I thought about this a long time before posting this. I’ve only been on the SDMB for 5 years, so I’m unfamiliar with whatever old issues are still simmering for long-time users. It seems to me, though, that Ed has become a lightning rod for whatever people don’t like about the SDMB. Maybe we should remember a few things:
Ed Zotti didn’t create Cecil Adams-- an omniscient columnist who was never wrong was the brainchild of a Chicago Reader staffer–but it was Ed’s incarnation of Cecil that made the column so popular: it appeared in 30 newspapers and spawned several successful books. Then newspaper readership fell, and the Straight Dope site took off: 10 years ago it got 3.2 million unique visitors and 10 million views a month. (Read more here.) And who was responsible for that? Ed would be the first to credit his staff and the SD Science Advisory Board, but there’s no denying the importance of his role.
The point is not that Ed should be enshrined. It’s that none of this would exist without him.
The SDMB didn’t survive the death of the column “just fine,” @mordecaiB. And TubaDiva DID warn that we were on the brink of collapse . She did so in August, 2018 and asked for ideas.
It’s obvious we can’t continue as we have; that’s not profitable for the owner of this site.
While they look at the situation and work out what they’re going to do next, we can’t just be sitting on our hands.
So no, this isn’t an Ed thing. Those saying the warnings of doom are getting old might consider that the reason the site is still around is not because of the persuasive abilities of Ed and TubaDiva
Among the responses to TubaDiva’s post was this reply from Lancia:
“… the board has changed so much since I’ve been here that, in some ways, it’s a different message board… I love reading older threads because the tone is usually different. There was lots of snark, to be sure, but less bitching and [more] actual conversation. I’d like to see a return to that.”
So, yeah, times have changed. The only way forward is through openness to new ideas and adaptation. Ed needs to recognize that. But the tone of the SDMB responses has changed, too. Maybe we should think about that as well.