How much longer can the SDMB last?

[Sal Ammoniac]

I got to musing on this subject recently, when I was reminded about a bygone troll predicting imminent doom for the SDMB. Like most such, he was wrong. Overall, in Internet years, the SDMB has had a pretty good run. But will it still be here when I'm 64? I don't doubt that the technology will change, the people will change, but will the community and the culture trundle on in a recognizable form? Will people still be saying "Hi, Opal!" when I'm cold and in the ground?

Maybe the fundamental question is how dependent the SDMB is on the Chicago Reader -- is it a complete, or a provisional dependence?

My take on the whole thing? I don't know! I'm just hoping the whole show stays afloat until my year's membership is up.

[Cat Whisperer]

It will last until lack of interest or the Chicago Reader shuts it down. A that point, we will all go somewhere else to argue, flirt, pick nits, and post pictures of our cats. I think the second scenario is more likely than the first; people come and go all the time here, but the Reader could end all of this on a whim at any time.

[RickJay]

If the Reader were to kill the SDMB, someone else would likely pick it up. Quite frankly, I you could make a mint on it, no matter what has been claimed by TPTB.

I'd say a minimum of three more years.

[MadTheSwine]

But will it still be here when I'm 64?


What about vera,chuck and Dave?

[MadTheSwine]

Shoot, guess i need to learn how to do those links.

[DooWahDiddy]

Shoot, guess i need to learn how to do those links.

Still funny, though!

[Cluricaun]

There may come a time when we're gone from "here", but there will always be something. The idea is too strong to just die off. Kind of like when Bloom County became Outland.

[astro]

Google will start buying the larger message boards soon just for the eyeballs as traffic drivers. If the price is right the Reader will sell us. Bank on it.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Google will start buying the larger message boards soon just for the eyeballs as traffic drivers. If the price is right the Reader will sell us. Bank on it.


This could be the "correct" answer right here.

[hajario]

Google will start buying the larger message boards soon just for the eyeballs as traffic drivers. If the price is right the Reader will sell us. Bank on it.

That hadn't occurred to me but it is very plausible. The SDMB doesn't even crack the Top 100 anymore and is sinking every month. I wonder how low they'll go.

[Autumn Almanac]

What about vera,chuck and Dave?
I don't get it... Could you indicate precisely what you mean to say? ;)

[Least Original User Name Ever]

That hadn't occurred to me but it is very plausible. The SDMB doesn't even crack the Top 100 anymore and is sinking every month. I wonder how low they'll go.


Wait, Top 100? You mean the SDMB was one of the Top 100 websites at one point?

[Cluricaun]

Wait, Top 100? You mean the SDMB was one of the Top 100 websites at one point?

Message boards I think, as rated on Big Boards (http://www.big-boards.com/board/15/)

[MadTheSwine]

I don't get it... Could you indicate precisely what you mean to say? ;)

I'll send you a postcard.

[Cluricaun]

Oh, we're currently ranked 107th (http://rankings.big-boards.com/?p=6)

[BrainGlutton]

There may come a time when we're gone from "here", but there will always be something. The idea is too strong to just die off. Kind of like when Bloom County became Outland.

Not an encouraging example!

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Huh. I didn't know they ranked message boards. Obviously, we need to do more recruiting.

I've indoctrinated at least 3 Dopers. What about you? Are you doing your part?

[Frank]

Moved from IMHO to ATMB.

[Epimetheus]

According to Alexa.com's traffic report: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=straightdope.com

It looks like there is at least an average of 6-8 million pageviews on this site per day. One peak at 15 million daily views.

[Lute Skywatcher]

[b]How much longer can the SDMB last?Five months, according to a certain abusive Doper.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Gah! That should've said "abrasive"!

[elmwood]

Technically, the board could continue for decades. There might be better forum software that can import vBulletin data, and ten years later another forum program can import data from the previous forum, and so on.

