We as a collective, not excluding anyone (not even “suck it up” people or Liberal). 
Good point, but between Una’s board, Fathom and of course http://www.skipmagic.net/magicboard/ we should be able to regroup to some degree if the worst case happens.
Jim
Fathom is proxy-blocked from work, but the other boards are still okay. For now.
Has any technical-minded person looked at that list of services that DreamHost provides close enough to know whether or not a vb Bulletin board can even be installed and set up? I’m not a techie, but I have been running my own (very simple) web sites for several years, and I did build a message board once though I changed my mind and let it die before opening it. I can help a bit once the board is installed. I don’t want to be a mod or have anything to do with money though.
Whatever my involvement is, I’m trustworthy. Y’all would know where to find me if something happened. 
God this is horrible though, talking about the Dope’s demise as it it were a foregone conclusion. I know it’s the smart thing to do just in case it happens so that we don’t all get dispersed. Emergency planning is something that one should have in every facet of life I suppose, but it’s got the distinct feeling of talking about an aging parent or something. It’s just fucking sad is what it is. This is my home base on the net. My home browser has the Dope as the homepage for gods sake.
I also find it ominous that we’ve not heard too much from the mod squad today. Methinks there’s something to perhaps be read into that.
And just one more time, if doomsday ever does rain down on us and we start swamping Skip or Opal’s or Una’s or even The Place Without A Name boards remember the MySpace thing. Yes, MySpace has some huge drawbacks, but it can handle the volume and it’s free until the ultimate alternative is sorted out.
Chicago Reader, Inc.
<contact info removed --Giraffe>
Perhaps a brief call to Mr. Humbertson might be entertaining. Opinions?
It is my opinion that your post will be deleted, because it violates the rule against a call to action:
Well, in this case, I’d say switching browsers (if not using Firefox or something of that ilk) is more like switching cars from a Hyundai to a Ferrari. It’s just something you’d want to do anyway. 
And anyway, it’s not like this is the only place with ads, so you’d be rewiring your car’s audio system so that NONE of the stations you listen to run commericals.
IOW, no matter what you decide about this place, I’d heartily recommend doing it anyway!
boytyperanma’s nick is a reference to a classic manga/anime series.
And as for this place… I’m grateful that this happened if only because it reminded me of adblocking. 
But also, I’m glad that folks are posting other places to go, if only temporary, AND that there’s enough passion about the board to foster discussions like “can we buy it out?” You won’t hear that anywhere else, I don’t think.
Still, I’m pretty nervous about any “free” preexisting option. I mean, don’t almost all free places descend into some form of troll/spam anarchy?
I should think that the cost of bandwidth would be rather large. A T1 costs a couple of grand a month, does it not? The Chicago Reader undoubtedly employs at last one engineer at $30 or $40 K who spends, say, 25% of his or her time on the board.
Folks, I’m pissed at anyone, but I’m willing to hold off judgment for a little while. IMHO we all oughta calm down and give our reaction a little time to filter to TPTB. The mods know, TD knows, Zotti knows we aren’t happy. At my most optimistic I expect it will take a few days for meetings to be scheduled, discussions to be had, and decisions to be made. It’ll probably be longer. It takes 10 seconds for us to post an opinion. Corporations move a little more slowly.
It might piss him off and cause him to dump the board so he won’t have to hear about it. :dubious:
A T1 costs between $300-$600 a month. A business DSL line with bit rates similar to a T1 can be had for around $90 a month.
I’m okay with ads as the price I pay to get free content. I’m okay with paying for content to get away from ads. What I’m not okay with is paying for ads, and then having to fool around with my computer to get away from them.
I love this place and the length of time and my post count are just one part of it. I’m constantly recommending this board to my family and friends. But for me this is a form of entertainment, and I don’t find the events of the last few days particularly entertaining.
I know its redundant at this point but I need to add my voice to the chorus of “This is a very bad idea.” We’re paying for the board, to make people pay a second time with banner ads is just wrong (third time if you count the google ads). If the ads are still in place when the time comes to renew I know I won’t be doing it.
It’s also possible that if the SDMB actually dies completely and for good, that some person who has good financial resources and technical knowledge would set up a free and ad-free replacement, funded from donations. I’ll bet she knows someone who lives very close to her who would help out.
Remember when cable tv was commercial-free? Those were the days.
Do they make TiVo for message boards?
I wonder what kind of bandwidth the Dope uses.
I’m not entirely certain this will work, but if you don’t have an ad-blocking browser (silly!) you can place “http://media.chicagoreader.com/phpAdsNewer/adx.js” in your hosts file and redirect it to someplace like 127.0.0.1, so that all references to the banner ad servers point to nowhere. This has the added benefit of saving the Chicago Reader bandwidth, because the Reader will never get a request from your computer to serve banners to it.
Think of it as teaching your computer not to ask for stuff it doesn’t want.
Some years ago, when we first started ad, **Ed Zotti **replied to my post http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5929168#post5929168
and said "I hear you. We’re all a little concerned about getting ads that will junk up the site. No way do we want (well, no way do I want) popups and popunders. I’m thinking simple ad banners as on the SD home page, which you can easily scroll off."
Moving banner ads seem to edge a lot closer to what I was complaining about "*Please-oh-please-oh-please- read some of the rants and problems dudes here have had with Snopes. Snopes is a wonderful site, but they allow “pop-ups” “pop-unders” (some of which are prgrammed to get past "pop-up blockers’) and many of their ads are for rather disreputable sites and offers. Some of their advertisers have loaded Spyware onto their ads- I got hit once from there myself. Some claim to offer “services” but are really Spyware loaders. Those are some of the “bottom feeders” in the world of Internet advertising
Advertising is Ok, but don’t allow the SD to sell out to dudes who are pushing the opposite of the “Straight Dope”. If there are ads, make sure they are not any of the sorts which cause headaches and cancelations.
More than anything else- if I came to the SDMB and got “pop-ups” - especially those for "spyware blockers’ that really load Spyware onto ones computer - I’d leave and not re-up.
*
So, ads are Ok, but they must be simple and SAFE.
Ed?