Specifically, the “Stupid Republican Idea of the Day” thread, which has to be one of the most epic on these boards, is so chock full of bad ideas, and the reasons why they are bad ideas, one could publish a book, or create one of those ‘Quote of the Day’ tear-off calendars.
Likewise, a “Stupid Liberal Idea of the Day” book or calendar could be published alongside the other one so we are not leaving out any esteemed conservative lines of thought.
Members of the board here could volunteer to help in writing, and Chicago Reader could edit and publish, and proceeds could go to a charity we all could agree on (even if you prefer one calendar over the other, I am sure a consensus could be reached).
Has anything like this been done previously - using this message board as a starting place for a publication?
I don’t believe whole threads have but I have seen SDMB posts cited as a source in other places. Cracked.com cites the SDMB fairly frequently for example but I have seen it referenced many other places over the years as well.
The Horror of Blimps was first posted and written by our very own Scylla. It became something of an internet sensation and got copied (and plagiarized) in many different forms.
I’ve often thought this of SRIOTD thread. For the right pundit/writer, that thread would be a valuable resource. Not sure how the legalities would work out but the potential is there.
Frankly, I’m surprised a left wing journalist hasn’t at least wrote an article on the thread itself.
In all honesty, I’m kind of glad they haven’t. Not sure if I would want a sudden influx of 50k new members or not.
Jesus, isn’t there enough “aggregation” and navel-gazing and lack of actual reporting in the world of journalism already? I hate to break it to you, but what we do on this message board is not news, by any reasonable definition of the term.
The SRIOTD is nothing more than our own little aggregation of a whole bunch of individual stories already available on the internet. Why the hell would a journalist—or at least one with any integrity whatsoever—want to complete the snake-eating-its-tail cycle and actually write a story on the thread?
I can almost see the headline now:
SHUT-INS, BASEMENT DWELLERS, AND INTERNET WARRIORS SUMMARIZE CONSERVATIVE MISDEEDS
A group of anonymous internet posters, writing on a moderately well-known message board, has compiled a thread listing and ridiculing a variety of Republican and conservative policies and statements. Since it was started in early 2009, the “Stupid Republican Idea of the Day” thread has accumulated over 25,000 posts and over 2.5 million views.
Liberals and leftists on the board argue that the thread dramatically demonstrates the long-running stupidity of Republican politicians and conservative ideology in the United States, while those on the right claim that many of these “stupid” ideas are the product of marginal figures, or are actually great ideas that liberals, in their rush to embrace socialist dogma, fail to appreciate.
Neutral observers of the thread note that conservative poster Clothahump has rarely seen a conservative position that he would not defend, and many also argue that the lefty participant elucidator, who by himself has contributed almost 1,500 posts, should have given up on his little puns and bon mots about 415 pages ago.
The thread, which is now one of the longest ongoing discussions on the 16-year-old message board, shows no signs of slowing as it moves into the 2016 presidential election cycle.
Sure the information is already out there. But do you know of any ONE place you can go and get such an extensive collection of stupid ideas? (Complete with sources?)
Hell, if a journalist were to write a story about stupid Republican ideas, 80% of their work has already been done for them.
I have a copy of a British magazine Aerostat, in which The Horror of Blimps was first published. I got it by writing to the editor about how much it would cost, and she sent me a copy for free.
It’s been a while since the Straight Dope published a book edition. But the last one, Triumph of the Straight Dope (1999), included some posts from the message board (which at the time was run through AOL).