The big issues: recruiting members, maintaining and restoring the archive of old posts, server horsepower, and the will of the Reader to continue maintaining it. If they stop, I wonder if they'll let a successor forum import the old SDMB data.

[Exapno Mapcase]

But will it still be here when I'm 64?
Depends. Are you 63?

[Hung Mung]

Depends. Are you 63?
Is it necessary to bring adult diapers in to this discussion?

[OneCentStamp]

Google will start buying the larger message boards soon just for the eyeballs as traffic drivers. If the price is right the Reader will sell us. Bank on it.
Good! Google would never suffer the board to run this slowly and erratically. :D

[Cat Whisperer]

<snip>If the price is right the Reader will sell us. Bank on it.
They can sell us? What the heck was in that user agreement that I agreed to, anyway?

[According to Pliny]

Sure they can sell you. Rules against slavery went out with due process and writs of habeas corpus. But on the other hand, you have gained the right to get no-bid contracts, so if you are a billionaire, it works out.

[Baron Greenback]

According to Alexa.com's traffic report: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=straightdope.com

It looks like there is at least an average of 6-8 million pageviews on this site per day. One peak at 15 million daily views.

Those stats include the front page though, surely? What happened in the middle of September to bump it to 15 million views? Did one of the columns get Farked, Dugg ar slashdotted?

[Frylock]

Dang, the SDMB is near the bottom if you rank the boards by "number of posts in the last week."

-FrL-

[Frylock]

Meanwhile, a bulletin board "dedicated to horses (in dutch)" is at 16th place with 181675 posts in the last week.

Compare SDMB's approx. 950 posts in the last week.

Is there really that much to say about horses? In dutch?

-FrL-

[Baron Greenback]

Meanwhile, a bulletin board "dedicated to horses (in dutch)" is at 16th place with 181675 posts in the last week.

Compare SDMB's approx. 950 posts in the last week.

Is there really that much to say about horses? In dutch?

-FrL-

I'm leery of these stats. Perhaps the Dutch board reloaded a bunch of older posts? The SDMB certainly had more than 950 posts last week. Was it perhaps a net gain of 950, with some older ones being archived?

[Phantom Dennis]

We're ranked #72 out of English language boards, for what it's worth.

[Morbo]

Is there really that much to say about horses? In dutch?

Paarden?

[capybara]

Dooku-- smack!

[samclem]

Meanwhile, a bulletin board "dedicated to horses (in dutch)" is at 16th place with 181675 posts in the last week.

Compare SDMB's approx. 950 posts in the last week.

Is there really that much to say about horses? In dutch?

-FrL- When I log on after work in the evening, there are about 290 new posts/day. When I get up in the AM, there are about 125 new posts. That's about 400/day, or 2800/week. Their stats suck.

[Morbo]

:)

[Quasimodem]

If The Dope was (were?) sold.........

If that were to happen, and if it was GOOGLE who bought it,

1. Since Cecil is affiliated with The Chicago Reader, how would that impact him? Would he then become a GOOGLE employee?

2. Would the board be able to function as it now does with mod management and rules left intact?

The above based on pure speculation whith only what I read here as my reason for asking.

Thanks

Q

[Freddy the Pig]

Meanwhile, a bulletin board "dedicated to horses (in dutch)" is at 16th place with 181675 posts in the last week.Criminy. There must have been a really controversial finish in the Amsterdam Derby!

That's 18 posts per minute--for an entire week. I don't think we could reach that level even if every Doper got a new cat on the same day.

[elmwood]

I'm leery of these stats. Perhaps the Dutch board reloaded a bunch of older posts? The SDMB certainly had more than 950 posts last week. Was it perhaps a net gain of 950, with some older ones being archived?

You spelled "deleted" wrong.

The 950 post/week gain is probably right, though, considering that many messages are removed every week. My board doesn't get a tenth of the traffic of the SDMB, but it gets about 1200 to 1500 posts a week.

