What's the intelligence level on the OT forum?

[Chukchi Husky]

Everyone here is smarter than me.

 

[Abaddon]

Didnt you know where all of genius level intelligence here?

Not to mention rich and gods-gift to women!

 

[The Last Conformist]

However, the incidence of people who are quite clearly and consistently bright, well-read, and civilised is considerably higher than in most general social groups

What about us who are bright, well-read, and uncivilized?

 

[Mise]

Really? I would say average.
However, if we look at thread like "what is my IQ", with the number of people with a declared IQ close to 200, we are supposed to be on average VERY smart...
Personally, I think the people who are lured to believed they are extreamly smart because they get an IQ of 180 in an osbcure on line test, or worse who pretend they have a high IQ when they know it's far below, are pulling the average to the bottom...

The typical line is, "I got an IQ score of 189 from that test, but IQ tests are flawed anyway so I'm not going to brag."

 

[ainwood]

Really? I would say average.
However, if we look at thread like "what is my IQ", with the number of people with a declared IQ close to 200, we are supposed to be on average VERY smart...
Personally, I think the people who are lured to believed they are extreamly smart because they get an IQ of 180 in an osbcure on line test, or worse who pretend they have a high IQ when they know it's far below, are pulling the average to the bottom...

I've had my IQ done via an online screening test, then in an official test (both tests were prepared by the same organisation). The online test was much easier than the official ones. I concluded that the idea was that the online test is to sucker people into paying for the 'real' one.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Does anyone ever get less than 110 or so on those online tests?

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I think I got around 90 on one.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Really? I suppose that should restore my faith in humanity some.

 

[Steph]

people who believe they are really smart just because the score very high on an IQ test aren't really smart in my book......

Hence the second part of my post, the one you didn't quote.
I did some "serious" online test and got 120. Which is honorable. I consider myself relatively smart, so it may be true. Another "not so serious" gave a result of 160...
I don't consider these results to be worth much!

IQ is a very bad way to measure smartiness (what is the correct word??)

 

[EolTheDarkElf]

I wouldn't know how to compare the "intelligence" here with the real world average, but comparing with few other forums I frequented I must say the amount of mature and well written posts here is above average. I often feel to stupid to post on a subject... (no joke)

I think there are also many people here who have professional knowledge and experience in a given field. For example when I lurk in some economic debates here, some people really impress me with insight they give me into these matters.

As for IQ tests I dislike them. I never completed one because by the third question or so I get so nervous that my brain stops functioning. At the same time I am capable of developing working solutions in my field of work, so why should I bother to know some abstract number that has nothing to do with what I can actually achieve?

If anyone ever tries to make IQ test obligatory for children in this country, I will be very oposed to that. I think people should be judged according to actual practical achievements, not according to some artificial theoretical measure of hypothetical potential. To me any idea that the creative potential of a human mind can be parametrised with one number is strange, I really don't know where that came from...

 

[Perfection]

Except they were just as prolific and just as intelligent as they were two years ago. Then there's WillJ and stratego - I seem to recall them being ~16 yrs old when I joined, though I heard stratego was in college or something, so maybe I'm wrong...

Stratego is pretty old, WillJ though is fairly young (17). While you do have a I point that some of the most prolific posters joined in thier mid-teens you neglect that many of them were pretty crappy posters at the time (myself included) and you neglect that they are still older then the average forumer at most other gaming sites.

 

[Volum]

Im really smart cause i avoid all the controversional topics and dont get mixed up in some big internet discussion wich on the forum is always the same people, discussing the same things (abortion, war, gays) throwing the same arguments at each other all the time.

I reply to threads like "Blind man beats up deaf man because he wouldnt tell him the time" <------- True story

 

[Shaihulud]

I think that the population here seems more intelligent than average because the intelligent portion tends to be more vocal or more visible. The average posters and i include myself are propably no more intelligent than the average population.

 

[kingjoshi]

Hence the second part of my post, the one you didn't quote.
I did some "serious" online test and got 120. Which is honorable. I consider myself relatively smart, so it may be true. Another "not so serious" gave a result of 160...
I don't consider these results to be worth much!

IQ is a very bad way to measure smartiness (what is the correct word??)

IQ is one measure. Not by any means a complete picture (no one claims as much) but a realiable method.

The median score on an IQ test is 100 because it's normalized that way. Standard deviation is 15 or 16 for most tests*. Meaning, 68% of the population score 85-115. 95% of the scores are within 70-130. A score of 120 would mean you're in the upper 10%*. MENSA requires scores in the top 2% of a recognized test (there are some other tests besides IQ).

IQ tests are timed tests. Speed AND accuracy matter.

*NOTE: Many European IQ tests use SD-24 or SD-25. So a 130-132 in the US is about 148-150 in Europe. Your score of 120 could be just top 25%.

 

[Xenocrates]

A friend of mine took an IQ test at Mensa, who's head office is in my old city, Wolverhampton.

He was dead chuffed when they told him he was in the top 99.3% of the population.

Of course, I don't come close to that but there are a few around here who do!

 

[Taliesin]

What about us who are bright, well-read, and uncivilized?

I also included you.

He was dead chuffed when they told him he was in the top 99.3% of the population.

I hope you mean he's at the 99.3 percentile...

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

He was dead chuffed when they told him he was in the top 99.3% of the population.

So? 413,000 people still think he's thick

 

[Xenocrates]

I hope you mean he's at the 99.3 percentile...

LOL no I didn't.

It was an attempt at a clever insult/boast and it didn't take long for someone to see through it.

 

[El Justo]

this question is hard for me to answer.

i take most of what is written on this forum w/ the proverbial grain of salt.

there are indeed some opinions whom i respect and deem 'intellectual'. however, there are probably more so that are so far off the chart, so bitter, so ideolgically driven, and so damn left-wing that i simply never read their posts.

i prefer the History forum b/c there is not the sense of hatred and vitriol that is so unfortuantely prevelant in the OT forum. plus, they're smarter over there, too

 

[Xenocrates]

Prince of Leigh just outed himself!

Perhaps I should have waited longer before declaring my trickery and caught a few more?