Has the SDMB lost critical mass?

The BBQ Pit
341

[QUOTE=CarnalK]
Since we’re all doing statistics work, according to boardreader.com
Top ten posters for the week right now:
Diomedes (member 2006) 86
Santo Rugger (member 2006) 69
Blaster Master (member 2006) 59
eleanorigby (member 2002) 55
fetus (Charter 2003) 51
What Exit? (member 2005) 51
tdn (Charter 2000) 47
brazil84 (member 2007) 43
Sunspace (Charter 1999) 40
Elendil’s Heir (member 2004) 36

Top Ten Total: 537
Total Posts for Week: 5,966

So the top ten posters account for 9% of total posts. 193 or 3.2% posted by people from the pre-2003 “Golden Age”.
[/QUOTE]

Are these numbers accurate ( so far as anyone can tell)? They strongly contradict the stats given earlier of roughly 3300 posts per day.

I haven’t gone back and looked, but I can’t believe someone can crack the top 10 with only 36 posts. And I would wager that I posted more than 36 times in the past week (depending on the start and end dates).

I don’t think those numbers are complete.

ETA: I did an advanced search on my own posts and found if I said “a week ago and newer” that it returned 92 posts.

342

[QUOTE=samclem]
We have no access to threads which have been archived.
[/QUOTE]
You misspelled “deleted”.

343

[QUOTE=bbs2k]
You misspelled “deleted”.
[/QUOTE]
If they have been “deleted” then you have more knowledge than I. I’ve always assumed they were archived. But, perhaps we’re just discussing the same thing and are using different terms. I seriously doubt they’re gone forever. Just my opinion.

344

[QUOTE=samclem]
If they have been “deleted” then you have more knowledge than I. I’ve always assumed they were archived. But, perhaps we’re just discussing the same thing and are using different terms. I seriously doubt they’re gone forever. Just my opinion.
[/QUOTE]
I’m not trying to cast the shadow of inappropriate behavior/answers among anyone. But I’d like to share my opinion that I don’t believe we’ll ever see some of that old content again.

Too many times I’ve gone searching for some older content and have come up with nothing.

345

[QUOTE=Sapo]
About P2P, let’s do some numbers.

How many active members are there? I know this is a number not talked about in public, but let’s highball it and say 4000.

Let’s imagine they all pay $15 a year (forgetting that charters pay half and they are about half of the membership).

That makes what, $60,000 a year in membership dues? And this is highballing way way high. My more honest math is about half that amount.

How hard can it be to get $60,000 from other sources and go to free? $60K is peanuts to the CR, even if they just absorbed the cost. Ads, donations, memorabilia, you name it, rasiing $60K shouldn’t be that much of an issue.

Am I too far off on my calculations?
[/QUOTE]

Back when it was announced that the board was going P2P, all these ideas and more were hashed out as a way to avoid P2P. Some were tossed out on legal grounds (tax laws and the like), but in most cases, the response boiled down to, “This is what we’re going to do, and if you don’t like it, too bad.” We’ve been told that the previous overlords just “didn’t get” the whole intarwebs thing, and this was part of the reason they wanted P2P. Our new overlords are said to “get” the intarwebs, and that they “may” look at the situation at some point in the future.

There’s been a few members who no longer post that I’ve talked to (via email) and they said that one of the reasons they’re no longer here is that they feel the tone of the boards in recent months has changed, with a lot of the “friendliness” disappearing.

346

[QUOTE=bbs2k]
I’m not trying to cast the shadow of inappropriate behavior/answers among anyone. But I’d like to share my opinion that I don’t believe we’ll ever see some of that old content again.
[/QUOTE]

Both “deleted” and “archived” are correct. The posts have been deleted from the board, but are archived in Jerry’s domain. Should the board’s hardware/software ever change so that they could be restored, they’ll be available. Will that ever happen? I dunno.

347

[QUOTE=Colibri]
I have no idea how correct your calculations are. However, you are very far off in the way that commercial businesses work.
[/QUOTE]

That I am. I have no idea of any of that. My point still stands, though:

I sincerely doubt that the income from subscriptions is a significant amount for the Reader.

My numbers are WAG’s and I know nobody from the top will come with official numbers. I was just offering them for someone with better knowledge to straighten them out. Maybe you can help?

The part I figure might not work, is that the Reader doesn’t see any good will value on the SDMB and expects it to sink or float on its own. Once you bring it down to however many paid employees the SDMB has (2-5?), then the income from subscriptions is about the only source of income (plus what little might come from Google ads), and the issue becomes a lot more urgent.

348

[QUOTE=Colibri]
I have no idea how correct your calculations are. However, you are very far off in the way that commercial businesses work.
[/QUOTE]

But as has been pointed out by many others in this thread, alternate ways to fund the board were just tossed aside by The Powers That Be. If $60,000 is even close, it should be trivial for a website of this size to make that kind of money. Especially with the dedicated membership the SDMB has.

I’m convinced the way the Reader jammed their fingers in their ears when they implemented P2P is what drove off a lot of people.

