What Dangerosa said.
Or to simplify, same thing as in real life. There ARE only so many subjects and sides to them in life. You were expecting something else here?
Not to mention the fact that we really do learn things here, and sometimes people change in rather monumental ways. I certainly will never forget when Phil Dennison, who had been one of my most vociferous opponents in debates on libertarianism, suddenly announced one day that he felt he could no longer begrudge me my inoffensive philosophy. He said that upon consideration of my arguments and thinking it through over the weekend, he had changed his mind. You don’t see that sort of intellectual honesty everywhere on the Internet.
I’m not saying that people who still disagree with me are intellectually dishonest. I’m saying merely that once a man “get’s it”, the honest thing to do is say so.
Lib, I don’t mean this as a slam in any way, but can you think of any instances in which someone else inspired you to change your opinion about something?
And ANYBODY, even carter members like myself can entirely misread your posts! It was completely my mistake; sorry. 
You may be a Carter member, but I’m more of a Ford member myself.
Gosh, so many that I hardly know where to begin, but it so happens that it began at the beginning. Soon after I arrived, I opened a thread in Great Debates called “The Atheist Religion”. Some key participants (besides myself) were Tris, Poly, Gaudere, DavidB, Slythe (who is now Czarcasm), Spiritus, and Phil. I had been an atheist myself before, and had presumed that they were all pretty much like me. But I learned that there is a whole spectrum of thought and belief in that regard, and I changed my mind about there being an absolute morality. The whole notion of subjective moral reference frames (which I write about quite often) arose from what I learned in that discussion. I’ve changed my opinion many other things as well, from whether .9~ = 1 to what liberalism is.
Thank you. I was wondering if anyone was going to snag that one.
And just as a shoutout to mah homies who seem to feel the need to call Liberal nasty names and make unfortunate insinuations on no provocation, my balls are feeling rather sweaty at the moment. Please feel free to lick them clean, hmm? I’m looking at you Desmos.
Fuck’s sake.
You have quite a perception here at the SDMB as a steadfast, don’t-budge-an-inch type of guy, Lib. It’s good to see that you’re different than initially advertised.
Of course, aren’t we all?
Er, “no provocation in this thread,” I meant to say.
Once November comes around the current oversaturation of “Bush is a great leader/poopyhead” threads will cease.
Whether he wins or not.
There are three specific things on which I have not changed my opinion that I believe account for the perception (from a vocal few, but not all). I have yet to see reasonable challanges to these: (1) the deontic claim that peaceful honest people should, without exception, be free to pursue their own happiness in their own way; (2) the metaphysical claim that Jesus is God; and (3) the epistemic claim that A is A. These, of course, describe my worldview of classical liberalism, Christianity, and objectivism. It is not that I will not budge. I will budge when I hear a compelling argument that changes my mind. I have always done so.
(Thank you, Andros. :))
It’s not so much about jumping the shark as it is about sticking the landing.
Now I don’t want to get dog piled on this, I know I’m still new around here and my opinion dosen’t count. This is the first message board I’ve ever participated in, Hell, I haven’t even figured out all the inside jokes yet but I enjoy the heck out of all of this and all of you.
It seems at times there is a great deal of negative thinking on the board. Look, aside from some posters that can be relied on to sink a good thread, the board is like your checking account. You can only take away what you’ve put in to it. If someone thinks that it’s over and done with, then go. You’re not making any new deposits, your withdrawals are going to disappoint you.
I for one plan on sticking around to see where this crazy ride keeps going.
I don’t think you understand. A “carter member” is someone who, by virtue of having ponied up five bucks, has all the privileges afforded paying members, but fail to make use of the privilege known as “Preview Post” 
LARRY BORGIA –
Ah, you dreamer. You beautiful, beautiful dreamer. Shine on, you crazy diamond.
I think whether the SDMB has jumped the shark depends on the poster. I’ve been here a while, and for me it sort of has. I see the same arguments over and over and over and over and it either makes me impatient or leaves me bored. But recently I was in a thread where I noted that we as a Board had discussed the subject like 9 million times (“In God We Trust” as the U.S. motto, and on money) and someone correctly pointed out that not everyone has discussed it repeatedly. For some people, it’s brand new. They think of something, or wonder about something, and they want to ask about it or talk about it, and they don’t know or care – as why should they? – that some of us have already talked it to death. But once you’ve been here a while, you do see a lot of repetition.
The other thing that feels “over the shark” to me, and is again a matter of personal perception, is that if you’ve been here a while you notice that some posters really are one-note songs. They have their one or maybe two topics that they talk about, and that’s pretty much all they talk about. Often, their position is deeply held and passionately felt, and they don’t see that continually harping about their pet topic (whatever it is) becomes boring to people who have been around them a while. But again, this relates entirely to how long I’ve been here as a poster; for someone else, hearing their position for the first time, it is novel. The 600th hearing won’t be novel, but the new poster doesn’t know that yet.
So I think it’s kind of like a relationship. What you feel about it depends on where you are in it. In the beginning, it’s all fresh and shiny and new. After a while, each of us has to decide for ourselves if there’s reason enough to stick around, even when it’s not fresh and shiny and new. Even when the newbies – God bless 'em – are talking about atheim or Ayn Rand or cinema as if the topic is something they built in their basement.
The Board does jump the shark for a lot of people and, eventually, they just wander away. But as long as new people find it interesting, I don’t think it is fair (or even possible) to say the Board itself has ever “jumped the shark.” It’s an individual perception.
I took an extended break from the SDMB last year, and returned under a different name. It doesn’t feel trans-selachian* for me, just yet.
- Oh, you figure it out…
The SDMB remains since 1998 the single website where I have paid to have the privlidge to post. I don’t think its jumped the shark.
There is not a chance in the universe that this will happen. No matter what, the number of threads will instantly triple.
If he loses, Bush will become what Clinton is for some Republicans - a trump card to drag out whenever Kerry fucks up. “Oh yeah - well, Bush lied about WMD! So there!”
I really, really hope Bush wins, if for no other reason than to read the meltdowns. If Bush wins, the Usual Suspects are going to shit bricks for months.
Regards,
Shodan
Well, here’s looking forward to you doing the more usual “crack up and run away” thing, a la Scylla, when things don’t pan out.
Am I the only one who signed up for GQ?
The Pit, GD be dammned - I signed on for one forum and one forum only - GQ. Maybe the other forums have jumped the shark; I don’t know and I don’t care. I came here to have my ignorance dispelled and GQ continues to do an incredible job of it.
But he did wear a motorcycle jacket over his swimming trunks. That was a warning, wasn’t it? Along with the flared levis in a show that was supposed to be taking place in the early 1960s.