guys. This is ridiculous.

Jiro
06-28-2010, 11:43 AM
Because you have everyone else on ignore

Christmas
06-28-2010, 11:44 AM
I think the bots and lurkers read this, they read everything. But it all depends on your target audience. :bigsmile:

Clo
06-28-2010, 04:49 PM
Can I be the target audience? :bigsmile:

Loony BoB
06-28-2010, 04:57 PM
The answer is yes. Why wouldn't it be?

qwertysaur
06-28-2010, 07:57 PM
DO NOT READ THE SPOILER TAG

Let's find out shall we?
I didn't click on the tag. Also it does sound fun to experiment :bigsmile:

The Man
06-28-2010, 08:31 PM
DO NOT READ THE SPOILER TAG

Let's find out shall we?
I didn't click on the tag. Also it does sound fun to experiment :bigsmile:

But you still quoted it so you'd be aware of the contents of the spoiler tag :monster:

And now, so am I :monster:

KentaRawr!
06-28-2010, 09:40 PM
If a tree falls down in a forest and no one is there to hear it, it makes a sound. This is because hearing it is not what causes the sound, but the vibration that's caused when it hits the ground.

Loony BoB
06-29-2010, 10:10 AM
And if you want to have audio proof of that, you can put a video recorder next to where the tree falls and record the sound. Nobody has heard the recorder yet (and thus nobody has heard the tree at the time it fell), so to find out if the tree made a sound then you get the recorder play it back.

blackmage_nuke
06-29-2010, 10:25 AM
If a tree falls down in a forest and no one is there to hear it, it makes a sound. This is because hearing it is not what causes the sound, but the vibration that's caused when it hits the ground.

But by that logic any form of vibration or physical movement is called 'sound'. Me stretching my arm into the air would be a "sound" since it's just the start of a very very low frequency vibration. A tree falling in a forrest makes a vibration, but is a vibration a sound if it is not heard.

Loony BoB
06-29-2010, 10:30 AM
I answered that question with my post. =]

If you move your arm fast enough past your ear, you'll hear a sound. So it's right in that stretching your arm into the air would cause (not "be", if we're being pedantic) a sound, just a very small one that most people wouldn't hear. In fact, some sounds aren't heard by people at all. But yes, a sound all the same. That's why there are dog whistles. We can't hear them, but the vibrations exist, and it turns out dogs can hear them. It would be silly to dismiss something as soundless just because we don't hear it.

Rantz
06-29-2010, 10:33 AM
But how do I know which tree is gonna fall, Daniel? It could be decades until a tree falls near a recorder I've put in the forest, by which time it has surely been ruined by rain and moose trampling, unless I put out like 500 recorders in forests everywhere! I can't afford that many recorders, Daniel! And it would take so much time to listen through them!!!

Loony BoB
06-29-2010, 10:34 AM
Set it up with a mechanism. :)

oddler
06-29-2010, 10:35 AM
If no one else is going to post, then I'm going to doublepost. So, there.

Carl the Llama
06-29-2010, 10:53 AM
Set it up with a mechanism. :)

Or a Pie chart.... mmmm Piiiie.

Loony BoB
06-29-2010, 11:11 AM
You could make pie charts out of the trunk! Many of them! 3D pie charts!

~*~Celes~*~
06-29-2010, 11:17 AM
I hate this philosopical stuff :nonono:

blackmage_nuke
06-29-2010, 02:46 PM
I answered that question with my post. =]

If you move your arm fast enough past your ear, you'll hear a sound. So it's right in that stretching your arm into the air would cause (not "be", if we're being pedantic) a sound, just a very small one that most people wouldn't hear. In fact, some sounds aren't heard by people at all. But yes, a sound all the same. That's why there are dog whistles. We can't hear them, but the vibrations exist, and it turns out dogs can hear them. It would be silly to dismiss something as soundless just because we don't hear it.
But by the logic of "it's a vibration, then it's a sound" the movement of any matter even the arm itself would be considered sound. After all the "sound" of the tree falling is vibration of air. Sound can travel through solids as very tiny vibrations, moving my arm is simply making the vibration very big and very slow and therefore by Kentarou's original logic of "if it falls in the forest it still makes a vibration therefore it still makes sound" since moving my arm is a vibration it is "sound". Thats why the only way to define sound is if it is heard.

Also if you record it then the recorder is recording the vibrations not the sound, and when you play it back then the recorder is making the sound, not the tree

Loony BoB
06-29-2010, 03:44 PM
Also if you record it then the recorder is recording the vibrations not the sound, and when you play it back then the recorder is making the sound, not the tree
Ah! Touché, if you are going to go by technicalities, I suppose you could say that it is only sound when you directly sense it. But what is the sound that the recording is making? Is it not the sound of a tree falling?

From what I understand, sound requires three things... source, medium, receiver. Now, what if the receiver is not a being, but a microphone or recording? That is still a receiver, therefore it is still a sound. However, then you have to argue over whether or not "no one is there to hear it" can include recorders, microphones etc. Does a microphone technically 'hear' by recording? I don't think it does, but I can't be arsed going into that much detail. :p

Of course, going back to the original point of this thread: A post is a post because it does not need someone to read it for it to reach the definition of a "message board post".

EDIT: A bit more research shows that sound doesn't require a receiver, and therefore, yes, a sound is made when a tree falls even if nothing is there to 'receive' it, be that by hearing, transmitting or recording.

blackmage_nuke
06-30-2010, 02:00 AM
It is the sound of a diaphragm vibrating due to electronic pulses which just so happens to create a sound similar to if you were hearing a tree fall.

But once you claim that sound does not require a reciever we are back to the original problem that sound can be any form of movement of matter, since sound is then just the vibration of a medium, moving matter is just a slower longer vibration of that medium and is thus sound, since the sound being recieved is no longer a criteria

But this is more a discussion of semantics rather than philosophy. Much like molten rock is called magma until it reaches the surface when it is then called lava, i feel that vibrations are only vibrations until they are percieved by an ear when it is then called sound.

Loony BoB
06-30-2010, 11:29 AM
I think we agree on the general idea and I definitely agree that it's just a matter of semantics. :)

Chemical
07-12-2010, 11:07 AM
Hmm, only 2 posts in this thread, all well thanks anyways oddler