# Are we alone? I mean, us Dopers. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2001, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804 "2001-01-07T03:46:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ElusiveMiser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@ElusiveMiser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElusiveMiser)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/1 "2001-01-07T03:46:26Z")
This crossed through my mind, and I had to post: Is there any other website out there that has the same premise as the SD? I mean, some other site that you register on, and post questions, or answer other people’s questions. I’m sure there are some sites out there that are for specific topics, but is there any other one that is searching for pure knowledge? If so, can we go beat them up? We should something to show who’s who in this business. ---
**Author:** ![AVSC916](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@AVSC916](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AVSC916)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/2 "2001-01-07T04:15:45Z")
Yes, my friend, I’m afraid _we are alone._ Beyond the familiar borders of this place, there is nothing but emptiness, desolation, parched land for as far as the eye can see, inhabited by strange cretins, morons, demented philosophers, where the deranged are the norm, chaos reigns, and strange gods are worshipped with bazaar rites. Beyond lies the twisted ruins within which lies insanity. Go not there, my son, for there live the websites of those non compos mentis, where truth is twisted and you may get ensnared by the endless, repeating porno loop, from which escape is nearly impossible. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/3 "2001-01-07T04:19:53Z")
There’s the LBMB. What, you think there’s more to knowledge than studying the Bible? 🙂 [greylabyrinth](http://www.greylabyrinth.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi) and [snopes](http://www.snopes2.com/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Six+Degrees+of+Urban+Legends&number=19&DaysPrune=30&LastLogin=) have question and answer message boards, but the foci are more specific than here. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/4 "2001-01-07T04:21:38Z")
for a glance at the “alternate universe” SDMB, you may want to check out [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=51711), and the thread cited therein. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/5 "2001-01-07T04:23:20Z")
Bazaar rites? Are those rituals that one engages in before participating in a lea market? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/6 "2001-01-07T04:30:22Z")
That should be “flea market”. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/7 "2001-01-07T04:31:09Z")
just out of curiousity, I went over to LBMB - you now have to register to be able to view the message board. perhaps they’re trying to discourage log-ons from people who just find them randomly? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/8 "2001-01-07T04:32:18Z")
Calling the LBMB an alternate SDMB is akin to calling a hand grenade an alternate bouquet of flowers. The LBMB is devoted to discussing a book series based around Fundamental Christian theology, while the SDMB is devoted to fighting ignorance with a somewhat less close relationship to the column ‘The Straight Dope’. The basic philosophies differ immensely. In answer to the OP, I have never heard of a message board comparable to this one. The boards I have seen are all either social clubs for people with similar interests or location, or specialized fora for the discussion of specific topics. None have the breadth and depth of the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/9 "2001-01-07T04:33:45Z")
> [@](#): > > That should be “flea market”. doncha just hate making a typo in your witty response to someone else’s typo? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/10 "2001-01-07T04:36:41Z")
**Derleth** , I didn’t just call it an “alternate” to the SDMB; I called it an “alternate universe” SDMB - sort of like the bizarro world for Superman, or the Star Trek episode where Spock has a beard. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/11 "2001-01-07T04:47:18Z")
The only one even close that I know of (with the exemption of FFF 😉 ) is [The Guardian Notes and Queries](http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/notesandqueries/) which is basically GQ but with a whole different feel about. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/12 "2001-01-07T04:48:01Z")
Given our increasing membership, one assumes there will come a day when every known human will belong to our board. What will happen at this point? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/13 "2001-01-07T04:48:11Z")
Ok, but calling it the ‘exact opposite’ or something along those lines would be more appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/14 "2001-01-07T05:16:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Ryan \* > \*\*Bazaar rites? Are those rituals that one engages in before participating in a lea market? \*\* Unfortunately, you need to go to Hawaii to participate in lea markets. ---
**Author:** ![Tzel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzel)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/15 "2001-01-07T05:51:06Z")
Yeah, I’m afraid the SDMB spoils you. Going to any other message board, I’m surprised at just how idiotic and shallow pretty much all of them are, compared to this one. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/16 "2001-01-07T06:29:20Z")
Haven’t you ever heard of the “scorched earth” policy? ---
**Author:** ![AVSC916](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@AVSC916](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AVSC916)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/17 "2001-01-07T07:20:49Z")
You keep forgetting the attrition rate on the SDMB, so with posters getting banned, posting once or twice and vanishing, some just wandering off to other boards and some going to a special board seemingly run by SDMB posters – I forgot where, but I stumbled across it to find several very familiar names there as moderators and posters – and some being harassed off, I don’t think the board will ever over load. The Dr. Drew board, from Love lines, is pretty cool, but a real darn pain in the butt to use. It cracked me up, what with all of those teens posting actually sexual related questions, like 'I’m 4 foot 6" and he’s 6 foot 1," … now what?" or "Does it really have a bone in _it_? It’s a different type of board, where you can’t read all of the topic posts at once, but have to click on each one. Plus, if you post, it never informs you of any answers and if you return the next day, it’s a real pain to try to find your post. I and others suggested they use the type of board like here, but we all were ignored. Not even an E-mail reply. That’s a shame, because they had interesting topics, it’s just that the works were so darn annoying to use. ---
**Author:** ![Meephead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b782af/32.png) [@Meephead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meephead)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/18 "2001-01-07T09:09:46Z")
[http://www.smartasses.org](http://www.smartasses.org) Since there seems to be a high concentration (let me think about that) of smart asses here (I mean that as the highest possible compliment…) this website might be of interest to quite a few of us. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/19 "2001-01-07T14:20:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Given our increasing membership, one assumes there will come a day when every known human will belong to our board. What will happen at this point? **God** FORBID this happening!! Keep in mind that the regulars on SDMB are probably in the higher percentiles of the standard IQ measurements. Average is, by definition, 100… half of the people out there are BELOW 100! If every person on Earth joined, fully 50% of the posters would be complete idiots! As opposed to the 4 or 5 that I can think of right off hand who are members now…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-alone-i-mean-us-dopers/48804/20 "2001-01-07T14:33:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > \*\*Unfortunately, you need to go to Hawaii to participate in lea markets. \*\* I thought the Mustang Ranch was in Nevada…