That’s my 17-year-old son you’re talking about there… :o
There’s a restaurant I wandered into on the Canada side of Niagra Falls that has a good approach to the issue: if you can eat a seventy-ounce steak, the sides, and a slice of cheesecake in one hour, it’s free. If not, you have to pony up the forty or fifty dollars the meal costs.
I wasn’t anywhere close to being able to try, but it seemed a fair challenge.
How bizarre. I was in the “all you can eat” thread. I know I was.
Heh, I thought you were metaphorically proposing that we shift the subscription plan to “free if you can make 30,000 posts”. 
Hey, ya gonna finish that?
Cool, that should be easy, though I have been slacking lately. 
Jim
Are you really not familiar with l33tspeak?
Not that you’ll see much of it here, thank Og.
Hey Creative Loafing is cool, it’s where I first heard of The Straight Dope.
FWIW, I lived in Atlanta for 8 years (just recently returning to the mothership of California this past March) and I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed countless copies of Creative Loafing. I never touched the “established” Atlanta Journal Constitution.
I’d categorize the lean of The Loaf as left, but moderately. From what I’ve felt of the spirit of both entities, those spirits are compatible. I hope they keep the Straight Dope in all of its current glory.
As long as they’re invisible, I’m all for 'em.
I would hate to see the board turn into a land of avatars, smileys and posted images. Another board I visit has a profile option that disables that kind of stuff. That way people can post as much of that crap as they want, and I don’t have to look at it.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone contacted the new owners and asked them what they think of, plan to do with, the SDMB?
Perhaps a direct quote from them would be interesting, in a kind of “fighting ignorance” kind of way.
Sounds interesting. I nominate you!
But allow me to speculate how someone there might respond:
"Dear {insert name here}:
I would like to thank you for contacting me regarding Creative Loafing’s recent partnership with The Chicago Reader in Chicago, IL. We look forward to many productive years with this fine product, and we look forward to serving you in Chicago, IL for many years as well.
"We have built our Creative Loafing brand by offering valuable content to people who influence public opinion and public tastes in culturally vibrant markets, including Chicago, IL. We have the brands, credibility and dynamic synergy to offer our audience content in print, web and mobile. Including The Straight Dope Message Board online property.
"Again, thank you for contacting me, and feel free to get back in touch with me again in the future. The key to success in a dynamic and competitive newspaper industry is being able to have candid conversations like this with our readers. We hope you will embrace Creative Loafing, as we begin to embrace readers like you in Chicago, IL.
Sincerely yours,
Suit
“Change is never good.”
-Hannibal Lecter, The Red Dragon.
I wish you were right.
But these boards are not a good example of “What the internet can do”.
When this site was free, it lost money–a lot of money, apparently.It certainly was the slowest site on the web. So they decided to start the $15 fee, and upgraded the technology to make the site usable, but still subject to timing-out errors that often ate entire posts. Then they realized they still weren’t making enough money, so they started the Google ads, and added some bandwidth. So now the technology is a bit more reliable, but the hamsters still run more slowly than most other sites on the web. So I doubt if there’s much spare money available to invest in improvements.)
If the new owners want to do “what the internet can do”–i.e. make big bucks–, then they can probably figure out how. But they are going to have to make HUGE changes to the site. They’ll need to bring in 20 times as many users, and dumb down the site.
So an administrator,-- presumably a honcho with connections on the “inside”-- can’t come up with more than a vague hope that sounds like the prisoner who says “well, they haven’t set a date for my execution yet”…
I fear for our futures, fellow Dopers!!!
Have you been through many buyouts? Good, bad, or indifferent, I have never seen one in which the buyers or sellers appreciated the troops running about encouraging wild speculation among the customers or investors. Even if the Administrators actually had some “inside scoop,” (a point I sincerely doubt), it could change as the Creative Loafing folks, their lawyers, accountants, techs, and marketing people looked over the real life situation of the Chicago Reader. So even if the top brass had a good idea regarding what they initially intended to do, that idea would be subject to change as new information came to light. The last thing they are going to want to see is some sort of wild rumor going around that will scare investors or set up unrealistic expectations among either investors or customers.
Thus, they ask that staff not contribute to the rumor mill, because even if Joe Admin opened every post with blazing orange 16 Pt. type that announced "EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS THIS STATEMENT IS ME TALKING OUT MY ASS AND MAKING UNINFORMED GUESSES ABOUT THINGS FOR WHICH I HAVE NO INFORMATION!," you’ve got to know that some twit will pick up their words and pass it on as a good “insider” scoop.
The Teeming Millions are free to speculate to your hearts’ content because you have no connection to the Chicago Reader, but those of us who are reveling in our coffee mugs have been asked to refrain from contributing to rumors that might affect the decisions of persons bearing cash, based on the misperceptions that people who are unaware of our exact recompense (and (lack of) access to management) are liable draw.
The exact and total conclusion that a reasonable person may draw, based on the silence of the staff, is that the staff has been asked to be silent. Anything beyond that is the product of one’s own fevered imagination.
Tom, I heard a rumor that you might have to choose between Tom or Debb as your username once the new owner starts looking for ways to reduce costs.
I heard a rumour we’re finally going to get some decent t-shirts.
Bah, I only post in the nude.
[Butters] OH GOD, the new owners are probably reading these posts right now! [/Butters]