Your message was perhaps one of the strangest pieces of email I have ever received. Although it is flattering to have a ``fan club'', in fact, it is a very bad idea. Unlike most of human society, science and engineering are based on the idea that each of us is capable of evaluating evidence and thinking on our own. Each of us can do experiments, work out the reasoning, and determine the truth for ourselves. There is no room in science or engineering for ``fans'' representing group approval over individual thought. One of my heros, Galileo, put it very well:
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
I am pleased to talk with people about matters of science or engineering, so you and your colleagues may certainly send me mail. I hope to learn as much from your experiences as you may learn for me. But please get rid of the ``cult of personality'' way of thinking. It is unscientific and ultimately destructive.
Great, /prog/ is now going to be like the rest of programming communities.
Disclaimer: What I mean is not that it was better because it was different. Well, I actually do, but more precisely, we have thousands of serious programming communities, yet only a handful of these laxer ones. I find relish in the fact that /prog/'s not reddit.