349

[QUOTE=jsgoddess]
Are these numbers accurate ( so far as anyone can tell)? They strongly contradict the stats given earlier of roughly 3300 posts per day.

I haven’t gone back and looked, but I can’t believe someone can crack the top 10 with only 36 posts. And I would wager that I posted more than 36 times in the past week (depending on the start and end dates).

I don’t think those numbers are complete.

ETA: I did an advanced search on my own posts and found if I said “a week ago and newer” that it returned 92 posts.
[/QUOTE]

I just checked. Post number 9,000,000 was reached on 20 September 2007. Frank’s post above mine is post number 9,165,528. We thus have accumulated 165,528 posts in 52 days, for an average rate of 3,183 posts per day. I’ll stand by the figure of 3,000+ posts per day currently.

This implies an average rate of 22,281 posts per week. I can’t see that a figure of less than 6,000 posts in a week can be complete unless it was a very anomalous week.

350

[QUOTE=Colibri]
I just checked. Post number 9,000,000 was reached on 20 September 2007. Frank’s post above mine is post number 9,165,528. We thus have accumulated 165,528 posts in 52 days, for an average rate of 3,183 posts per day. I’ll stand by the figure of 3,000+ posts per day currently.

This implies an average rate of 22,281 posts per week. I can’t see that a figure of less than 6,000 posts in a week can be complete unless it was a very anomalous week.
[/QUOTE]

Check his link again, the numbers have updated and changed a lot. I think he hit it in some sort of glitch moment.
Current Numbers won’t show, but earlier I saw much higher numbers.

Okay, they finally came up:

Site posting activity table:
**Week Month 3 Months **
Threads: 1,295 8,526 28,351
Posts: 11,371 82,394 274,133
Top authors during last week:
**Name Posts **
eleanorigby 117
fetus 110
What Exit? 108
Diomedes 95
Mangetout 86
Santo Rugger 83
Blaster Master 78
tdn 73
Johnny L.A. 73
Sampiro 71

351

[QUOTE=Colibri]
My, my. I had no idea you were such a delicate flower. Considering how snarky you were being in that thread, I have to regard this as monumentally hypocritical.
[/QUOTE]

My, my delicate flower right back at you. Monumentally? really?

I am sure I was not the only one disappointed at Tubadiva’s and samclem’s responses. Whatever happened to “let’s talk about your situation and try to normalize. Mail a mod”?. It looked like a cheap show of force. I could be optimistic and see it as a sign that the board is so confident of its future that thinks nothing of flicking away a guest, but something tells me that it is more of a sign of TPTB so hardened in their position that can’t see the effect of their actions. Maybe that is what happens when things are left in charge of people whose rice and beans are not coming from the job they have to make.

Just look at yourself. You were so very cool before being a mod. I even congratulated you when you were appointed and thought to myself “hey, the cool guys are infiltrating the top layers of the board”. In only a few months you have become a real prick all cavalier about insulting the people you are supposed to serve.

C’mon, I remember you. I am sure you can post without resorting to snark and insults.

352

[QUOTE=jsgoddess]
Are these numbers accurate ( so far as anyone can tell)? They strongly contradict the stats given earlier of roughly 3300 posts per day.

I haven’t gone back and looked, but I can’t believe someone can crack the top 10 with only 36 posts.
[/QUOTE]
I believe they can be considered a snapshot of when they are taken, it’s not updated realtime or anything. I also get the impression it does the week so far, not the past seven days.
It now says:

Between 110 and 130 is about where I’ve seen the top posters other times I’ve checked that site.

Which gives a per day post rate of: 1624 - 2746 - 2995, respectively. So it’s been a slow week but Colibri’s numbers seem to jibe.

Oh, and zuma, I have a feeling every week there’s one or two threads that act as the big “post padder” for a few participants. It probably averages out.

353

[QUOTE=Sapo]
Just look at yourself. You were so very cool before being a mod. I even congratulated you when you were appointed and thought to myself “hey, the cool guys are infiltrating the top layers of the board”. In only a few months you have become a real prick all cavalier about insulting the people you are supposed to serve.
[/quote]

I’m the same as I ever was. I haven’t changed. I would have made exactly the same response to your posts here before I was a moderator. It’s your perception of me that has changed.

I have to say that in recent months you have disappointed me quite a bit. I considered you a pretty decent poster in GQ, and in fact defended you when some of your behavior was under discussion among the staff. But recently you have seemed to be more interested in stirring shit than behaving constructively. When you do something stupid, or behave obnoxiously, you can’t expect not to be called on it.

I remember you as well. Your original remarks in ATMB were quite snarky. I think that samclem’s response was appropriate in context, and surely not something to make you “flee in terror.” I’m sure that you can post as well without resorting to such snark and hyperbole.

354

Getting off all the discussions and jumping back to the Op: Aeschines there is currently a thread by a member since 2003 that shows why this place is well worth hanging out in.

Ask The Former Prisoner

Jim (BTW: This has been a very good and interesting thread, thank you for starting it.)

