I’m still new here. I started looking at the boards after reading The Straight Dope online for a bit. So far everything is cool. I like that I can ask a question that I never in a million years thought I could get an answer to and post here and get the answer in an hour (like glasses!). It’s also entertaining to read the posts where the whackos sound off. But, I don’t get the whole “I’m leaving the SDMB, goodbye.” I get it as in saying bye to friends, but some people say it like they’re looking for people to throw themselves at their feet and beg them not to leave. The post by dnooman inpsire this pots HOWEVER, I think his post was nothing like those described, but simply a goodbye to those he’s interacted with. But still, do people here make a life out of posting? To an internet message board? And expect something? That’s what I don’t get. Enlighten me, please. I see this place as a site to get answers to interesting questions. I also enjoy browsing it when I have nothing better to do. But do people here make it their life?
I think this post belongs under MPSIMS vs The Pit. If wrong, please move. Better yet, if people start posting and being obnoxious, then kill it. It’s just to be a simple, civil posting.
Thanks
I don’t go with the whole “I’m leaving now!!” thing. Sometimes, it’s genuinely a heartfelt announcement, advising others of the change. Mostly (and not just here) it’s drama-queen stuff. Folks who have a burr under the saddle post such things to get attention – which is what they’re after. And I’ve seen folk do it again, and again, and again … serial messageboard-leavers, you could say.
Just my humble opinion, my tuppenceworth. 'Cause of that opinion, I usually don’t bother reading such threads.
Which ones? Show me.
The question about people making this board their life, is, to me, obnoxious. Do you expect answers in the affirmative?
Well, message boards can be pretty darn addictive, and sometimes you really can feel that you need to go cold turkey. I suppose posting those lengthy “goodbye” posts, as opposed to “I’ll take a break, perhaps see you all later”, serves at least one important purpose for the posters: it makes it a whole lot harder, psychologically, to go back again, at least right away, and increases the chances that you’ll actually manage to finish your thesis / fix your relationship / keep your job / get some fresh air…
Of course, it does make it a bit embarrassing when you realize that you have to go back because you forgot your hat.
Here’s the thing - the subscription time is about to be up for many of us. Faced with the decision for renewing and paying money, some folks decide (for myriad reasons) that they will not be continuing their subscription.
They may not “have a life” here, but there may be fellow posters they interact with quite frequently. Those posters may, at some point think “hey, where’s so-and-so?” So to prevent such confusion, some folks decide to let their buddies know.
It’s not necessarily “going cold turkey”, it’s just that there’s an expiration date, you know?
Obnoxious? My post, or them? If my post, sorry. The feeling I get is that some people see this as something more than it should be. And by that, I mean people leaving and who’s posts I’ve read. Also, I think The Pit has altered my view a bit and so perhaps I’m generalizing. But, let me expand a bit. Is this forum seen as a community to those that frequent it? Do anyone of you know someone form this board BECAUSE OF this board?
Ah. That makes sense.
scout1222
Thanks, now I get it.
Well, I’m glad we solved that! Surely someone else will be in here shortly to muddy the waters again. 
You do notice some people disappearance. Without a mention to the boards you are left wondering just what happened to that person. cf the recent Mangetout thread. If you are leaving and not planning to come back, it could be considered polite to leave a message saying so, if only so that people who have grown to like you over the years of communication know you are allright and haven’t just dropped dead or something.
That said, when we are coming to a yearly payment date as we now are, it is a little redundant, since it is pretty clear that anyone who stops posting in the next week and changes from Member to Guest has chosen not to resubscribe.
Longtime poster Liberal requesting his own suspension or banning. Here.
What makes you think any different?
Any board that you post 30,000 posts to is certainly a good portion of you life. Granted that may be over a period of time, but we have at leat one poster with over 6,000 post within their first year. Maybe more like them.
Stick around and you’ll see the same posters names everywhere. They just like the place.
Your tone makes me think that you’ve taken offense to the OP.
Why?
I’ve nothing to add.
I just wanted to inform everyone I won’t be posting in this thread after this post.
It’s been real. Bye.
Okay, there are some for whom the drama of an exit speech is just too juicy to deny themselves. Snappy retorts delivered weeks after they would have been snappy, all dressed up with vague exceptions to the vitriol, referred to but not named. It would be laughable in person, but somehow in print, the perpetrator doesn’t see it as the self serving emotional weapon that it is.
That doesn’t cover everyone, though.
There are some people here who have posted in varying amounts for seven years. That’s as long as the average marriage. Yes, there is a grain of truth in the characterization of people as having more on line interactions than “real life” interactions with others. Of course some of us actually perceive real people with real emotions behind the mundane personal stuff we all share. We hear about their marriages, their children being born, and their children dying. It really matters to us, because they are our friends, even though we might never have seen them.
We share a desire to inform those who are uninformed, or misinformed. We share a commitment to honesty, and when we find out someone has lied on the forum, it hurts our real feelings. A few of those strange goodbyes are from people who realize too late that being a fake person, or two, was a bad idea. To save some shred of their own self image, that person must be ritually expunged. And when someone leaves and does not say goodbye, we wonder what happened. Did they die? How would we know? So, some of us say goodbye, even if we think it might be received poorly by some, simply to let those we know and care about know that they won’t be hearing from us again.
And some of us have posts written to be posted in the event of our deaths.
Yes, I have an emotional attachment to this community. Not the BBS, which is software, nor to our hosts, The Chicago Reader, but instead to the people who are my real friends here in a virtual place. I just spent a few weeks visiting friends around the country, and some of them were friends I met first on the Straight Dope Message Board. Oddly enough, on of them said goodbye in a post recently. It was poorly received by some. It didn’t matter, though, because it was a goodbye to some others.
Tris
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
You say “some people see this as something more than it should be” Who gets to decide what it should be? Maybe it isn’t a community to you, but maybe it is to others. There is no absolute “should” here.
As to your last question, several couples have met on this board (including me and my husband). Lots of people have met people who then became friends off the board. So, yes, lots of us know someone from this board because of the board.
Yes, my husband, as a matter of fact. Met at a “Dopefest” in March 2001 and got married in May 2002.
Why do you seem to have such a problem with people enjoying their interactions here enough to want to say goodbye when they leave?
throws self at Seven’s feet
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
I have met one person on the board and I plan to meet more.
I am probably the poster **dnooman ** was speaking of.
I have always spent too much time on the computer, now I have switch most of that time to SDMB. I really like this place; it is interesting, funny, sarcastic and educational. I like to debate people and talk sports and etc. So its fun. I now have a few new Email friends and an off board friend.
I think Liberal’s departure was pure Drama Queen but the other threads looked like just nice goodbyes rather than just disappearing. There is also an active thread or two looking for posters that haven’t been posting, so it is an active community. To strengthen that there are dopefests and get togethers.
So stick around for a while the place might grow on you. You might find people with similar interest that live near you. Pick up an Email friend or 3.
Jim
Yeah. My wife.
I don’t make it my life. But derision and sarcasm can take their toll.
What is this dnooman thread we speak of? I can find it not.