T-Nation Soldier of the Week

Yes, Thunder, please keep posting. Your experience and knowledge are invaluable.

You know, my opinion is that folks like, Thunder (yeah, I put you first), Eric Cressey, Char-dawg, big martin, goldberg, irondoc, JaredNFS, Kim Baugher, Marc McDougal, ZEV (no, not ZEB), and there’s a few more I’d add.

These folks kick it around in the T/N forum. Granted, goldberg and irondoc may be rough around the edges; but they, big martin and Thunder have solid information from the trenches. They don’t impart THEORIES. They have tried/true effective measures and pass those golden bits of advice often.

These are the folks I listen to. Often. I don’t listen to the ones who constantly provide cookie cutter type of advice; advice they themselves may not be using. You can often tell the ones who do this from the ones I listed above.

It’s too bad that that there’s so many newbies on this board now. If there weren’t I wouldn’t have to be posting this.

Thanks, MD. You’re also an inspiration and your advice is always greatly appreciated.

Which brings me to: why even do this? The ones who are truly deserving of this “award” aren’t doing any of their posting so that they can “win” something; they "win something by merely knowing they may have just helped someone.

That’s enough for me.

As annoying as they can be sometimes, newbies are a sign of site success. If a site isn’t attracting new people, that’s bad. Yesterday, 74 new people signed up to T-Nation. Sometimes it’s a 100 a day. If a site isn’t attracting new people, that’s a sign of impending doom.

If you guys like this board, like all the free articles from the world’s best coaches and nutrition experts, like the free seminars, like us giving away thousands of dollars a week in supplements, training gear, T-shirts etc. then you better appreciate the newbies, because they’re a sign that the site is growing and becoming more successful - and therefore we can keep providing all these cool, free services.

I understand how a board with only a small amount of experienced trainers (like how the T-forum started out) can be helpful… for about a week. But after everyone has confirmed how smart everyone else is and you already know the answer to every question, what’s left? New people are the lifeblood.

Not trying to sound high and mighty, believe me, I’ve struggled with newbies too. Just wanna slap’em most of the time. But then I got to thinking: why fight it? Why sit around bitching and moaning about something which cannot and should not be stopped with a successful site: new people. And don’t we all gripe about the new year’s resolution newbies in the gym? And we gripe about the dumb diets and fads that the “sheep” see on TV and accept blindly? Yes, we do. But then we turn around and gripe more when some of these people are lucky enough to stumble onto T-Nation and start asking questions.

My God, it’s like whining is an Olympic sport, that and sitting around reminding everyone how superior you are. (Not aiming that at anyone in particular, I’m mostly thinking of how I used to behave with newbies myself. But I’ve decided not to be a gold medallist in that particular event.)

So while it’s sometimes fun and stress relieving to attack the newbies, it’s much more productive to educate them. In fact, it’s kind of a cop-out to just insult them and move on. It’s much more honorable to help them, give them a place to start and mentor them. That’s one reason why we’re doing this Poster of the Week contest: to encourage this behavior.

Again, it took me a long time to realize all of this. But you know what? You end up a happier person by helping rather than simply whining and rolling your eyes. You don’t get much accomplished in life sitting around all day patting yourself on the back.

i just wantd to make sure that the steroid forum will not go unnoticed. there is some serious knowledge over there and it seems that those guys never get mentioned when we consider the most helpful posters.

tren-freak
drago1
prisoner-22
merlin
warhorse
wideguy
spoookaroo

and the rest of my bros over there sorry i forgot you.

Shugart : Nail, meet head.

If I had a ounce of “superiority complex” in me, I’d see what you’re getting at Mistuh Shugs.

But since I don’t, consider me one of those (few) that truly believe it’s much more honorable to assist/advise/help and not coddle those that truly want to learn. And also, consider me one of those that believe it’s better to learn “in the trenches” and then to pass on what I’ve learned and mistakes I’ve made in the process, here in forums such as this.

Forums are tools for the process. I actively learn by participation both in the gym, on the field and stage, and in the forums. Maybe I’m a odd duck, but I do find satisfaction in knowing I’ve helped someone and don’t need a trophy (or a t-shirt) to solidify that feeling.

Chris, I’m psyched that you and the majority of the t-mag community feel that way. I am a long-time lurker and recent poster and wondered if when I finally came around to asking for help and posting my stats if I would just get laughed off the board. What made me decide to post was seeing all the very specific, customized help other people were getting through my months of lurking. Lucky for me, every single person that has contributed to my “Discipline Help” thread I started about a month ago has given me tons of positive support and advice so that I can overcome any obsticle I’ve had. I’ve even jumped on other threads with questions and gotten at least one good response every single time.

It took me a long time to find the truth (i.e. this website) and it certainly wasn’t because I wasn’t looking. Over the years, I read “health” magizines, worked with “personal trainers,” and tried to get my hands on anything that appeared to be derived from an “expert.” Everything I found had me not eating fat and engaging in enough isolation exercises to last a lifetime. Even on Lee LaBrada’s Mass with Class video that I got a while back he’s talking about not eating any fat and he’s doing bicep curls and leg curls. Seeing him being in the shape that he’s in and what he was doing for exercises/diet just confirmed what everyone else was telling me: don’t eat fat, why squat when you can do leg extensions, etc.

