Ahh, yes. I remember
[INSERT ANOTHER QUARTER]
those days where you had to pay.
I’m going to go with secret option C: You missed that reply and are trying to cover, badly.
Perhaps it has to do with the human phenomenon that you like what you pay for more than if you had received it for free, up to a certain point. Maybe people put more thought into their posts in the past compared to now when its free.
It’s been about the same the entire time of my tenure here.
Who was doing collections of such? I’m afraid I don’t recall anything of that nature. Although the SDMB has claimed non-exclusive copyright to posts, I am not aware that they have ever re-published anything anywhere.
I have re-published several of my staff reports in an anthology. I don’t think I technically needed permission, but I requested it and it was granted.
Of course, if you wanted people here to critique or read your work you could post it on another site and then linked to it. Then the board would have had no claim to copyright.
ISTM that there were a lot less ‘new blood’ during that time, that it seemed to be the same (slowly shrinking) group of posters in the same old debates in GD and the Pit, for instance.
I’d say the board’s about as good now as it ever was, in most respects. I’m not in a good position to judge how fast it recovered from the pay-to-post era; I took a hiatus from here for almost a year, starting in late 2008, as the roller coaster of the adoption process, and then new fatherhood, came to dominate my life for awhile. And after I started reading and posting again, it was at way reduced levels for awhile. (I figure my posting levels will return to pre-parenthood nornal in the fall of 2025, when the Firebug should be a freshman in college.)
One thing that is hard for me to gauge is the Dopefest activity. It seems that there’s a good bit less of it now than there was 8-10 years ago, but it’s hard for me to say because I just have no time for Dopefests these days. And during the first 5-6 years of this board, there were at least a couple dozen marriages of couples who met through the Dope. Is that still a thing, or has that fizzled out? I’m curious about that.
It’s a silly place. I don’t go there.
I think that is a very accurate summary.
The quality of the posts before subscriptions were required was amazing.
People would compose lengthy, well-reasoned posts in a separate application, so their posts would not be lost in crashes and hiccups.
I don’t mean to imply all posts were of the highest quality, but I did not stop following threads because they were just repetitive, tedious, or disingenuous often.
With all respect, I haven’t seen many recent posts with the quality of the Helium Attack Blimp post. (Use google if you don’t recognize the allusion; it should be one of the top returns)
I am not sure what I would do without the Dope. It is a major part of my getting-ready-to-go-bed routine. The small payment I make each year is vastly repaid by the things I have learned here. I post little (My very first post received exactly 0 replies, and maybe no views), but I am never made to feel like anyone wishes I hadn’t posted. I have never been pitted, either, which is great.
I seem to remember that I took a year off from browsing and posting, but I can’t remember why, now, and I am very glad that I came back.
I very much miss some of the older posters which just kinda disappeared and who you now see only in zombies.
Please note, Straightdope, I am not encouraging you to raise your prices beyond what I would be willing to pay for the enjoyment and, yeah, privilege of reading and respinding to the posts of people much smarter than I.
Bob
I think that the world has changed, the internet has changed, and our relationship to it has changed. I won’t say that it’s better or worse, but it is different, and it’s reflected here.
It’s also that, as the internet exploded, there are just a lot more sorts of people here. Any forum from 1999 was going to have a certain ‘type’ of person on it, because internet connections/social media/web-savvyness just wasn’t as big then. Today, my grandfather could stumble upon the Dope and participate. In 1999, I don’t think he’d ever even sent an e-mail or browsed the internet at all.
This was hit on above:
It has gone from: “Is what I have to say worthy of this conversation?”
to “Is this thread worth even clicking “Reply”?”.