Well, as I understand M4M’s point, Giraffe Boards a) shares a lot of its membership with SDMB and b) has looser standards of moderation. Therefore, some posters learn different habits over there and are emboldened by community encouragement of behaviors that lead to moderation here. Therefore, their posts are more likely to not be in line with standards here.
I don’t really know if that’s true or not, but it’s an argument, and it is relevant to the OP insofar as it provides an explanatory framework.
Incidentally, Ibn has really put himself on a higher-quality posting track. He left the problematic zone ages ago and has only gotten better over time. I regularly read his material with interest and I hope he continues to level up.
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FWIW I agree with this.
I doubt Bricker has changed much - he was always as good as this.
The boards have changed, but I think the trend began mostly with the 2004 elections, and got a push with the elections of 2006-2008. People were outraged that they didn’t get what they wanted in 2004, and then things were all supposed to start a steady upward trend in 2008, when the Dems were in control of Congress and the White House, and we would get universal health care/impeach Bush/tax the rich and use the money to fix everything. Then they found themselves outnumbered 41-59 in the Senate and Obama wasn’t the seminal figure they all expected he would be.
Obama isn’t any more popular with the general public than Bush was, howling racism at every criticism isn’t working for them, there are a lot more states that ban gay marriage than have implemented it (or had it forced upon them by judicial activism), and it appears the Congress is slated to return to GOP control.
I couldn’t comment on the other board mentioned, as I don’t have much of a feel for how it runs and don’t go there much.
This thread is really getting beyond the original question and is going to discussions way beyond the scope originally intended.
About This Message Board is open for comment, even complaint and criticism. But such comment, complaint, and criticism should be devoted to the Straight Dope Message Board; it is the only message board this forum can do anything about.
If you have comment, criticism, or complaint about other places, there’s more appropriate situations for that … maybe even best of all at the relevant board that is the topic of discussion.
As to the board “changing” and supposedly becoming less receptive to an internationalist point of view (whatever that is):
I clearly recall Pjen doing his/her “Europe vs. U.S.” shtick over a decade ago, and not getting a very cordial reception with it, even from posters on the left of the political spectrum who were disposed to be sympathetic towards criticism of certain U.S. policies.
My take is that the board has not changed much (certainly not in terms of snarkability), and if posters with a xenophobic anti-USer mentality* keep hammering away nonstop on their idée fixes, people do get tired of it.
*I can’t recall his name, but years ago there was a poster with an Arabic-sounding username whose favorite pejorative was “USer” and who eventually flamed out after borrowing anti-Semitic material from a website of dubious provenance.
I havre to say that I’ve seen similar things that the OP commented on. I always just chalked it up to the fact that when I think back to the glory days of the SDMB it was before Google, twitter and Wikipedia. People asked interesting questions that nobody could find the answers to and there were lots of good thoughts and theories posed. These days if I want to know something the SDMB is one of the last places I go instead of the first.
This means more of the askers are less adept at using the internet, many of the questions have already been answered here and those that haven’t can be found with a few minutes on Google. So instead of the question lingering or a few days or a week accumulating everyone’s thoughts and feelings it gets asked then immediately answered. Once the “right answer” has been given the thread degenerates into nitpickiness’ nonsense or snarkiness.
MODERATOR ALERT: Let’s please NOT start a discussion here about a different board, whether Giraffe’s or any other. Criticism of this board, fine, but not compare-and-contrast to any other board borders on … well, unacceptable directions.
I’ve been at least reading it since the 90’s - doesn’t seem much different to me. If anything, less histrionic. Some well-known posters (rest their souls) have passed on, others have moved on.
Some attitudes have changed, others remain fairly solid. Still not very tolerant of anti-Israel screeds based on one’s personal feelings, for example.
I really don’t see a huge difference since I’ve been here. Some prolific posters come and go and the board tone changes a bit but I still think it’s basically the same. But I do stay out of GD where most of the drama seems to be centered. That hasn’t changed either but maybe the brand of drama has.
I had not thought of that, but you are probably right that that is part of the change. There used to be a considerable amount of weighing of evidence and discussion in GD with tolerance for outlying views, but now it seems that such brief debate soon turns into ad hominem or other defensive answers.
MODERATOR COMMENT:
There seem to be two different topics here. One is whether the SDMB has changed, which is appropriate ATMB discussion. The other is whether that change is due to changes in the US towards Europe, in general (which is a point I raised early on.) That’s really NOT an ATMB discussion, but it’s here, and there’s obvious interaction between the two topics. So, we’re going to proceed with that in mind, BUT there are to be no personal insults directed at posters. Right?
How on Earth could a board not change over 13 years? Even if no posters left and no posters joined, it would still be made up of entirely different people…
When I joined, there was a lot more snark. Insults outside of the pit were plentiful and blunt. You could say ‘cunt’. The Pit seemed to be more for flaming posters than for recreational outrage.
and Obama wasn’t the seminal figure they all expected he would be.
