Why did you join the Forums?
 

Hi guys,
Why did you join the Macosxhints Forums? Did you have a problem with your Mac; did you want to help someone? Please list why, just to see what the users are doing here. Vote on the poll also.

I joined to help and to be helped. I'm pretty good at AppleScript, so I figured I could join for that. But I occasionally have a little bug in Xcode.

The Info-Mac Digest had gone moribund and I missed the back and forth / mutual support.

Apparently I joined to promote LaunchBar, and throw a bone to Quicksilver. Since then, it's mostly been to offer support, my share of questions, and a small amount of cantankerous debate.

I had to use Google to find this; it sure would be nice if the forum search would go back more than 30 pages.

I joined in 2002 because I was a complete Unix newbie and managed to get tangled up switching from OS 9 to OS X 10.1. Cameron Hayne came to the rescue with one of his cogent, to-the-point explanations and I was hooked.

@AHunter3: Never heard of the Info-Mac Digest.
@fracai: Interesting. I've heard of both those products but never used them.
@NovaScotian: 10.1 -- I'm scared. So you needed UNIX to work with your computer?

@renaultsoftware: No, but OS X is based on Unix and I didn't understand the whole permissions/owner issue that arises when you move files around.

@NS: OK, interesting. You understand it now

I work in IT, and was sort of shoe horned into learning Macs to support them. This was back in the OS 8.6 days. OS X came out and Apple doesn't always document their products that well so I needed another tech resource. Found this site via google, been coming back over the years and now I am still here.

I joined for a solution to a specific problem and found plenty to satisfy a variety of interests that kept me coming back.

I can't remember that far back! I don't recall if I had a specific question or just wanted to learn lots more. Now I read it to learn and help others, and occasionally to ask a question.

where's the option for "I have no life?" :D

@tlarkin: What's IT mean? Don't want to sound like a noob but I never knew.
@fazstp: Me too -- AppleScript held me on.
@Irene: Yes, 900-some posts ago you joined. :D
@tw: I can see that. 3,400 posts means you have no life unless you're a mod.

Dates back to before the web, when we had FTP and email and gopher but no web browsers. (They kept going for years after the web but eventually faded away)


A moderated email digest in two sections: new shareware with description and download links (all uploaded to info-mac servers, downloaded via FTP); and questions -and- answers section.

Here are archives of the Info-Mac Digest (they don't have them all yet but enough to give you an idea)

IT = Information Technology.

What boggles my mind is how long this thing has been around, it feels like I signed on for the first time just yesterday.

I also wonder where a lot of the Coat Room regulars went in that time. People seem to come and go around here sometimes...

Anyway, I joined this forum fairly soon after I got my first Mac. I'd been a PC user for years, and I hated not knowing everything I could about my Mac, so I used this forum to fix that problem. I've mostly hung around to read the threads in the Coat Room, though on occasion I've been known to venture to the other forums and actually help people.

i join this forum for friends.

I joined because part of my job was to fix any of the problems with the Macs in our design studio.... as it happened the only problems we had we related to the Windows part of the network :)

There are some very clever and helpful people here... its a great place to get help...

@AHunter3: Ugh! Get outta here, will ya? I'm too young to remember those days.
@NovaScotian: Ah, I'm a big noob. Despite being a Major Leaguer I'm still noobish. :(
@Jay Carr: That would be a paradox -- you have nearly 3000 posts and you feel like you're new?? I wish…
@jettlee1: Why don't you vote the "Friends" option? Or is it too late
@Photek: Blame it on Windows. I agree this place is great.

I joined to get help with porting a command line program to Panther (specifically for using the built-in stuff used by the program's Makefiles).

The program itself was ported in under a week due to being POSIX-compliant and very well written by the existing maintainers. I had some experience of *nix environments, but was rather new to development.

I stuck around for about a year, mainly to learn more about OS X (I'd come from Win98 and some flavour of Linux, and had previously used Macs around about System 6/7).

After taking a short and unintentional hiatus, I returned and have been a regular ever since. I typically try to help with iTunes or transcoding problems, but do try to help out in other areas as much as my limited knowledge allows (big secret: 90% of my posts are preceeding by 5-10 mins of Googling to get the info... :D).

I've definitely learned a huge amount about OS X and related topics from the more learned members of this forum. Long may that continue.

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I joined because I peered over the shoulder of my local Apple dealer, and saw him using MacOSXHints Forums as a resource. He gave this site his highest recommendations. So do I.

IMHO this has the highest content-to-noise ratio of any Mac site I’ve seen. The expertise is amazing and the positive, supportive spirit is inspiring.
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It was already stated that it stands for Information Technology. Basically back in 1999 I worked for a company that did both service and sales for both consumers and businesses. I worked in the service department and was a technician, pretty much straight out of highschool. Back then they were still hiring people who had computer skills but no formal education on the matter. I was a PC guy back then.

Our only Mac tech quit. My boss got mad at always having to hire the 1 Mac guy. So he made all of us techs learn how to repair, maintain, and use Macs so we could all support our customers and also he never had to worry about hiring that one Mac guy.

So I started using Macs around 98 or 99 ish and was repairing them and supporting them. I had previously been dabbling a bit in Linux and liked it, and when OS X came out I was for the first time intrigued by a Mac. I honestly thought the classic OS was rubbish, and I thought it looked horrible.

Come OS X 10.2 I was certified Apple tech for a couple of years now, and had been working on them and decided to get my first OS X Mac. Really started liking them, started posting here a lot more to learn the Unix stuff.

Come 2006 I traded in my PC laptop for a Macbook Pro, and pretty much have not looked back since. I still am a PC user and Linux user and Windows user, but I prefer to do my work on my Macs. My PCs are for entertainment (gaming and HTPC).

@EatsWithFingers: I don't need to Google to do an AppleScript. ;-)
@ArcticStones: It's good that you say that about these Forums. I must agree.
@tlarkin: The typical story of a Windows convert? ;-)

I am not a total windows convert, and there are a few things that still make me like PCs over Macs on certain occasions.

Now, if I could build a PC and then legally load OS X on it, and OS X started supporting more games, I'd ditch Windows in a heart beat.

Well, I wouldn't hold my breath on the first request, but Steam is coming out for the Mac, which should significantly improve things on the gaming front.

Yeah but I can't pick and choose my video cards for Macs, and Macs have no mid range tower. iMac? No thanks! Mac Pro? No thanks.

I don't think Apple will ever enter the market where you can get a serious gaming machine. Unless they finally come out with a mid range i7 tower that allows users to toss in any video card they want.

Just so.
 

Just so.

This is in fact the main reason I joined. I had read the forums many times before joining, because at that time my questions were such common ones that others had asked them before. I have asked for more help than I have dispensed, but I'm glad I've been able to offer at least some.

Well first I found it when googling for some answers when I was new on macs.
Then shortly after I started answering unix questions and still mostly do that.
Background from windows and quite a lot of unix.

I'm in the same boat... my earliest memory is a thread i jumped into back in March 2004. Yet i see "Join Date: Apr 2002" next to my name there, but i don't recall that.

How can we find our first post (if we don't remember any content)? :confused:

Wow, seeing this topic. Just makes me think. I've been here for three years (going on four now).

I joined mainly to help others, and just to have a place to discuss Apple/Macs without getting hit upside the face by Dvorak-like pundits who think Microsoft are gods who can do no wrong.

Search on your name, then go to the last page of those found. Bingo, your first post.