Well, if you should happen to post outside political commentary on the Chicago Politics board, it’s not like it would be out of the ordinary compared to their historical political breadth of participation 
Tell me about it. I get sick of buying gas in Blythewood on the way home every time I visit my mom. 
Actually, last time, the cheapest I saw was at Two Notch and Fontaine. Hard to get in and out of though.
Cool. If this goes well, maybe locations can pop up for other urban areas. I hereby volunteer to be a founder of SD Boston. (A man can dream!)
My belief that you are Cecil has increased upon reading this.
Not yet. Hell, we’re still in positive numbers here.
I post (although less than formerly) on another board that long ago fractured into regional and local forums. It became less of a community, with interests diluted amongst ever-expanding and increasingly specialized forums.
Too bad that’s started to happen here.
Because we asked for it.
Quick market question. Before the creation of the SDCMB, how many Chicago-related threads had there been? per week/month/year? About other locations (I seem to notice a lot of DC threads, but that might be confirmation bias)?
Did you ever consider doing just a Chicago forum and wait until interests emerged before splitting it into 6 sub-forums? (How much can you talk about Chicago sports without including the national scene?)
I mean, I know the sub-forums are not an additional burden on the servers if nobody is posting on them, but they do dilute the attention of readers. I barely check IMHO or GD as it is, there is next to zero chance I will check 5 more forums.
Will threads be moved between Main and SDC?
Straight Dope Chicago will have its own home page and its own SDC column, and will be promoted in the printed paper. We expect it to drawn in new users. We’re not just trying to move the old ones around.
I’ve told the staff to go easy on this. We figure Chicago-specific threads will naturally gravitate to SDC in time.
I asked the boss:
Good luck with the new venture–and thanks for letting us know about it.
I welcome the addition to the SDMB. I have often had Chicago-specific questions for GQ that I figured were too parochial to post, so I didn’t. But being a longtime reader of The Master (even had a question included in one of his early books), I use the forum to learn, and this sounds like an excellent opportunity to do more. Color me eagerly awaiting the new digs. xo, C.
Because Great Debates would become a vast wasteland full of spirits and people futilely screaming into the shadows that they don’t exist?
Seriously, GD is about 70% politics, 30% witnessing or misc. as it is.
As a former Chicagoan who really misses the city, I’ve loved reading the first few threads in there and think it’s wonderful. Good luck with it!
I think this is a fun and interesting idea, and I eagerly await the eventual arrival of Straight Dope: Trenton, NJ.
Until I get a response in this thread from Cecil Himself I’m not going to believe you two are separate people.
Well… That wouldn’t prove much. But it’d make me oh so happy.
The Straight Dope Chicago home page is now online, as is Cecil’s first SDC column. See:
Looks good, Ed!
Dammit, now I want a piece of that pizza!
The site looks mighty nice for its first day too.
And how far out will the borders of Straight Dope Chicago go? chicago city proper or Chicagoland? Will it extend south of I-80 or West of I-290? what are the limits? I live in Elmwood Park. Chicago is 2 blocks literally away. Am I close enough?