I’m sure it has happened to most of us. You start a thread with a question or an argument (in GD) and get no takers. Or you get some takers, but the thread gets hijacked, or the takers don’t take it very far. Eventually it dies on the vine. Or you are in the midst of a good discussion, you make what you think is a killer point, and the thread continues as if you hadn’t said a thing.
What threads or arguments have you started that have left you with unfinished business?
Well, I never got a really satisfying answer to What’s the Straight Dope about the effects of mescaline on a nursing baby?, but I suspect that’s because no one really knows.
I often feel like a thread killer in GD, but I don’t know if it’s because what I’ve said is so ludicrous it invites no further comment, or so airtight it invites no dispute, or if other posters just get bored before I do! 
Probably so. There doesn’t seem to be much information on the topic available online. You’d probably have to visit a medical library to look at journal articles that discuss the topic.
And see this study, which suggests you might not find much there anyway.
Me too.
I’ve had threads, arguments, jokes tank all the time. I don’t fret about it. I can’t pick out a best - that’s like picking out the best movie that everyone hated.
Hey, they do that!!
http://www.thestinkers.com/
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=2004+Golden+Raspberry+Awards&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1&linktext=2004
http://www.razzies.com/asp/directory/XcDirectory.asp
Jeez,
I guess this thread is a perfect example.
The thing I really hate is when I do a lot of research, come back three hours later with a devastating reply, and the damned thread has completely disappeared. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
The search! Eeet does nothing!
Here is one of my all-time favorites–arguments that is (Bricker started the thread, and the argument was admittedly part of a hijack).
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6327292&postcount=189
Here are a couple that never really got off the ground. 
No, I just think people are being carefull not to post threads they simply liked, but their personal best. It takes ime to think about which ones those are.
I was going to say, in the original thread that it seemed really harsh that no one replied to what I posted in post 39 of Create an American Hogwarts. Problem is, people did reply with well written answers to my previous posts in the thread. I am talking really great posts here.
Then, when I tried to bump the thread so that more people could see my attempt to write fiction, I received a sincere complement on my phrasing of the bump, AND an very nice response to previous comment of mine in that very thread, but again, nothing about post 39.
So basically, I have a thread full of great replies to both Sampiro’s Op and my replies, and one post out of many dropped like a brick. I almost feel like a heel for complaining about that single failure to raise a response, but the thread seems to be dead, so why not?
Well, the only one I was genuinely hoping would turn into something interesting was an IMHO thread I started in which I questioned what the alleged God’s reaction to humor about Him would be - I believe the exact example was “He can blow it out the Divine Ass.” It was in IMHO because I was hoping for humorous answers, as I recall - it’s been a long time.
Someone crapped on it with the standard “He wouldn’t care because he doesn’t exists LOL ROFL!!!11!!!eleven” and it died. Not a great thread, I know, but we’re a creative bunch and I was really hoping for something interesting.
Why is this in the About this Message Board forum?
… It ain’t any more.
If it matters at all, I have almost posted this very thread – many times.
Usually I say to myself, “Isn’t that just being vain?” and avoid the post.
But now that you’ve posted it, I can say I know how you feel about those beautiful ideas that others didn’t relate to.
Timing seems to be a big factor. Like you want to talk about something and nobody else does. What’s the biggest pisser is that a week or so later, somebody else will post essentially the same topic and it will run to 4 pages and even lurkers will come out and contribute.
I do feel worst about being the thread killer. This hurts even more than posting one that dies with no replies at all.
No one responded to my generic Lifetime move collaborative fiction thread. Threads in CS almost always get at least one response. I figured Liftime movies would be ripe for parody, and it coulda been fun.
Oh well. 
I actually discussed this issue with TubaDiva a while back. She gave me the option of moving it or leaving it in place. And I chose the latter. Ah well, it seems to have been revived by the move. 
I can never predict what a thread of mine will do. Most of them last about a day, and garner a few replies. The toss-away threads, on the other hand, sometimes take on a life of their own. The hampsters give, and the hampsters take away. Blessed be the name of the hampsters.
I posted what (I thought) was an interesting question in GQ, regarding organ transplants.
For your pet.
I bumped it once, but it died on the vine.
Along with the dead dog who was waiting for a transplant.
Actually, I believe I was the latest bumper. Personally, I wasn’t even aware it changed forums. I simply got to it by my control panel. :shrug:
I was a little surprised to see it pop up on my radar. It’d been dead for almost a month. And the move came after your bump.
One of my earliest threads was a question trying to ID a late 80’s/early 90’s British movie on the subject of incest. Shit, people here seem to know every freaking TV show on Earth, so I figured it was a no-brainer.
First and only time the SDDB disappointed me. Seems like no one ever saw this flick but me, and the few that tried to answer merely did a search in IMDB (which is what I did before I started my thread).
I’m still bothered that I can’t ID that movie!