I know Una has written quite a few reports and I saw a good one by Bricker a little while ago, but I don’t think I ever saw one by John Corrado. Maybe Mannie wrote one, but I’m not sure.
I have a WAG, that I’d like to get confirmed. Mods don’t pay the fee, which is alraight by me, since they work for nothing and a coffee mug (I got one too). When they resign, they still won’t pay subscription, which is fine as well, but I guess they have to have some kind of status, which lets them operate here, without having paid - so they get designated as SDSAB, even if they never wrote a single report.
NOTE: I don’t see this as a problem or a complaint, it’s just that when I see that all (?) ex mods have SDSAB, I get the feeling that it’s not because they have written reports.
And if SDSABs get a free ride, where do I sign up? I can write about Sweden, dogs and radio with authority. If needed, I can make stuff up for almost any other subject.
This is basically correct. All former mods are automatically moved over to the SDSAB group whether they have written any Staff Reports or not. Unless they are a former mod by dint of having been banned.
Assuming you are serious, the person to email would be C K Dexter Haven. Let him know the kinds of things you feel capable of writing about, and if there are any outstanding questions from readers within that scope, he’ll send a few to you to pick from. He’s always looking for new vict…errr…talent.
Q.E.D. is correct; we do comp all mods and they become SDSAB members.
First off, they most certainly earned it; our retired mods have years of diligent and faithful service that they did for a kind word and a coffee mug. (And sometimes not even a kind word.) This is something we can do to thank them.
Secondly, there’s always that hope that they will get inspired and write a report.
Also, I should mention that UncleBeer is a former mod, yet doesn’t have “SDSAB” under his name. I believe he said that the reason was that during the last resubscription period, he forgot that he was comped and paid for his registration. :smack:
Only once, as far as I’m aware. There was once a mod named Melin who was subsequently banned. I don’t know the whole story, but from what I’ve been able to gather it was a fairly ugly situation.
Jerry runs a script every few days that sweeps the database for expired subscriptions. It finds every instance where someone paid and when it finds that instance, it converts their user title to “Member.”
I need to look a little deeper into that, I’d put it off because it’s not been the highest priority on my list and because changing it only fixes it for a while, I got to figure out how to fix it once and for all. Glad Uncle Beer’s not upset about it. He was a great moderator for us for a long time and deserves better.
I have heard of this (while browsing old threads), but I thought that she had only lost her moderating position and hadn’t been banned outright. Anyway, as I understand it, it was close to six years ago and the people involved are not here anymore, so I will get over my curiosity and not discuss it any longer.
You have to do it because you want to, not for the free subscription. In terms of time spent on the reports, I’ve easily spent as much as 4 woman-hours or more on a single report, in one case I think I spent maybe a couple of days when all was said and done. Without going into details, I could pay for a subscription in far, far less than one hour of paid overtime at work. So the money savings is not relevant.
Remember that all your effort is done so a few people can read it, some subset will appreciate it, some subset will deride it for being too detailed, some subset will deride it for being too vague, and 3 or 4 people would join as guests to say “You suck!” because you didn’t say something in exactly the same way as they would. And then occasionally, you help someone out by making an article which they like, find interesting, or find that it makes them think - even if it’s to think of a related query. Those people make you smile.
And sometimes you write an article that sucks and you deserve what castigation you get. I think I’ve written 26, and at least 2 of them sucked. Oh well, it’s above 50% at least.
You have to do a Staff Report because you like trying to research and teach and share, from a pure motive of wanting to help out in some tiny way, and not because you expect that anyone will give a shit that it says “SDSAB” under your name, or because it will save you money.
Outta curiosity, why isn’t the list of outstanding questions posted somewhere? For example, I might not think I’m SDSAB material, but if I browsed the list I might run across a question that for some reason I do know about, at which point I could volunteer my services.
I can’t speak for Dex – he does that just fine without my help – but to give you a quick answer, I do believe you get a list of sample topics to write to.
It’s not as easy as it looks. There’s a common misconception that all you have to do is Google stuff up and write it down. Doesn’t work that way. We do expect you to do some research (and have cites) and be able to present your findings in a way that is interesting and entertaining.
If you have any interest in this at all, sure, go for it; we always need Staff Reports and that means people to write them. Una has been one of our shining stars, but she can’t do 'em all.
It was tongue in cheek, and I’d never do it for a free subscription.
Being a writer by trade, I know that I can write in an entertaining way. However, a staff report in Swedish wouldn’t sell like hotca … eh, get widely read. And even though I’m fairly confident in English, I realize I lack a certain… je ne sais quoi, when it comes to idiomatic speech and nuances.
Also, when it comes to science, there are people on this board, not writing columns, that have more knowledge in their toe nail clippings than I do. My vanity would probably want me to do it, but my self preservation (for reasons described by Una) tells me to stay out.
I’ll back this up. I did one a couple of years ago and it took quite a bit of time. And I freelance for newspapers and magazines as a hobby/extra income.
I swear I spent more time on the staff report than I did on any piece for publication in the wider world.
Heh. That’s probably because you knew your critics would be more vocal. And their criticism more immediate.
I’m the stealth SDSAB guy. I’m the one who introduces all the errors (and really lame jokes) into the work of the others.
Speaking of which, one of these days I should probably write another staff report. Make Dex happy and give me something to do other than enlarging the size of my ulcer like posting in the Pit does.
When you visit the Dope, make your first stop straightdope.com and not boards.straigthdope.com. Every week there are several new or classic articles posted.
To satisfy your curiosity concerning John Corrado and Manhattan’s Staff Reports (both of them have written excellent articles):
http://www.straightdope.com
At top of page, click on “Archive”
under search box, click on “Advanced Search”
Text to Search For: corrado
Column Type: Mailbag
Case: Insensitive
click Search! button
You should see something similar to the following:
