I, for one, welcome our new 20 years younger overlords. And, if any are cute and available I wish to be introduced at the first available opportunity 
Speak for yourself there, buddy. I call grape feeder.
I would say it ended when they dropped Nancy… she’s quite vindictive.
The number that matters in all of this is how many hits per month we show and what kind of advertising revenue we can generate as a result.
I think The Dope is going to be around for a very long time.
Cartooniverse
From your mouth to the ears of…hmmmm? These new, young, guys/gals.
Hey, Ben! Can I call you Ben? OK, Mr. Eason. You got a great product here. It’s got the potential. It’s up to you to turn the potential into kinetic. As far as the advertising side, it’s your baby. If you want pragmatic advice on how to make this site more user friendly, well, my email is visible. And, you know I’m [del]cheap[/del] reasonable. I work for a mug. 
I’ve been on the employee side of a merger/acquisition, and I have friends who have done the same. Here’s how it went in just about every case:
Several weeks prior to the merger/acquisition:
Management: I know there’s been a lot of rumors going around, but don’t you believe them. We believe in (firm name) and we’re impressed by what you’ve done. Stick around, we’ve got a great future together!
Several weeks after the merger/acquisition:
Management: I’m very sorry, we’re laying you off as of now.
Good luck, Chicago Reader staff.
Does anyone feel the SDMB will fit in here? —> http://www.creativeloafing.com/
I want to be so wrong about this but the new owners will cut any money losing aspects of the Reader, and/or what they cannot morph into their business plan. Unless the SDMB changes to a MySpace-type approach message board it does not look good. Besides, once they read the thread titles from The Pit …
“Well, bless their hearts …”
Don’t forget the whole “We believe in the brand and will never change the name” bit, only to start erasing every trace of the brand that they “believe in” so that within a year or two all traces of it have been erased.
Can we get Kari Byron as our new holographic moderator?
It would be an utterly STUPID business decision if that happened.
Busy, established message boards sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars … that is, if they’ve got a high Google PageRank, and their contents are open to search engines. Ending the SDMB would be like burning a briefcase of hundred dollar bills. Well, a partly filled briefcase, but you get the idea.
Internet Brands has gone on a buying spree, purchasing car-related message boards. They bought Jelsoft, the makers of vBulletin, a few weeks ago. They recently filed for a $100,000,000 IPO.
If anything, a buyer of the SDMB would upgrade to vB 3.7, add some social networking components, promote the site beyond its current word-of-mouth advertising, and rake in the dough.
The SDMB will be here for a good, long time, me thinks.
But in what form? If I start seeing dancing, flashing pink unicorns and a whole lotta leet speak here, I don’t know what I’d do. Let’s just say I would be extremely disappointed.
(Is it wrong that I’m worried about my Charter Member status and cheap renewal rates? It’s just a message board - I can quit any time I want! 
)
Ours are not, at this time.
But the dancing flashing Invisible Pink Unicorns are OK?
I don’t think teenage girls and gamers are the target market of weekly free alternative newspapers.
Would anything prevent the new owners from doing so if they chose that path?
This could be a plus or a minus or both. The Dope is currently in a position where it makes money via ads and memberships. The Ad revenue could be increased. The membership revenue could be increased with the silly additions like paying for Title changes and similar goofy stuff.
If the Dope was upgraded to the latest VB and put on a fast server, and searchable via Google, it would attract a lot more people.
It would also greatly increase the Troll population. We might end up with animations and in-line pictures and obnoxious avatars. All things that most current posters seem to like not having.
So, a two edged sword.
Jim
Which would increase the mods’ load. Which might require their chocolate allowance to be doubled, or Og forbid, they might have to be paid. :eek:
Yep, the dopes future is now a great unknown, but as the Board is no longer a money loser, we will probably get to continue untouched for a while.
Jim
If it lasts, great!
if not, I’ll miss it.
Well, kinda not.
Don’t let Ed hear you call him that.
Wait a second here. You’re saying our Charter Member status is at risk here???
What the… They will get my Charter Member status when they pry it from my cold dead keyboard.
And, what is " leet speak " ?
As it so happens I AM IN Chicago right now, at O’Hare. Maybe I should blow off the connecting flight to XXXX-ville and go and just pay a friendly little visit to The Reader offices. You know. To beg. And grovel.
Ahh. It’s too late for that. Harrumph.
It is what “Elite, pimple faced, mountain dew swilling, techie-geek, text messaging” people use to communicate.