I, for one, am the most humble person on earth. And I give great fake kisses, or so I’ve told myself;)
SuperNova, penii is a plural of penis.
Smartest? Not even close. There are specialized communities out there which put SD to shame. If you take the juvenile communities out of the equation, then my impression is that SD is neither smarter nor dumber than most. Just as some pretty interesting stuff passes through SD, some of the most incredibly and hilariously dumb things are also said, so it all balances out.
What I like about SD is the sense of play, the general curiosity, and the mix of social and intellectual backgrounds – the asking of the questions, rather than the knowing of the answers.
If anything, I’d suggest that SD would do well to cultivate a more international membership. As it stands, the focus is pretty much limited to an American perspective, so smart or not, it is still pretty much thinking within the box.
I don’t know…yet. Give me some time. I’ll find out. Heh.
[sub]Oh, and I’ve never actually bothered to look up “penii” and see if it’s an actual word. I just like the way it sounds.[/sub]
muffin: That’s why I ‘qualified’ smartest in the second post. Even though, as Chicken pointed out
(I would underline ‘probably’, BTW) I realize full well that there are numerous chat rooms specialized in a number of topics. But I was thinking in terms of the global picture.
Speaking of global picture, you say:
I’d agree about the American perspective; as far as the international membership goes, even if it’s far from optimal, I’d say we’re doing OK, with people from the U.K., Australia, Sweden, South Africa, Mexico (not to mention Canada;)) and several other countries (mods/admins help me out here). But of course there’s always room for improvement. Word of mouth does wonders sometimes.
I wasn’t saying that the Straight Dope Community was the best. Just asking.
“i am so smart, I am so smart, S-M-R-T…i mean S-M-A-R-T” --Homer Simpson
I don’t know… there’s some bright ones on the sock board.
I’m a certified genious according to all my IQ tests.
What the Bears have to do to start playing winning football is to…
[sub]Wait. Wrong board. This is the one where I have to pretend I’m smart.[/sub]
The square of the long side is equal to the sum of the other two sides, times two and add thirty.
As for being more international, it’s about time! I’ve pissed off representatives of the entire English-speaking world. I need new worlds to conquer.
Don’t forget “gorgeous”!!!
The SDMB is a rather smart message board. At first I thought that everyone expressed basic common knowledge, and that the people (particularly me) weren’t that much more intelligent than any other message board.
Then, just the other day, I got onto a local message board where kids from my highschool post messages (which I’m probably not going to post a link to.) It’s the theory of relativity in action, folks. Compared to “YEAH WE RULE AT WRESTLING, KISS OUR *** OPPOSING TEAM” “NO U SUCK,” the SDMB is brilliant. In a way, it’s refreshing to go to that message board, and look at all the morons, and make myself feel a lot smarter, then come back to the SDMB, where (almost) everyone can have an intelligent conversation.
If not “intelligent,” let me just say that, true to its original purpose, the SDMB members are probably the most “non-ignorant” of any people I’ve seen.
I’m glad I joined too. 
Go back a few months and find that “Stupidest thing you’ve ever done” thread. The only thing that separates a lot of the Straight Dopers from being Darwin Award winners is sheer luck. We may be intelligent, but we’re not that smart.
Hey, I missed that one! Thanks for the heads-up Finagle!!
Nodding head vigorously (my burned thumb’s all healed now).
I am so bright that my parents always called me sun.
Woo! People will actually be referring to it! YAY!
I don’t widely roam MBs (this and Fathom are more than enough), but my impression is that there are a lot of boards out there that have only a narrow range of views represented. That doesn’t happen here - the lefties don’t chase out the righties, or vice versa.
And, yes, this is a very intelligent MB. We have genuine experts in a number of fields, and a lot of extremely well-read people who insist on a high level of debate.
That doesn’t mean we’re the smartest general-interest MB around, of course. But has anyone run into another candidate for that title?
That was my implicit sub-question.
BTW, my OP could be a bit misleading. I used ‘chat’ where I should have used ‘Message Board’ or, at least, ‘chat/MB’. Having said that, I have no objection to the inclusion of the SD chatroom, even though I know next to nothing about it.
#StraightDope? Smart!?
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
…ahhhh, thanks, I needed a good laugh.