TR Out Loud - November 14, 2008

Sonja Thompson: Allergies have officially gotten the best of me, but I did manage to drag myself out of bed this morning just to bring you all the weekly recap of the top discussions and members on the TechRepublic forums. I know -- that's dedication for ya!

I'm Sonja Thompson, a senior editor for TechRepublic, and this is TROLOV -- or TR Out Loud on Video -- for November 14th, 2008.

First, let's review the top discussions of the week:

#1. Video: TR Out Loud - November 7, 2008. Can you believe it? TROLOV was the hottest of the week! Of course it veered off into several different directions, but that s the beauty of off-topic discussions. Thanks to everyone who chimed in -- even BigHair1204, who definitely brings some cultural diversity to the virtual table.

#2. Geek Trivia: The Altered States of America. TechRepublic's Trivia Geek, Jay Garmon, is responsible for this post, and I thought it was a very fitting trivia question considering the recent election. Jay asked,  WHAT THREE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN A DIFFERENT PRESIDENT IF LESS THAN 600 VOTES IN EACH ELECTION HAD BEEN CHANGED?  Do you know the answer? I'll link to this post, and the other top discussions of the week, in the blog notes so you can find out.

And speaking of the election, the third most popular discussion of the week was started from a post by TechRepublic Section Editor John Sheesley called,  Name the key factor driving your voting decision.  John included a poll at the end of the post, and the last time I checked, there was a tie for the number one factor: don't trust or like the other guy and economic policy.

#4.  Quelling interview conspiracy theories, written by Head Blogs Editor Toni Bowers. If you didn't get that job, was it the fault of the interviewer? Hmmm... If you're a tab paranoid, you might want to drop by this post and see what Toni has to say, as well as what the members are saying in the discussion thread.

#5.  Boneheaded mistakes... we all make them! Share yours.  Scott Lowe, who is a long-time contributor writer for TechRepublic, wrote this gem in the IT Leadership blog. Let's face it, if you make a mistake, that only means that you re human. Check out this post and discussion to see what mistakes your IT peers have made, and then chime in with some ooooopsies of your own.

Next, let's take a look at the TR members who have received the most thumbs up this past week:

Three people tied for 5^th place: jimmy-jam, boxfiddler, and cmiller5400

#4: neilb

Three people tied for 3^rd place: bwilmot, CaptBilly1Eye, and ThumbsUp2

#2: OH Smeg

And #1: Jacky Howe

And here are the five most active members in the past seven days:

#5: The Scummy One

#4: Jacky Howe

#3: Palmetto

#2: OH Smeg

And #1: jdclyde

TR's moderator, Tammy, has a few things to share with everyone today ... yeah, she's got the weekly spam rant, but there's also something else, extra special.

Tammy Cavadias: We're on. We re on the air. It's all me. I like it all me. It goes with you and me ... like this. You see you and me? You want me to e-mail him -- or is that you? Maybe you gotta e-mail. I hear you're real special this week and so are several other people on the boards. They all got peer spam. I'm not special. No one sent me anything. They just don't love me. Wanna open a franchise? Make a few bucks? We got a hardware/software franchise for ya down in India. And this guy up next, he must be the hardware engineer. At least I think that's the hardware engineer. I don't know what he is -- I don't even know what he's asking! There he is. And have we got something for you guys that you should already know about, this coming Monday, which is out TechRepublic Community Central newsletter geared towards everybody out there. So, send us stuff so we can get it featured. Let's go! And that will conclude for me cuz I'm going to go cry since I didn't get any peer spam.

Sonja Thompson: I hope you all are as excited as we are about this community newsletter, because it's all about and for -- you guessed it -- the TR community. That's you guys and gals!

Alright, now let's get to the TR participation part of the show. Let's start with another attempt to show some video sent in by CG IT.

Jacky Howe sent in a picture of his youngest boy boarding the Bundaberg to Brisbane shuttle. He said to check out the pink ribbon and tell him that aussies don't support TiggerTwo.

I also received some Halloween pics from jdclyde (he's a brain donor -  note the IV drip and the name on the brain jar   nice details), CaptBilly1Eye (a Halloween pic from 2 years ago, but we can't see the parrot on his right shoulder), and Jellimonsta sent this one in of his little Jelli-bean. Cute! Please send in more Halloween photos -- or, for you folks who don't celebrate Halloween, pictures of you in costume. There's gotta be an occasion for that, right? When I get a few more in, I'll be able to create a new photo gallery on the site.

Last week's Question of the Week, sent in by w2ktechman was "What percentage of new questions get answered?" AND "What is the average time it takes for a question to receive its first answer?"

• Hal 9000 said that he thinks a lot of the questions get answered that are real questions and not the junk that some people post. He also thinks most questions get answered within an hour.
• Jamesski said: 64% and 1.1 days
• Jacky Howe said 95%-99% ... and approximately 5 minutes.
• Jimmy-Jam said 90% and approximately 5 minutes.
• And jdclyde said BLUE.

I filed a bug with our engineering department to determine the true answers to these questions. The query of how long it takes was too complicated to gather for the show, but here are the percentages of questions answered for the inquiring minds who want to know:

• In the last 30 days, 1,473 Questions have been asked - and out of those, only 311 do not have an answer or response, which equals right around 78%
• In the last 60 days, 2,991 Questions have been asked - and out of those, only 598 do not have an answer or response, which is right around 80%
• And in the last 90 days, 4,507 Questions have been asked - and out of those, only 891 do not have an answer or response -- again, right around 80%

We also have a new "Who is this TR member?" photo. Since this person has never sat in the TR Member Spotlight, the only clue I can give you is that he's the lovable lad on the right. Send your guesses to trol@cnet.com.

And finally, the TR Pet of the Week is Fiona, sent in by TR member bjennings59. This is a glamor shot if I've ever seen one.

Many thanks to CG IT, Jacky Howe, jdclyde, CaptBilly1Eye, Jellimonsta, Hal 9000, jamesski, jimmy-jam, and bjennings59 for participating in this week's TROLOV. If I've mentioned your name on the show, please send me an e-mail with your mailing address and swag item of choice.

Of course, I need more TR members to come out of the woodwork and start participating -- less lurking, more quirking? Send me an e-mail with a question of the week, a comment, or a photo to trol@cnet.com. And you know, I haven't received a voice message in a while, so that would be nice. Our toll free number is - (866) 414-CNET, that's (866) 414-2638. OR you can leave a message on our Skype voice mail option, and our Skype ID is tr.out.loud.

I'm Sonja Thompson and this is TR Out Loud.