Actually, the most important question is “Has whining about the expression ‘jumped the shark’ jumped the shark?”
The answer to that is definitely ‘yes’.
So no one’s planning on actually answering this, then?
Right.
I don’t think the boards have jumped the shark or outlived their usefulness or what-have-you. I don’t think charging admission after declining voluntary contributions means anything as far as the quality or necessity of the boards is concerned. I never looked at the original magic tricks thread but I did read the OP to the Pit thread about it, and considering I just came off a dust-up about copyright I don’t think I’ll comment about intellectual property just now.
Izzat what you were looking for?
There certainly were romantic days gone by, with debates among PLDennison, Spiritus Mundi, Gaudere, and Polycarp. But now we have Xeno, Diogenes, SentientMeat, and El Cid — all great minds equal to the old. We used to have DavidB as the surly Hawkeye Pierce, but now we have MEBuckner as Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester. So nothing has really changed. The boards have always been nonreflective of the general population in the sense that there are a lot of atheists and leftists, but intelligence-wise, it runs the gamut — everything from geniuses to people who can barely write.
Just following the theme, here. Apparently, in the early days there were crazy fucks like Libertarian, playing the role of Major Frank Burns. Alas, Libertarian has ceased posting. But not to worry, because Liberal has stepped up to the plate, also playing the role of Major Frank Burns.
i kyn wright! dunt mayk phun of me
So who is Hot Lips?
Well, I’ll answer this as well – I tend to agree with you, Otto, though I do have concerns that we’re heading down the “shark-jumping” path. GD and the Pit in particular have become more and more of the same argument with the same folks going round and round. Stagnation is a rather obvious understatement.
Cafe Society seems to be chugging along nicely, as there will always be a great limitlessness to people’s chatter about the arts, even if it is just the latest Survivor episode. And the other two fora don’t appear to have lost their nuttiness, though still they may suffer from a lack of the many weird and wild characters that have run through here once in awhile.
I think that’s one of the things that will affect this place eventually, if it hasn’t already – not just the lack of newbies who may not even bother with a pay site, or may not stick around long enough to develop a relationship with the place, but also with the various characters over the years who would pop in for a spell, then disappear, then pop back again with more great kookiness and queries.
I’m mostly a lurker due to time/life/work constraints, but I like to read a lot inbetween this and that – and I have found that there are now far fewer “discussions” that stimulate this old mind, just the same personalities banging away at the same shit. At least in GD and the Pit.
Or maybe I’m completely wrong and it’s all because of the upcoming election. It’s certainly possible. Who knows? Regardless, I still enjoy this place immensely and think it’s miles above most of the other stuff out there.
Speaking.
Not sure, but I’ve heard that Cisco’s been auditioning. 
And on preview, so is Jonathan Chance.
Nonreflective of the general American population. The populations of many countries, including mine, wouldn’t consider this board overly leftist nor overly atheist.
Vanilla.
In re: OP, I’d say yes, at least for my purposes.
95% of my posting/reading is GD or Pit, and I always enjoyed the somewhat post-partisan atmosphere that was there at one time. I’m not just talking about politics; I’m talking about any discussion in which people recognize that their ideas are derived from axioms and can recognize other’s differing axioms, or people recgnize that they belong to schools of thought and are able to, at least for purposes of discussion, put themselves in another temporarily. That’s horribly put, but I hope it makes sense.
I don’t think we have less intelligent and fair people than we used to, but we do have a lot more idiots getting in their way.
I’m really thinking that this is because the presidential election for the next 'merikan president is right around the corner. I suspect that right after the election, there will be a fair number of threads complaining about the results (whatever they turn out to be), and then carry on and become more diversified.
In answer to the OP, I don’t think so. A lot of people predicted that the pay to play system would ring the boards’ death knell, and perhaps people are jumping at shadows in order to “prove those predictions right”, but I don’t think the content of the board is any better or worse than before, except that trolls don’t hang around for as long because their guest membership expires in 30 days. The boards don’t run any faster for me, because I have digital cable modem, but I’m given to understand that the speed is much better for those who have dial-up.
As for “who is Hot Lips”, well, I think we need a separate thread in which we make nominations and cast votes, don’t you?
We’ve already had a thread on that (natch):
The phrase ‘jumped the shark’ has jumped the shark! Ahaha! Ahaha!.
Actually, that may be my biggest pet peeve here. The same damn questions get asked over and over. Hell, I even see people ask questions that Uncle Cecil has written columns on. Nobody should be allowed even a guest account here until they display the ability to search the damned archives. And then they must show the good form to not zombifiy a random thread from June 2000.
(/hijack)
(bolding mine)
I glanced at your username in the middle of this post, and I really really thought it said:
The veil has **bean ** lifted from my eyes.
Thought you were making a great, subtle, pun/joke.
(/end hijack)
Its the nature of the board that some conversations are cycilcal. Particularly Great Debates - unless the current events change (and they do, Great Debates is a particularly different place post September 11th than it was before, or post Iraq invastion) - the Great Debates (religion, politics, abortion) really don’t change. The same conversation have been happening around the cafeteria table in college dorms for twenty years as well. Part of this is the debate doesn’t change, part is because the cast here does.
My girlfriends and I have known each other for twenty years. Sometimes we have the same conversations over and over again. They are the fun ones - the memories we like to share until they become part of the group mythos. Or the unresolved ones - that will probably never resolve, but can’t be quite forgotten (to show what geeks we are, we have an ongoing debate about genre vs. non-genre literature - i.e. Margaret Atwood does or does not publish Science Fiction - and why is she such a “snob” about it).
No. Fucko off. :wally
This would be a lovely idea, if guests were allowed to search the archives.
ANYBODY can search the Straight Dope archives. Only members can search the message board archives.
I dunno. It seems to me we weeded out a goodly amount of the chronic bellyachers when the board went pay.
Of course, all that did was give the Charter Members who wanted to bellyache a sense of entitlement. (“Whattayamean I can’t post 15 Pit threads in the span of an hour? I’m a paid member!” :rolleyes:)
If I didn’t feel like the SDMB was worthwhile, I’m pretty sure I’d have written off my five bucks by now. People who think the board has jumped the shark, but stick around to bitch and moan, must want one hell of a lot for their Abe Lincoln.