MikeMason wrote:never mind...
Okay, let's review:
But first, definitions are important: Amateur is one who plays tuba for the love of it. A professional is one who has "professed" to the world that he or she is available to be paid for playing tuba. Thus, the word "professional" means nothing without also defining the gig.
Chuck G. is an expert on just about everything, plays tuba very well as an amateur, repairs and reconstructs tubas very well as an amateur, and can research the Internet better than anyone here. I've met him once, but I gleaned all that by reading his posts.
Bloke is a pro repair guy who (for now) owns his own music store, a regular sub in a major symphony, plays plenty of pro gigs, and has a strong dose of Cherokee blood. His sense of humor is strongly informed by his teenage son (or seems to be), and he believes that people ought to make their own way in the world without coddling from others. I've met him on several occasions, but I gleaned all that from his posts.
Joe Baker is one of the wisest people on the forum, gives advice about life second to none, and lives what he believes. I've never met him, but if he's faking all that in his posts, then he's working waaaay too hard to impress a bunch of tuba players.
Mary Ann is a former pro violinist with an orchestra gig, plays horn to a pro level, and has taken up the tuba for fun, and to hang around a better class of people. She chucked pro music in favor of engineering, so that she could approach music as an amateur instead of as a pro. Her avatar is not a picture of her (and that's true for Bloke, Joe, and Chuck, too). I've never met her in person, but all this is apparent from her posts. I don't know her last name, but I'll bet I know about her than many people who do.
I am an engineer with a strong science background who spends too much time at work posting on Tubenet, who plays for fun and who has played well enough to be at the margins of the professional world on occasion (usually in support of better players), but not well enough to be really good. The Holton in my avatar really is mine. All that is, I think, apparent from what I've posted.
We even know who KarlMarx is.
My point with this small sample is that the active posters are who they appear to be. The more active they are, the more samples of what they have to say that we see. After a while, when we've had a chance to test what they've said with our own experience, we begin to form an opinion of what they have to say. We use that to filter their further sayings. That's the thing I like best about the new forum versus the old: It's not so easy for posters to change the identities every post, and even if their name is an alias, we are able to assess what the say in the context of what they have said.
Occasionally, a top pro will bestow wisdom on us, using a name we all know, and we judge what we hear based on that reputation. But in most cases, we based what we hear on our experience with that poster. That's as it should be.
Rick "who thinks that if you listen to people talk long enough, you begin to find out who they are in ways more effective than credentials" Denney
"The faster the notes, the fewer the valves."
.