Seconded, and well-said.
Ed’s always welcome at stately Mercotan Manor, which is on the shores of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin and is technically a farm (chief crops: hay, beans, mosquitoes).
Ed is there any chance of a meetup for us to buy you a drink and express out gratitude?
I’d travel to Chicago to salute Little Ed!
Not sure. As noted upthread, at one previous Dopefest, I got French-kissed by Eutychus. Someone may feel obliged to up the ante. Not liking that trend.
I for one vow to keep my zymolosely polydactyl tongue to myself. Or at least away from you.
I’ll be buying any Straight Dope book(s) that get printed.
I don’t know how kickstarter projects work, but I would think that, considering how the Order of the Stick kickstarter worked, Ed could raise enough money to buy the Straight Dope from the Sun-Times if he wanted to to so.
I would donate a portion of my inheritance to that! (That’s about $3 in today’s money).
A Sadness has descended on me. These forums have been a big part of my life.
I quote Ed above because I am saddened,-- and worried, very worried— by the cryptic brevity of his comment; And by the lack of info about what will happen after July 1.
Yes, it’s been stated vaguely that, somehow, “the message boards will continue”, “they continue to make a little money”, etc.
But I wonder how.
In any business, when an administrator leaves, a new administrator would be expected take over.
And the two of them must meet a few times to discuss things, both major and minor:
Who pays the bills, who takes the profits, who negotiates with the advertisers, who has signature rights over which bank accounts, who are the technicians who maintain the computers,and what phone number do you call when you need somebody to fix a technical problem in the middle of the night, when does the lease expire for the office space, does the cleaning crew have a key to the office or do you have to stay late on Thursday evenings to let them in,… which parking space belongs to you,etc.
Today is Friday, and we currently have zero information about who will take over the SDope on Monday.
Until our ignorance is fought,I fear the worst.
The site will probably continue briefly just by the inertia of bureaucracy and computerized banking, with automatic deposits from advertisers and automatic payments to the landlord and to a couple of staff members.
But for how long? My guess is that a couple months from now, I’ll click on my bookmark for the SDMB, like I do every day, but suddenly there will only be an error message “site not found”.
Without even any notice in advance or a goodbye message from the new owners.
Please, somebody…Say it ain’t so.
Yup, that.
All good things must come to an end. At least we have Snopes and other fact-checking sites.
IIRC, I was first exposed to the Dope when I saw the column in an Independent. The column was about why cats piss on furniture and I howled with laughter. I wanted more of this brutal honesty so I found the books, then eventually this message board.
I met a few Dopers, but my best RL meeting was in London when some friends and I were touring the UK. The Londoners took me on a pub crawl, which I loved.
So thank you Cecil. Ed, whatever your real name is. You started a path for me to follow that solved many of life’s great mysteries, and yet introduced me to more. The SD has been my greatest learning experience, and truly changed my life for the better.
Ed, I for one would happily purchase several copies of any new book that may be published. I’ve given them as gifts in the past and just recently purchased Know It All for my 13yo son. I’ll get him the rest of the books in a year or two. I’d love to have a new one to add to my collection.
I want to see another Straight Dope column book. It’s been so long since the last. And with print on demand and self publishing, even if Cecils old publisher doesnt want it, you can do it, pretty easy.
(raises a glass) (well, a styrofoam cup of root beer) (you get the idea)
-MMM-
Im so sorry to see you go, Ed.
Can we expect some sort of over-the-top administrative decision that people will talk about for years to come, sometime before the stroke of midnight Saturday?
Lame duck? Lame duck! I’ll show them all how lame I am!
Enjoy,
Steven
I bought all the other books; I see no reason to stop now.
“Okay, you can all be jerks now.”
I have been enriched by my experiences here, reading and posting both. I hope the message board continues, but if it doesn’t I suppose I will find other ways to [DEL]waste[/DEL] spend my time and type. Continuance for very long, without major changes, seems unlikely without its motivating genius and his gormless wienie.
I have been especially enriched by the recent discussions by women about what it’s like to be here. I thought I was at least moderately enlightened; I was not. So in the future when I think I know how other people feel, I will think back to this experience, and know better.
When I was working, I always felt abandoned and betrayed whenever anyone that I liked left the company on their own (if they were kicked out, that was another story). I feel somewhat the same way now, but I am able to be more philosophical about it. Nothing lasts forever, and nothing good seems to last very long at all.