It took a long search and a bit of luck (which started by me getting my hands on a Testosterone issue) for me to locate this site. Since I started posting, I’ve gotten help from diverse contributors ranging from Tampa Terry to Goldberg and tons of others in between. Thanks to all of you, as well as you Chris and the rest of the staff for promoting the environment that gets us lurkers out of the shadows and invites us in to put us on our own T-path of success, regardless of what point of our lives we have arrived or what physical condition we are currently in.

Hmm, quiet. Interesting.

didya see didya see!? I’ve made several descent and helpful posts in the last day or so, much improved over my usual 2-5 per month.

Wow! Great post Chris!

I think those of us who have more experience sometimes forget we were once newbies too. (not necessarily referring to anybody who has posted on this thread)

Although I’ve never flamed a newbie (to my memory at any rate) for asking a “stupid question” I haven’t always been as patient with newbies as I could have been. Reading T-T’s posts has been a real inspiration for me to improve myself in that respect. After all, we’re all here for the same reason - to improve our bodies, whether it be to get in better shape, to get stronger or to improve athletic performance.

I don’t consider myself to be anywhere near the same caliber as the Patricias, T-Ts and Thunders (to name a few) of this board but I do try to help when I feel I have something to add. Like Patricia and T-T I don’t do it for expectation of reward.

With that said, I raise my glass to a rejuvenated forum for 2004.

Cheers everyone.

Newb’s can get annoying real quick depending on their attitude and what they do with the advice they receive.

A good suggestion would be to treat newbs as cool as possible until they reveal their colors, then open fire!

I?m back! Did I read Free stuff I?ll have to start posting again. Bring on the questions.

From the vets point of view, I feel that alot of us newbies think we know more then we’re being taught. I don’t see why ask a question if you aren’t willing to either get advice you may not agree with or get flamed for asking something “stupid”. Self experience NEWBIES USE THE SEARCH ENGINE, things may change though with this T-Nation soldier, hopefully.
From a newbie point of view, I feel that alot of vets aren’t willing to help if the guy hasn’t searced, what if we don’t have time to search due to school,work, etc. The search engine isn’t the most fastest device there is to find certain topics with limited time.
We need to be more opened minded and patient at giving and receiving advice, if you’re not prepared to do either then why post. We all have knowledge in different amounts and different topics.

A couple of comments:

I think encouraging use of the search engine is fine if it’s done correctly. Help them out, provide a link or an article title, then mention the search.

But while our search engine was okay when we only had a couple hundred articles, it stinks now that there are over a 1000! I’m told we have an improved search coming and a better way of categorizing the back issues. If all that works out, then “use the search” will be fair. Right now though, saying to use the search engine is like telling someone to go find a needle in that haystack over there. Our fault, and it will be improved soon.

Next, the weekly prize may encourage others to help out more, which is great. Maybe at first they’ll do it only for the prize, but after a while I think they’ll learn that educating rather than bullying is more fun, unless a person really gets off on grumbling about others and whining. Could be a new fetish, never know.

Try a combination at first to ease into it. Here’s an example:

“Dear New Poster, I suggest you do close grip chin-ups instead of concentration curls. A greater load and getting more muscles involved will get you faster results. You may want to read Chad Watebrury’s articles on this topic and do a search on the kinetic chain. Just do a search for the ‘Branding Iron’ series and the arm training articles by Don Alessi you… LAZY MEN’S EXERCISE READIN, PENCIL DICK, SLIM-FAST DRINKIN, SUBWAY EATIN, PILLATES DOIN NEWBIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

See, education plus venting.

As usual, the creators of this site prove that they are a class act.

(Wish I had something helpful to say!) :wink:

I can see CS’s point. It’s a good way of getting people to be more helpful,
since everyone likes free stuff. Terry’s helping of many newbies is what seems to be causing a lot of lurkers to start posting, which overall is good for the site in general.

However, I’m with Pat in the sense that knowledge from the trenches is where the real learning comes from. I’ll even be so bold as to say that this is often what I [i]think[/] I bring. Unfortunately, it seems that people get very sensitive and just don’t like it when alternative viewpoints are expressed. This is a discussion forum right? A place where people can share their experiences, ask questions, debate a little, all the while everyone reading said discussions find themselves a little more knowledgeable than they were prior to reading it. Do I have this right? If someone feels strongly about their views, they should be encouraged to voice them, and defend them, if they’re questioned on an aspect of it. Everyone benefits that way.

[/]i] Oops, I didn’t close the tag. I hope this is how you do it.

Thunder, I think you’re referring to the NWA’s: Newbies with Attitudes. (Can’t remember where I first heard that, but it fits.)

These newbies come in and ask questions with a chip on their narrow shoulders. They ask a question, then proceed to attack everyone who responds.

Two possible reasons:

  1. They’re punks with personality disorders.

  2. They were helped by others but in a condescending or rude manner. No one likes that and will often strike back.

T-Quinn,
Having a busy life isn?t limited to newbies. Many of us are willing and happy to help, but we train, work, go to school, read everything we can get our paws on, spend time with our families, etc. When someone asks a question that has been answered a couple hundred times, and can be easily self answered by using the search engine they give an automatic impression of being unwilling to help themselves. It may sound harsh, but most of us have the, ?I?ll give you a spot, but I?m not going to f-ing work-out for you,? attitude.