Have the Straight Dope message boards Jumped the Shark?

[furt]

@Chastain86

I dunno. It seems to me we weeded out a goodly amount of the chronic bellyachers when the board went pay.
…
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.

Well, I don’t think GD is not “worthwhile” … I still post there. But the quality of discourse is on the way down and has been for awhile.

I reached this conclusion when I thought back to my first impression when I came here five years ago; that every damn person on here was smarter and better-read than I. An idiot would pop up here and there, but it was mostly post after post of people saying smarter, wiser and wittier things than were in my head.

Now I feel like it’s almost the opposite; I have to weed through the dreck (the “ignore” function helps) to find someone whose point of view really challenges me to question my own ideas. Again, it’s not that there aren’t still vibrant exchanges of ideas … it’s that to get to them you have to endure tons of “Bush is a monkey/Kerry is French-looking” level discourse.

[andros]

I reached this conclusion when I thought back to my first impression when I came here five years ago; that every damn person on here was smarter and better-read than I.

“Bart! They said you was hung!”

“And they was right.”

[Albert_Rose]

Well, furt, you did get smarter and more well-informed. Right?

[AveDementia]

@Spectre of Pithecanthropus

But he did wear a motorcycle jacket over his swimming trunks. That was a warning, wasn’t it?

Naw, that was just to hide his manboobs.

Along with the flared levis in a show that was supposed to be taking place in the early 1960s.

You’re complaining about the levis? Have you forgotten about Chachi?

[Shodan]

@Desmostylus

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.

Don’t hold your breath.

Regards,
Shodan

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@AveDementia

Naw, that was just to hide his manboobs.

You’re complaining about the levis? Have you forgotten about Chachi?

I guess I have forgotten about Chachi. Was was the problem with him?

[Princhester]

@x-ray vision

First they started charging a fee for those in the fight against ignorance (even when for years members have tried to donate money to help financially, and where declined). And now, they may be banning posts where questions are asked on how magic tricks are performed. What’s next?

OK x-ray, you want simple answers.

The answer is: “No”