Ignorance is fighting back a lot harder now.
Hey Stoid, how’s it going?
Good to see you, stick around a bit if you’ve got the time!
Thank you RT! Allow me to give you a big virtual hug! you and I are both in our 20th year! Whoda thunk?
I might pop in here and there…
Hugs back atcha, and hope you do!
Yeah, coming up on 20 years of this place, and probably be here as long as the Dope is here to hang out at! Message boards have been so passé for so long that they’d almost be due for becoming cool again (won’t happen).
But I’ve hung out in blog comments, spent time on Twitter, done LiveJournal (also been passé for a good while now) and tried to like Facebook (couldn’t manage it), and you know what? This format is still really the best one I know of for carrying on multiple conversations among a largish group of people. And I like and respect enough of the people here that it’s enjoyable to be in the same conversations with them. So while my time online is split up more ways than it used to be, this is still my online home after 20 years. Crazy, huh?
I honestly do appreciate hearing that… Reading that, whatever…
I know exactly what you mean. Frustrating as hell to try and have a conversation on Facebook…
…for the mods. The rest of us seemed to like it just fine.
Two big changes, one for the better, one for the worse:
When you are caught dead to rights being in opposition to existing, available facts, you have a face-saving option now that wasn’t available 20 years ago. You can just say “Ignorance fought, thanks!” and the matter is pretty much dropped.
On the minus side, there used to be a rule in the FAQ against making the thread about the poster instead of the topic. That rule was quietly dropped sometime in the last decade.
I’ve been around a while (almost 19 years), and what I recall about the early boards was that the content was less uptight- I can’t remember the last time we had a good thread about farting or poop, or sex injuries, for example.
I have been around longer than my start date ( I also have a lost sock floating out there somewhere from an earlier date) but mostly as a lurker. I did not think I was going to be here for 20 years or so, this is about the only website that has captured and maintained my interest.
The velocity of posts used to be way higher, a thread I just replied to would fall off the first page almost immediately. There used to be a lot more threads about sex, and a lot more out there posters. There where many more interesting topics being discussed, but I get that we have now had many of those conversations, and rehashing them does not add new content in many cases. I see many more zombie threads than I used to, and I realize they are a zombie when I start coming across banned posters. We have banned a lot of prolific posters.
I was here on AOL, and I got piled-on because I dared say something to one to the “cool kids”. (JillGat, IIRC). SO I went away. So in some ways, the board hasn’t changed. I think Is tillg et marginalized because I’m not an original member. But as soon as the 'Dope hit the real internet, I started lurking. I’ve been reading since 2000, but only officially joined relatively recently. I can hold a grudge with the best of them.
OTOH, I used to be able to spend all day just reading the Pit. There seemed to be a lot more interesting threads. I’d have 10-15 tabs open with just pit threads. There just doesn’t seem to be that much going on any more.
or the jelly dildo thread, or the thread about terrorizong someone with the little indoor rc blimp =) Or eveh QtM’s Bagel DOg Penis thread!
Fake gnus!
I think that since the internet got bigger, better, faster and available to more people posters became more afraid of the wrong people seeing their posts, and of being doxxed.
I’m curious as to exactly why there are so fewer fests. I met a bunch of Philly Dopers at one fest and we all ended up meeting weekly for Dungeons & Dragons for years.
I remember that **lieu’s **fart threads routinely cracked me up.
That’s an older problem though. I used to host big get togethers in my place in Northern Virginia - near DC. I tried something similar when I moved to Ohio and turnout was light. Ditto my efforts down here in Charleston, SC. Four or five dopers instead of 50+.
Disappointing. Because I love hosting.
There were a lot more talking about Cecil and Little Ed.
Perhaps it was more personal back in the days? I thought it was so interesting to read posts from Qadgop the Mercotan and was impressed that Johnny L.A had been in the city where I studied in Sweden.
And then those annoying people show up every couple of years to renew their subscriptions and bump old threads. Those people are the worst! 
Esprix
Always nice when old friends come to call! Hope you stay for a while.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Admnistrator
JC, if you’re referring to your kind offer of hosting an eclipse party for the total eclipse of August, 2017, I would have loved to come down and so would probably hundreds of others. I considered it, but for me it would have involved a long air flight and a rental car. The chances of snagging a flight for that day were probably close to zero, and the chances of getting a rental car in Charleston at that time would have been absolutely zero. I’m sure that your hospitality would have been wonderful. I was sorry to have missed it.