By definition, if you are reading and posting on this board, you are a Doper. If you’re asking for advice or opinions on this board, every single person who responds to you is going to be a Doper. There is, therefore, no need to specify that you’d like input from Dopers or that you’d like to ask Dopers a question, as there’s no one else here to be giving you input in the first place.
Not a life-changing issue, of course, but it’s been grating on me lately for some reason.
If guests aren’t included in the “Dopers” terminology then you STILL shouldn’t specify Dopers in your thread titles unless you specifically mean only people who have paid for their subscriptions already.
I mean, hell, racinchikki, if you’re gonna talk the talk you might as well walk the walk. Didn’t Jesus say, “Before you criticize the redundancy in your Doper’s post, remove the superfluous verbiage from your own OP”?
The way I see it, it’s like calling a friend by their name. You don’t always just walk up to them and start talking. Most of the time you’ll first acknowledge their existance with a personal greeting.
So it’s “Hey, Gamara, 'sup? What’s the best seafood restaurant in Tokyo?” Likewise here, it personalises the OP to refer to the community by name.
I always took that kind of phrasing as a sort of friendly little compliment to our virtual community: “I’d like some input from Dopers about Topic X” = “There’s all kinds of ignorant bullshit floating around concerning Topic X, but I want the real deal, the Straight Dope, the input from THE DOPERS!!”
Then again, maybe I’m just a conceited ass who sees compliments that aren’t there. Makes me feel good, though.
I Dope all day and I’m proud.
I use to feel alone in a crowd.
We don’t go out much, the sun burns too bright.
Every Night in Dopeville is like a Wedding nighttttt!
I’m a doper
You’re a doper.
Wouldn’t you like to be a doper, too!
Us Dopers are an interesting hominoid.
An original mind in a land of waistoids.
A precious few against rapidly producing bottom feeders.
Where would we be with out the Reader?
Probably leading a productive liiiiiiiife!
Oh…I’m a Doper.
You’re a Doper.
Wouldn’t you like to be a Doper Too?
I can somewhat agree. They went about this with being a ‘Goon’ on SA too. Obviously you’re a goon if you have a username with SA. And you’re a doper if you have a user ID with the SDMB. Right?
Sure, but how is addressing DOPERS dopers as dopers offensive? DOPERS It’s not like DOPERS anyone is using up **tonsDOPERS DOPERS ** and tons of bandwith by inserting the word “dopers” DOPERS randomly into their posts.