[Hypnagogic Jerk]

Message boards I think, as rated on Big Boards (http://www.big-boards.com/board/15/)
This link is interesting. I see that the board reached a peak of about 6,825,000 posts last January, after which it declined for a while. The admins now seem to be trying to keep the board at around 6,700,000 posts by removing some.

The biggest purge was in the second week of February, with a net loss of almost 70,000 posts. The gross number of removed posts was certainly bigger than that.

Our number of members seems to grow linearly since at least a year.

[Johanna]

wasting away...

[susan]

even if every Doper got a new cat on the same dayNeed I say squeeeee! ?

[Fear Itself]

1. Since Cecil is affiliated with The Chicago Reader, how would that impact him? Would he then become a GOOGLE employee?I can't imagine why. For all intents and purposes, Cecil has nothing to do with the SDMB, except as an occasional poster.

[bbs2k]

except as an occasional poster.

... generous much? :(

[astro]

I can't imagine why. For all intents and purposes, Cecil has nothing to do with the SDMB, except as an occasional poster.


It is an interesting question as to who owns what. Does Ed Zotti (http://web.archive.org/web/20020317182714/http://geocities.com/sdpeoplepages/images/edzotti.jpg) own the board in that it's originally an outgrowth of his articles or does the Reader? I suspect the Reader holds the whip hand in this scenario.

[Chez Guevara]

The Death of Knowledge Foretold

I met a poster from an antique land of heat
Who said: 'A drunk and legless man of wit
Lies in Chicago. See him, on the street,
Half-cut, a shattered visage there, unfit
Through hookers, blow and Scotch all neat
To answer queries for the column now.
His faculties of yore are missed, they've evanesced
Into the mists of time (and how!).
And on his nametag these words appear ---
"My name is Zotti, Wisest Sage of All:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. The server broke
On that colossal wreck. The threads now bare,
The posts are gone, no searches will invoke.

Percy Bysshe Guevara (1817)

[nd_n8]

Meanwhile, a bulletin board "dedicated to horses (in dutch)" is at 16th place with 181675 posts in the last week.

Compare SDMB's approx. 950 posts in the last week.

Is there really that much to say about horses? In dutch?

-FrL-

Depends...

What's the Dutch word for treadmill?

:p

[Rico]

Depends...

What's the Dutch word for treadmill?

:p

Or glue?

:D :p :D :p

[Cat Whisperer]

The Death of Knowledge Foretold

I met a poster from an antique land of heat
Who said: 'A drunk and legless man of wit
Lies in Chicago. See him, on the street,
Half-cut, a shattered visage there, unfit
Through hookers, blow and Scotch all neat
To answer queries for the column now.
His faculties of yore are missed, they've evanesced
Into the mists of time (and how!).
And on his nametag these words appear ---
"My name is Zotti, Wisest Sage of All:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. The server broke
On that colossal wreck. The threads now bare,
The posts are gone, no searches will invoke.

Percy Bysshe Guevara (1817)
{Dr. Hook voice on}
That was beautiful. {/DHV}
::sniff::

[According to Pliny]

Hmm... A bit tooo beautiful. Like Candle In The Wind, I wonder if it was tweaked ;)

[Kythereia]

The Death of Knowledge Foretold

I met a poster from an antique land of heat
Who said: 'A drunk and legless man of wit
Lies in Chicago. See him, on the street,
Half-cut, a shattered visage there, unfit
Through hookers, blow and Scotch all neat
To answer queries for the column now.
His faculties of yore are missed, they've evanesced
Into the mists of time (and how!).
And on his nametag these words appear ---
"My name is Zotti, Wisest Sage of All:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. The server broke
On that colossal wreck. The threads now bare,
The posts are gone, no searches will invoke.

Percy Bysshe Guevara (1817)

As someone who just finished her midterm Romantic Poetry and Prose exam, I think I love you. :D