355

[QUOTE=Colibri]
I’m the same as I ever was. I haven’t changed. I would have made exactly the same response to your posts here before I was a moderator. It’s your perception of me that has changed.

I have to say that in recent months you have disappointed me quite a bit. I considered you a pretty decent poster in GQ, and in fact defended you when some of your behavior was under discussion among the staff. But recently you have seemed to be more interested in stirring shit than behaving constructively. When you do something stupid, or behave obnoxiously, you can’t expect not to be called on it.

I remember you as well. Your original remarks in ATMB were quite snarky. I think that samclem’s response was appropriate in context, and surely not something to make you “flee in terror.” I’m sure that you can post as well without resorting to such snark and hyperbole.
[/QUOTE]

Let’s not hang too much on “flee in terror”. That was quite obviously hyperbole. By now, I am sure you know I am not the fleeing type.

That said, I think you are fair enough in what you say. Because I still identify with you somewhat, I will keep your point in mind. I will try to remain on my best behaviour from now on. I will not bore you with my personal life, but I am finding myself in a more restrictive space and with more down time that I am used to and that makes me pointier.

Still, I don’t think my posting style has changed that much. What has changed is where I post. I used to hang around GQ and GD when I joined. GD got old real quick, as many in this thread have mentioned. GQ I try to avoid unless I can really contribute something or the thread has already gone downhill, since I am trying to avoid being part of the other problem also mentioned here.

Now I post mostly around CS, where I remain on my best behaviour (for the most part, I think) and the Pit, where well, it is the Pit. I am still the same I call them as I see them kinda guy, just that I am in a place with less restrictions. That my Pit habits sometimes escape to the rest of the board is what is getting me the negative attention, I am sure.

What has in fact changed, is my perception of how this place is being run. It ticks me because I do like it here, and I think TPTB are being destructive of this place. Because of that, I am not pulling any punches when it comes to matters such as that ATMB thread. I know nobody likes to hear a noob tell them how to do their job. That will not stop me from trying to get my message across. If some find it obnoxious, that’s fine. If they find it bannably so, then pity.

And trying to take this back to the OP, I think my short history here is somewhat reflective of the wider decline of the board that some people perceive.

As we run out of things to talk about, we start talking more about ourselves and we start finding our rougher edges. For some people this is a good thing. A more clubby atmosphere where everybody knows everybody else. A pub to hang out with the regulars.

Others like more the carnival atmosphere with a constant influx of new things, no matter if they are good or bad as long as they are new. Those are the ones here complaining about the decay of the board.

What TPTB need to figure, is what group is a better market and cater to them. Trying to be all things to all people normally fails.

356

[QUOTE=CarnalK]
Since we’re all doing statistics work, according to boardreader.com
…
Elendil’s Heir (member 2004) 36
…
[/QUOTE]

::Wipes away a tear::

Wow… for a moment, I was… famous!

Or not. Never mind.

357

As someone who even predated even my “Join Date” (I had trouble registering for a couple months) this thread makes me sad. :frowning:

I was probably no older than 15-16 when I first found the Dope using the “random site” feature on AOL. It was my best find ever. I remember reading, absolutely in awe of how intelligent and humorous some of the people were around here. Now the threads are about stupid ass board outages, “Why was XXXXX banned?” and “ZOMG…NAZI MODERATORS!”

I have never really posted much, and took a sizable vacation when the board went P2P, mostly just to avoid everyone complaining about it but I’ve hung out on and off for probably 8+ years now. Actually became a paid member when I started getting sick of the trolling on FARK and wanted to return.

I’m not really sure what can change though. It’s been apparent that the CR doesn’t really give a damn about the “community” only that the board, at the very least, be not too much of a financial drag.

I don’t know. Maybe it really is perception. But I can honestly say I haven’t had a thread bring me to tears in laughter in quite a while. Something that the old threads can still do to this day.

358

[QUOTE=Cyberhwk]
As someone who even predated even my “Join Date” (I had trouble registering for a couple months) this thread makes me sad. :frowning:
[/QUOTE]

Periodic navel-gazing is important, if only for lint management.

359

[QUOTE=Cyberhwk]
Now the threads are about stupid ass board outages, “Why was XXXXX banned?” and “ZOMG…NAZI MODERATORS!”
[/QUOTE]
Trust me, we had plenty of all of that back in 2000.

The fights over the bannings of posters such as Satan, Melin, and Danielinthewolvesden make today’s “why was soandso banned?” threads look like tea parties. And threads about Nazi moderators went right along with that, needless to say.

And the one positive effect of pay-to-play is a more reliable board. Anyone remember The Winter of Our Missed Content? That was just the worst, but it was only a mild outlier. Board outages, and times when you could barely post at lunch because everyone else in the world was trying to post, were a standard feature of Doper life back in the early part of the decade.

360

[QUOTE=RTFirefly]
Anyone remember The Winter of Our Missed Content?
[/QUOTE]
Anyone remember, how’s anyone supposed to forget? It’s like 9/11 for you people.