How many Engineers contribute??
 

Considering there are nearly 26000 members of PPrune, and increasing daily. We seem to have a sad lack of Engineers contributing to this site. Looking back over the past topics, there are about 30 regular contributors. How can we increase the use of this forum?? Be interesting to do a roll call every few months to see if we are increasing in numbers. Advertise at work maybe??

Greetings oh transparent one. There are several people in our organisation who regularly read Pprune but never contribute. There are some who don't seem to think that Pprune has anything to do with the engineering function, and there is another faction who I shall call Walter (he knows who he is!) who try to find out the identities of those who do contribute so they can say 'I know your Pprune screen name mate' but also never contribute. There may be some contentious issues that you feel the need to air, but arn't that serious, or you may have heard a rumour that you may like substantiating, and as far as I am concerned Pprune is as safe a place as any to stick your written oar in. But in reply to your post, it would be nice to see more engineers in here.

By the way, are you North, Midlands or South?


JFD

JFD,
Could fall into a trap revealing which part of the country I'm from ( you could be Walter !!) I do all I can to encourage my part of the world to read not only our private forum but Engineers as well. Those that contribute here must be a small minority. Look at the military pilots, continuous inputs 24 hrs a day. Wonder if PPrune have any advertising material we could post on notice boards etc to encourage more Engineering membership.
T.I.Man

It's the same with any "club" there are those who do and those who do not. And there will always be those who think they can shop a colleague and gain some brownie points!

Nout as funny as folk eh!

I think the engineering forum has grown and continues to grow, remember also that web access is still growing with not all our comrades in arms having access on a regular basis.

I remember a time not too long ago when someone, I forget who, made a post saying "Quiet here innit" Since then there has never been a single day when someone hasn't posted in the Engineers & Technicians forum.

I know that there are a few like me who venture out into the pilot's forums and join in the fray. Some even like to wind the pilots up (Don't they Bus'?) but its encouraging to see more and more contribution from the invisible men of engineering. Come on all you lurkers, let's hear what you have to say. One of the reasons we don't get a fair crack of the whip in this indusrty is that we don't speak up for ourselves.

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Through difficulties to the cinema

Funny you should mention "Walter", I have one here too, not really much of a secret as my profile has my email address on it with my name (big hint for you Walter!).

PPrune have no posters etc. They rely on word of mouth to promote the site. They are happy for us to make our own and display at our places of work. I wonder if they know how many of the 26,000 members are Enginners. Will ask the question.

I've been around a while and have had to change the user name a few times, I used to post my email address but after winding the pilots up, I got a nasty surprise in my email. Also I have been identified after expressing an informed opinion, some guy's realise that only I have done the research to make certain statements. I would guess that my manager knows I'm at it again. Many engineers read the website but don't post.
Some of them talk about PPRUNE articles at work so I know who they are and I think I know who thinks they know who I am and pass my opinions to my manager. I don't care, this website is well overdue and it is grateful thanks to Danny and his mates to remember we exsist.
I might not agree with your post but I would challenge anybody who prevented you speaking your mind on this forum.
If I might make one slight criticism of our engineering community, some people seek any opportunity to ridicule spelling mistakes etc. remember the aural/oral debate that ruined a genuinely good thread a few weeks ago. That sort of thing will put people off joining in. It's a fact that some of the best engineers I have known have been challenged by the computer keyboard, combined with a problem spelling, we are all the poorer for not reading their opinions.

I have to agree with Time-ex. I find that most engineers take it as a personal insult if you don´t agree 100% with their opinion, maby it´s time for engineers to join the CRM courses. Also, if anyone works in a company where managers read pprune to try to hunt down engineers for speaking their mind, maybe it´s time for your quality dept. to get involved.

