I was a lurker here a loooong time before I pulled the trigger, and there are a couple of trends I’ve noticed (maybe these are not new trends, but they seem to be gaining momentum):
Some posters don’t seem to pay attention to which forum they are in. . .the pit seems to have influenced the other fora.
b) Some (many) members seem to respond more to the poster than the post.
Some members have little patience for topics they feel they’ve already argued to death, even when a newbie brings it up… not everyone has been here since '99, ya know. (ninja’d by Cardigan)
and finally, I agree wholeheartedly with Jasmine once you’ve made your point, move on. Threads seem to often devolve into the same two (or 3 or 4) posters going around in circles saying the same thing over and over.
The only thing I’m going to disagree with here is the ‘faulty reasoning’ thing. That sort of thing SHOULD be pointed out. If you don’t understand that part of your process for arriving at a conclusion is based on faulty reasoning or false information, you’re going to remain ignorant unless someone points it out.
When I first started posting here, it seemed there was actually a larger range of ages. We had some teenagers, college students, older folks, etc. Now? It seems the youngest are in their mid thirties, but most of the people here are around Gen-X, Baby Boomers. And they’re more hostile to outsiders. Not that we flame newbies, but there’s less of a welcoming atmosphere, as in, “we don’t want the WRONG people coming in here!” It’s gotten really snobby.
And yeah, the Pit was definitely more fun back in the day. And we used to keep nutjobs around a lot longer it seemed, and people were allowed to indulge them. Now most of the trolls we get are sympathy ones, and the rare crackpots get banned before the fun begins.
I’ve caught it a couple of times in the wee hours of the morning, so it still does go down for maintenance periodically. The shutdown time seems to be fairly short though.
Ah, yes, the Winter of Our Missed Content. I added the date range for it to our glossary of terms a while ago, and was surprised by the dates. For some reason I thought it was several years later than when it actually occurred.
I suffer from insomnia. It sucks for me sometimes, but it’s probably good for the SDMB. If I’m up I get to whack some of the late night spammers. You’re not the only one with weird sleeping issues. I woke up at 3 am last night and haven’t slept since.
I met Opal a few times in real life. She was a nice woman. My wife and I had some nice conversations with her. I also found out that it is surprisingly difficult to work “hi Opal” into a conversation when you are actually saying hi to Opal.
I asked her if the “hi Opal” thing bothered her. She said it didn’t, though there were other times when she wasn’t quite so accepting of it.
I remember when Cecil mentioned to me that he was thinking about starting a message board. This was back in the mid 80’s. It was right after the 1986 Superbowl. We were cruising down Bourbon Street with several friends from Chicago trying to meet up with Ditka for the post game celebration, when Cecil looked at me and said “teeming millions!” I just grinned at him as he grabbed one of the Bears Cheerleader’s ass and kept on walking. Who know then it would end up like it has.
I think everyone can agree faulty reasoning should be corrected. Ideally, it should be done in a manner that allows folks to save face. That’s often not the case.
When I started here I lived NW of Washington DC on a bunch of acres and would, twice a year, host enormous parties with up to 200 guests. Inviting dopers - we called ourselves MADs for Mid-Atlantic Dopers - would up both the guest list and how interesting it was.
I’ve tried to do it a few times over the last few years but I think the depth of penetration here in the south is much lighter. Or we’re just less social now.
In addition, several of the attendee of those parties are now gone. Dances_with_cats, Opal, some others.
I don’t mind constructive criticism, at all. I’ll take my meds like a big girl. I would think most folks would, as well.
I’d much prefer not being called names or cursed, though.
Let’s not forget there’s a generational change. Grabbing my extra wide sawdust broom, there’s a younger generation afoot with such a self-absorbed and short attention span, in-depth debate, argument, even silliness, is lost with them.
The board has definitely become a lot more polarized than it used to be, sometimes it does feel like a political echo chamber. The Pit seems like it used to be more of a “you know what really grinds my gears” type of thing and would be a silly complaint about that guy that sold you the popcorn at the movie theater with too little butter. Now its usually over the top vitriol and usually if not directly political, aimed at a fellow poster’s politics.
The other weird thing I notice is it seems like the same questions just get asked over and over again, and the same threads appear to be the only ones active for months at a time or something.
And this. ISTM that the Pit used to be, for lack of a better word, more light-hearted. More like “playing the dozens” than actually serious attacks on another poster. Entertainingly over-the-top insults are one thing. Six pages of repeating “you racist troll” is another.
I would attribute part of it to the rule change where we can call each other trolls in the Pit. We can’t say “fuck you” in the Pit, because (among other reasons) it is too mindless and easy. ISTM that calling another poster a troll has some of the same effect. Entertaining invective is better than just a insult or a “fuck you”. If banning “fuck you” pushes the Dope into an entertaining direction, maybe banning “you’re a troll, you troll troll troll” might do the same.
Although, as RTFirefly mentions, none of us are getting any younger. And old people are crotchety. And often insular as well.
I would like to add that this Board has probably weathered the worst in terms of being adversely impacted by other technologies. I think there will always be people who actually want to debate things and share knowledge. Facebook is not a debate site. It is a place where people post pictures and text that basically say, “Look what I got/did/am going to do!” They expect “likes” and verbal praise and complimentary emojis. What they do NOT want is disagreement of any kind. I found that out the hard way, believe me.
In terms of resurrecting old topics, have the naysayers ever stopped to consider that circumstances may have changed over the intervening time period? For example, I create a post and someone immediately says, “Aha, we discussed that in length in a 2015 post.” Well, a lot can happen in three years.
Sometimes that is true, but sometimes (as in the case of all the 911 threads) nothing new is ever presented, and yet we are expected to start all over again with arguments and cites. In cases like that, I think a simple “Here are a few links to where we already discussed all this. If you have anything new to add, please let us know” is the proper response.
Oh, I almost forgot: I also remember that for years there was a significant contingent of women who constantly discussed period issues on the board. I don’t mean that it was an occasional topic, I mean that for a while there would always be at least two TMI threads running where there would be extended graphic discussion of the consistency of menstrual blood and various discharges.
There was a time when people thought a poster’s post count was an important stat, rather than their join date. Sure, us '99ers were soon recognized as special, but the quiet ones, like me, far less so.
I remember when we all marveled at the amount of work it must have taken handy to get his number up to 10,000 while hardly ever adding much of anything to the discussions…
the politics thing isn’t new I remember when bush junior and more than a few people were moving to either Canada or france I don’t think anyone did … … and I remember the thread that caused the no "you and him fight " is was esprix and someone else … the thread ran 10 pages and neither adversary really posted anything to it it just turned into a huge joke thread … …
