For my part, the conversations here just aren’t as diverse and interesting as they once were…or I thought them to be, perhaps. I stop in and check the new posts a couple times a week and it is the same people beating the same horses. What about you others who have fallen away from active participation?
My experience has been a transition from general questions to café society to IMHO. GQ repeats a lot of the same stuff once you’ve been around for a number of years, so I found myself looking at pop culture more. I’ve become less interested in pop culture as I’ve gotten older, so I’ve transitioned to this board.
I never contributed that much, so my posting behavior hasn’t really evolved.
The pit has become a Trump cry fest.
My participation dropped when the I.T. dept at work blocked “interactive” sites like message boards. No more reading - and finding interesting stuff to reply to - while another tab finished loading or processing something.
After being suspended for arguing against genocide I decided to no longer post in Great Debates; or even read it much. Since that’s where I was most active, I barely post on SD anymore.
I come here less often. And many of the posters I “knew” well don’t post anymore. Of course, plenty of familiar names still do.
I got a new job, that’s a little more active and gives me less time for message boards.
pretty much the danger of getting banned for not following last millenium’s posting etiquette…
I was never really very active, and I was never really a lurker, but…
I post a lot less than I would if this board wasn’t so damn judgmental against people with non-standard (that is, liberal) opinions.
We miss your participation in the Order of the Stick threads.
Not really a lurker, but not a real active poster either. (see join date .vs. post count)
One reason is I’m an old guy, and my experiences and observations are getting less relevant as time goes on. With social media playing such a large role in people’s lives, any relationship or parenting observations from me are probably useless. To the question: “What’s the longest you’ve gone without the internet” my answer would be “42 years”. That means almost none of the formative, mating, or child-rearing portions of my life were with the constant connections that are normal today. I can’t add much in those subjects as they really are different today.
Another reason is most people’s political beliefs are now cast in reinforced concrete. I’m not gonna change and neither are you. So discussing it is pointless, unless you just like arguing. So I stay out of most political discussions because nothing will come of it.
The third reason is I’m not on here constantly, so the few threads I might contribute to are 3 pages long already. And my point has usually already been made.
I don’t’consider myself particularly active but I no longer lurk as much as I did either: There are a lot of threads here which just don’t pique my interest.
What keeps me here is tradition. The Dope was the very first message board I ever joined. It was a novelty with a very tight group of regular posters back then.
As the internet has grown and changed, there are so many other online places to explore. Reddit’s beauty, for example, is its breadth of topics. The Dope, in contrast, is very narrow and more of a general knowledge/social board. I find myself coming here more for the latter and going elsewhere for the former.
I think that’s too bad. I would subscribe to your newsletter if you had one.
I post less than I used to; for one thing, I feel things are a bit more argumentative than they used to be, and I don’t have the time or inclination to defend my posts.
Also, I’ve just been here a long time, told all my best stories and I feel silly telling them again. I’m not going anywhere though.
I’m semi-retired and work only a couple days a week as a construction site security guard. Hypothetically, all my waking hours are available to post now. Unhappily, many of the most interesting and funniest people have fallen away from the board, so now I have much less interest in posting. I agree with the notion that the board has taken on an argumentative tone, but it is the same people going around in circles over the same topics. Even the arguing isn’t really arguing so much as it is the mob hectoring the same tiny handful of people. If it weren’t for Clothahump, Shodan, Bricker, and Hurricane Ditka, there’d be precious little opposition to the board groupthink. Those four may still find it rewarding to participate in the umpteenth iterations of a tired handful of topics, but I don’t.
I used to post way more frequently here and I still do sometimes, but I usually just post my mini-rants in the BBQ pit to vent. I’ve noticed in the past couple of years that most meaningful or enthusiastic dialogue occurs with the more popular posters or those with more controversial views.
In other words, if I want a response to a question, I have to be a bitch, a nut or really well-liked. I’d like to think I’m neither of the former two and as for the latter, I’m not interesting enough to be super noticeable. And for the record, I don’t find that particularly upsetting, it’s just a fact of life here - kinda like social media. If you don’t have a schtick, you don’t get followers. Even if I did care whether I had a schtick or not here, life tends to get in the way of me cultivating something like that, so I’d rather just lurk.
First it was law school - I was just too busy.
Now it’s gotten so partisan it’s kind of boring. There’s no real silliness left anymore - how long since someone tried to stick a wedding ring up their nose or something fun like that?
Also the holier than thou stuff about how cell phones/Facebook/Twitter etc. are just time wasters for stupid people and so on just grinds on me.
So I pick up and lurk occasionally until I hit a real eye-rolling thread and then stop for a while, until I get bored at work or something.
Did you get called Gleena?
I never posted a lot, but I’ve been here from the beginning, lately I just can’t get past how old, white and male this board is. Maybe it’s always been that way, but it just seems so out of touch with where the culture is headed. Maybe I’ve changed, but the board seems really stagnant these days.
Afraid of posting on the board in case my post is deemed dumb or wrong. I enjoy hanging out here though, just feel too scared to post in case I’m shot down in flames for my views. I’m a Brit, mid 30’s, white chick and black bloc anti fa…I’ll take a punch from a facist anytime but you Straight Dope regulars scare the shit outta me!
I’m definitely getting to the point where I’m hearing and telling the same stories over and over again. I don’t think I mind. But it’s true that the longer I post here, the more repetitive and predictable things seem. Every subject and interaction has its patterns. I still seek it out for the thoughtful and unique and interesting posters who are fighting to break through the knee-jerk noise. I have a lot of affection for people here.
I still remember when I first joined. It was like that Simpsons episode where Lisa found a new girl in class who was just as interested achievement and intellectual growth as she was. She had found her kindred spirit! And then the girl promptly kicked her ass on every standard measure of excellence, making her feel like an idiot.
Actually, college was a lot like that, too.
It can sorta be a trial by fire to put your ideas out there, but it will make you stronger. You just have to look for the people genuinely interested in a fair and honest discussion.