Well, Duckie has certainly been the subject of remonstration of late. Who’s here?
Fellow travellers I note:
samclem
Tuckerfan
Sofa King
Padeye
Podkayne
Sam Stone
tomndebb
RM Mentock
Pantellerite
whiteho
I know I’ve forgotten many good contributors. Why are we all here?
We’re, some of us, experts in our fields. Others are very able to assimilate information and communicate it.
The recent trashing of DDG has made me wonder, contemplate, whatever, just why some of us have made an apparent commitment of so much time and effort to propogating this endeavor.
I haven’t posted that much there recently, but it’s certainly the core of the board AFAIAC. I go there to find out things I hadn’t realised I didn’t know.
I hang out in GQ because it’s like reading the Straight Dope… on-line! No, really!
I’d been reading the column in the Dallas Observer for years before the internet, collecting the books along the way. When I found the MB in '99 (after I finally got an internet-worth computer), I was entrhalled to find GQ because:
It was like finding dozens of columns that would never be answered by Cecil being answered by someone, at least;
It gave me a chance to ask questions I’d always wanted to ask Cecil, but never did; and
It gave me a chance to “be” Cecil–at least as far as questions regarding Geology and Geochemisry are concerned (which, by the way, don’t get asked nearly often enough). I used to just lurk GQ, reading it like I’d read the column; when, finally, someone asked a Geo-question, I registered just to answer it.
And that’s pretty much where I still am–Read GQ, Contribute when I feel qualified, Ask when I feel stumped. And if I have time after reading GQ, I’ll venture into IMHO (“Qualitative GQ”), Cafe Society (“TV GQ”), MPSIMS, then BBQ Pit/Gread Debates (“Nonquantitative GQ”), in about that order.
I’ve more to say on it, but I have to teach Structural Geology in 45 minutes and need to do some reading before class! I’ll check back in later…