I ask this because, before I started posting, I lurked for years. Back in the AOL days, I lurked. To me, the Dope is a really great place. I feel like I “know” so many of the posters and it’s really the first place I would turn to if I had a dilemma and wanted to solicit opinions. It’s also been the source of a lot of laughs.
I was speaking (over IM) with a friend last night who was, in turn, speaking (over IM) with someone kind of lonely and lost. My first reaction was, “turn him onto the Dope.” Not that I see this as a place catering to the lonely and lost, but I see it as a really great community.
So, I just wanted to have a Hallmark moment and tell everyone how much I enjoy this place.
Yes, you are correct SOC - The Dope has created over the years a nice little community where people can share just about anything. And obviously they do. One thing that should be addressed as a possible flaw…is that one must trust in someone whom they have never met. I say this in an extremely broad sense, as people who tend to be long time posters tend towards not being of the ‘Hanibal Lecter’ type and more of a nice cross section of interesting Joes + Janes.
One thing I see is that people can and do find it easily to live vicariously throught virtual emotions…this can be dangerous. One must pay heed to how they ‘feel’ about what they are saying on the boards. And for a newbie, this can be a difficult line to cross.
I misread the thread title as “What do you think of the SD Fondly?” and mental images of some kind of new real-life meet-up event called a ‘Fondly’ flashed through my mind.
Well, one thing I like about the SD is that longtime posters do have a personality. I can read a thread and see someone’s screen name and give a good guess as to how they replied before seeing the actual reply. So…having trust in someone you never met…well, I wouldn’t take “CUMSUKME’s” advice but I would give pause to manda jo, or auntie em or aries28 or or or or. There are just too many posters that have proven themselves. I know diane and techchick68 aren’t real warm and fuzzy and might punch me out. It’s just interesting to me that people have hung around here long enough to really make it a community, full of different personalities and viewpoints. It’s great.
Wow…what a completely great and humbling thing to read…thanks Sat on Cookie.
I have always thought of the SD as a “fun” place but recently after looking over the piles of books in my spare room that Dopers have sent and having SO many Dopers respond to be Book Fairies for my class I have been blown away.
I know that there has been debate before regarding how much weight it given to a poster’s history, post count, etc. At times, posters have weighed in and said that it doesn’t matter, they look at the post and not the poster.
Well, I always look at the poster. I also always look at the number of posts. If someone says something controversial and they have 3000 posts, I’m going to take it more seriously than I would from someone who has 161 posts, for example.
I understand this thinking, and follow it to some extent, but it’s worth noting that some people with high post counts have been evicted lately (maybe all along but I just noticed the latest ones) so even the heavy hitters can make the error of overstepping bounds.
For similar reasons I try hard not to prejudge people with low post counts. I am a bit wary until they’ve been around for a few weeks’ worth of posts, and/or until they participate in threads I’ve been involved with. But I try to give the benefit of the doubt to new people.
Absolutely. I started posting to the SDMB six years ago this month (I can’t remember the exact day!) and I have made a lot of friends through it. I dated a Doper. My roommate’s a Doper, and she’s engaged to a Doper. Although I do a lot of my communication with Dopers through LiveJournal, I will always have a soft spot for the SDMB.
I did not mean to come across as high post count = worthy and low post count = unworthy; I think what I meant to say was that there are a number of high-count posters that take this place very seriously and are not going to knowingly be jerks. I just have that faith in a high post count.
Very fondly. I met many of my closest friends (including one I’m planning to marry later on…) here and have received help I never dreamed would either be available or be given to me. And in return … well, I hope I have made more than a meager difference to a few.
There are people I wish would go away … you’ll get that feeling in any significantly large or intelligent group of people … but overall I enjoy coming back to this place every day/hour/minute/post.
You know why I love the Dope? Because over in Cafe Society, there’s a thread on “The Bachelor,” and another on Oscar Wilde, and I’m probably not the only person reading both of them with damn close to equal interest.
Personally, I have quite a fondness for these boards. There is a general level of quality to the interactions here far surpassing anything else I’ve seen online. The friendships I’ve made that have sprouted from participating here are very rewarding. Meeting new SD folk is nearly always a genuine treat. Then again, I view good conversation as an art form, so I might be biased.
Very much so. This came home to me in a strange way last week when I was reading a thread in the Pit (to do with posters all vying for first spot when reporting the news of a death of someone famous).
Now Eve had made a comment, to which London Calling replied with some light-hearted bitchy remark about how Eve was in NO position to talk because she was probably the worst offender of them all.
I sat back in my chair and laughed and laughed and laughed until the tears were streaming down my face. I had this delighful picture of these two people kicking back on a couch somewhere like some old married couple picking and whingeing at each other, but still retaining a fondness that no silly thread could ever destroy. While our communication IS via words on a screen, there seems to be something else as well.
I actually wanted to post a thread just like this at the time, but I couldn’t quite find the words for it. I still haven’t done my ‘gut-feelings’ about the board any great justice, but hey, it’s 6.00 am and I haven’t had my caffeine fix yet.
The SDMB was one of my main refuges when I needed it, after a good dose of Life-Kick-In-Th-Guts ™, but it also challenged and enthralled me. At a time in RL where some days I couldn’t face going out into RL and talking to the people out there, I could read the conversations here, and even tentatively take part. It helped keep the threads of the real me together.
It isn’t my fondest home online anymore. That title goes to one of the spin-off sites started up by fellow Doper, TheLoadedDog, at G’Dope. But I am fond of this larger town of the web, still. It is still a very, very cool place for a stray Kiwi wolf.
I love this place. I learn something almost daily, and not just in GQ. I love meeting people from here. We’re a self-selecting community, and almost everybody is right up my alley. (Is it warm up there? ;))
Well, yes, usually, but it works the other way too. Some people stay here for months and years and build up a high post count and figure that gives them a sense of entitlement or ownership, and that they can get away with more. I won’t name names, but I’m sure we can all think of a couple of prominent examples from the last few months. In my view, it’s much safer just to judge the post itself. There are a couple of brand-new people, for example, who have been making what are excellent contributions, in my view; if I were focused on counts, I might have missed them.
Oh yeah, love it like heroin. You tell me: is that good or bad?
What is the magic number when a newbie transforms into a regular? I see my count skyrocketing at an alarming pace; at least I’m starting to recognize the occasional name. (That’s a dirty stinkin’ lie. I recognize every name in here except the OP and one other, and probably would recognize a hundred monikers by now.)
I’m just waiting to see if my name hits the ATMB list without me posting in that thread…now that would be something. (No fair cheating; she promised to do a “roundup” of active posters on her own.)