I get e-mails slagging me off and e-mails agreeing with me. I've had people ask me about jobs, or just invite me for a beer. My managers know who I am, so do many of our crews; I don't give a monkey's ****, I'm prepared to discuss anything face to face that I post here. That's what bulletin boards are all about. Don't worry about what anyone thinks, that's for wallflowers. If you've got something to contribute, do it; don't worry about pedantic folk criticising spelling, that's their problem. Just be prepared to defend your corner, after all its only an on-line 'crew room'

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Through difficulties to the cinema

Well said Blacksheep,
I've not been contributing to this forum long and I suppose at first you hold back on comments just in case someone who knows you finds out who you are. I believe we have free speach here and there will always be someone who will have a different point of view... Good I say...I have changed my mind about certain things having listened and thought about comments made. I'm not right all the time, my wife says so !!! Spelling.....who gives a tinkers. Those that post correcting spelling/ grammar and dont really have a point to make are wasting forum space.
The forum does seem more active of late, or is it my imagination. My advice, if you have a point of view, express it, we all might learn from it.
T.I.Man

Greetings Ppruners.

I have to agree with all that has been said so far; and if my spelling is poorer than usual tonight, it is because my 17 year old lad is sitting next to me playing Phantom of the Opera on his key boards very loudly and it is putting me off a tad!

I too have changed my user name, as I left myself a little exposed last year and was given a hard time. Walter has sussed me, again, but this time I have been very guarded as to my hobbies and where I work, although fellow Ppruners sussed out who I work for. But Pprune is a bit of fun, and you never know, you may even learn a thing or two.

I have noticed that a lot of the engineering posts seem to come from people concerned with a certain concrete company. I have theories about this, and one is that that they, the employees, don't feel that they are appreciated; although things have gone a little quiet on that front in recent times.

Just one more thing, has anybody from Engineering posted anything in Tearms and Endeerment? I have only seen posts from aircrew in there, but it would be nice to compare how other engineers are treated and paid.

Keep on Ppruning.

JFD

Evening all.

A few people have guessed who I am, but happily have been polite about it so I've not felt the need to change my name at any time.

G

We all find out by word of mouth,as the concrete company blocks e-mails and access.but something is BREWING with the mushroms

Been away a couple of days and its good to see there are 17 threads running at this time compared with 4 a few weeks ago. A few new posters... welcome. I think I may be responsible for a few new faces here. If we can all add one or two we'd have a very active forum.
T.I.Man

Invisable man, I would like to say on that down under there is quite a few engineers that follow the engineers forum, so to speak. However like my self, pprune is very UK based and the industry in UK and Europe is massive compaired to what we have, most feel "out of the loop" But having said this most of us will probably end up over UK one day anyway.

I may well be a bit of a wallflower here, but I LERV to wind up the pilots, and gosh don't they bite!

The funny thing is that engineers are really privvied to the truth of rumours often, but we just aren't often in a position to blab. There are some threads where you know the go, but just can't talk tru because it will identify you!!

Engineers.......The silent, well informed majority!!

I'll offer good money to whomever can get your black sheep engineer, L.Z. out of the rotorheads forum.

He has managed to alienate himself, but hasn't the common sense to leave.

(I have nothing against engineers, really! Unfortunately he is going to give all of you a black eye... For those interested, check out the posts. I can have a personal check drawn ....)

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Marc

[This message has been edited by RW-1 (edited 31 January 2001).]

Well, I feel flattered that someone from another forum has looked at ours. If our mutual friend is being a pest in another forum, they could do what they did to me and it was difficult to recover from.
Blacksheep - your contribution to the Kapton wiring debate was an eye opener to me and I was an avid reader of that thread. I learned a lot. Please don't be put off by this RW-1 individual but get yourself a good anti virus program or you could spend a couple of days getting your computer back on line.

I'm sorry Time Ex, your friend Blacksheep is not the engineer I was referring to.

My fault, I would have thought you would have seen the Initials: LZ - Lu Zuckerman.

Second, RW-1 does not send viruses, I'm above that kind of thing. But LZ has gone way out of line. He proposes theories without supportive facts, and denies believing that he may be incorrect, even when given supporting facts from high-time daily pilots who are also versed in the subject.

Example, when asked why the FAA, etc hasn't come to the same conclusions, we get a whole story of cover ups to make a clive cussler novel pale in comparison.

Our forum seems not to be able to address anything lately due to his distractions.

Anyway, again, I am not talking about blacksheep, but one who must be the "Black sheep" of the engineering community.

I also find it interesting that he posted one topic here and no one responded. I would relish if you look at the threads in rotorheads and the one here and offer engineering comparisons to the facts presented by the pilots, etc.

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Marc

[This message has been edited by RW-1 (edited 01 February 2001).]

Aussie LAME here too. I observe a lot, then log on to Pprune............ oh yea, don't mind winding up the knuckleheads too. It's Flight attendants that really get up my kangaroo though....By the way, a reference to 'shopping a collegue' is that like a UK term for shafting them? or dare I say, Rogering them????!!

Hey Kanga767,m maybe we should start a aussie thread to try an entise some aussies into the fray???

Kanga767 , I've always known the term 'shopping a colleague ' as meaning to inform on someone or ' grass ' on them but if this was quoted by a male flight attendant then there may have been some sort of sexual connotation associated with it .
If you've ever heard Julian Clarey speak you'll know what I mean!
Also the term 'shafted' is something that our management do to us frequently . It's the only thing they excel at.
http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/tongue.gif

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AC.

LOL!! "have you shopped your collegues today?"

Aeros - Sounds like a good idea! Perhaps I'll go away and think of a name for the forum, something like 'Blue's clues'........

I like to keep abreast of whats going on so i'll pop up now and again or pass on info as an Aussie in the UK i don't get much news from home

. . .Giving the identity game away a little, I work for a company that got so paranoid about the wonderful world of Internet information, our company e mail facility was disconnected for almost 2 years ! Scared to death of the dissemination of information I guess, this makes quite a few engineers fearful of the retribution from hell from contributing regulaly on a wonderful and open forum such as pprune is . . .

The stark reality of lack of people on the engineers page is this.Nobody gives a s**t anymore.The reason why the pilots forums are jammed packed,is due to the fact that they all have a passion for what they do.They enjoy flying.There salaries are on the whole preety good,and there life styles are on the whole good.As an engineer in aviation in this country.i am nothing but a greasy man in overalls,who works crap archaic shift patterns,with a wage packet that is absolutley crap.

Oh dear!! Time for a change of career methinks. Is it any different elsewhere though. Yes, this industry is for the most part pretty poo, but do you think that nursing, teaching, reatail, plumbing or plastering is any better or more financially lucrative?? There is money to be made in IT but there is also money to be made in Aircraft Engineering. I do agree that blokes in overalls are downtrodden but that is only because we allow it to happen. Aircraft Engineering is the only industry I know of where rolling up for work a couple of minutes late or taking a lunch break is frowned upon. Why? Because most engineers are not bolshy enough to tell managers, 'Sorry, it's lunch time'. Be more forthright my friend, don't take the cr@p, and you'll be a lot happier within!!

I agree there are other jobs outside aircraft engineering that are not well paid but there again shop assistants , plumbers & plasterers don't have the responsibility we have & aren't governed by legistlation equivalent to the Air Navigation Order which stipulates the penalties by means of fines and/or maximum imprisonment of 2 years should they make a serious mistake whilst carrying out their duties !

AC.

[This message has been edited by Ali Crom (edited 07 February 2001).]

I agree. Unfortueately this argument is never put forward within unionised airline pay negotiations etc. There is just talk of shift pay is not as good as xx, approval pay is not as good as yy, leave is not as good as zz. The fundimentals of what we do day in day out is never addressed, hence basic pay will always be poo because apart from the above reply, all pay negotiations/comment etc is just based on shift pay etc, not the real world.