I was first introduced to the column, via the SDMB, back in early 2001 from a small mention on interesting websites in *MacWorld *magazine. I found myself binging on article after article and decided to join the boards right then. Since then, I’ve made some very good IRL friends from attending some Dopefests, and continue to find knowledge and entertainment on the boards.
And end of an era. I do hope the boards don’t become neglected, after hanging around for 17 years, it would be odd to see it go and the community scatter.
I have the first three Straight Dope books, will buy the fourth. I enjoyed the first Dope book so much and was thrilled when I found this forum! Thanks for all the good times, and look forward to the message board staying put. It is amazing how much time has gone by since.
I am a proud owner of the books. This is probably the first online community I really felt a part of. I was around back in the AOL days. And though I have mostly drifted away lately, I’m still checking in.
sigh
I hope there is another book. I hope this message board lasts a lot longer. But whatever I hope, I KNOW that the good this place did will last a lot longer.
It’s sad. One would have hoped that the new owners would have got the Straight Dope along with the Reader but the column stayed with the old owners who promptly closed it. It seems as if neither party wanted it and that’s a bummer.
I just hope that the board isn’t next. Who’s going to be responsible for it now, make management decisions, etc? More to the point who’s going to pay for its upkeep?
I work as a high school level writing & English comp teacher (among other subjects, but that’s my natural habitat). Yesterday was a particularly stressful day at work and I didn’t get to log onto the Dope until late in the evening, where I saw this announcement.
[del]Ed’s[/del] Cecil’s announcement got me reminiscing about how I came to be a teacher, and the impact the Straight Dope has had on me. I was given the first Straight Dope book as a birthday gift by a middle school teacher of mine, ca. 1993. At that age I was both a trivia junkie and loved silly comics so the snark and wisecracks from the early SD columns instantly appealed to me. However, it was years before I found the next book. By that time I was in high school and I found myself emulating Cecil’s style in my research essays—much to my teacher’s chagrin. Finding the second book, and then the rest in relatively quick succession, helped ignite in me a love of writing. Simply put, I wanted to write and I wanted to write like Cecil did.
When I finally went to college in my late 20’s writing well had become second nature. One day I was pulled aside after class by one of my profs and was asked if I’d be willing to be a writing tutor for other undergrads. I was taken aback, but quickly accepted and the rest, as they say, is history. It probably sounds corny (and it probably is), but I credit the Straight Dope with building my zeal and confidence as a writer and helping to parlay into a wonderful career. I’ve only once read the column in an actual paper copy of the Reader, ca. 2006 when a traveling relative brought back from Chicago a copy of the paper at my request. I regret that I didn’t keep it.
I don’t post much to the boards as I feel I’m a drooling simpleton compared to many of the truly smart and talented people that post here. That said, I read the boards daily and have yet to be bored by the conversations that abound on the forums. My first post was in 2007 when it was pay-to-post. I didn’t pony up for a membership then, something I regret if only for the cool “Charter Member” title.
I think I can honestly say the Straight Dope has had a profound impact on my life. Subtle, to be sure, but I think who I am today can, in a truly discernable way, be traced back to the SD. Maybe someday soon I’ll buy a board membership as way of cementing my love of this place and the influence the SD has had on my career.
I haven’t read the column in years, and I almost never post here anymore, but I still wanted to chime in. My friend Patrick bought the first Straight Dope book for me in the late 90s, and told me about this place. I started posting to the message board in late '00, met my now-husband at the Jan. '01 NYC Dopefest, and consider some of the folks I’ve met here my closest friends. So, yeah, profound impact here, too.
It’s sad that it has come to an end, The Straight Dope, at least as we’ve known it. But all things do come to an end, and to be honest, I’ve stopped drooling with anticipation over Friday’s published columns for a long time now. Somewhere along the line they went from short, funny, irreverent explorations of interesting things to much longer, less-funny, but certainly no less irreverent deep explorations of various things. For me, the SD has become the SDMB; it is this entity to which my time is devoted.
But I remember with quite a lot of fondness the days when a new Unca Cece column, accompanied by the often inappropriate Slug cartoon, made my Friday. It is with those days in mind that my metaphorical hat is off, and my head is bowed. And to all the various members of the SDSAB who have helped the SD be so much fun to read over the years, my tremendous thanks!
I first starting reading The Straight Dope in the Chicago Reader when I was in grad school in Chicago in the early '80s. My future wife did freelance writing for the Reader and was once consulted by Cecil for a column, so I feel like my life and love is partially tied to The Straight Dope.
Ed, I hope you have something good lined up or, even better, a nice place to retire to.
