Airplanes are just a passing fad. They’re not here to stay. So where they take off is irrelevant.
Welcome! Hopefully I didn’t miss the squid. We haven’t seen her in a long time, have we?
I think you’ll do just fine.
Not the same as what ?!
A friendly suggestion if I may.
Culturally speaking, SDMB isn’t WhatsApp or text messaging. It’s not designed for real time conversation where somebody starts a thread then makes one-line responses to each subsequent post.
If you don’t have two paragraphs’ worth of content to add, it’s probably not time to hit reply yet. You as the thread starter (“Original Poster” = “OP” in our vernacular) are under no obligation to reply to every entry. In fact better if you don’t.
What you’ve been doing here in this thread isn’t against any rule. Nobody official is going to fuss at you over it. But it is different in style from most of the conversations here. You’re learning and that’s good.
Welcome and good luck being a happy member of our merry band of yak-yakkers. I’m sure you’ll do fine.
It is, however, a good idea to reply occasionally to a thread that you started; even if you don’t have a great deal to say yet. Though you don’t need to reply every five minutes, or every time someone else posts.
(Do we contradict ourselves? Of course we contradict ourselves. We contain multitudes.)
Think of it this way: Everyone here has an equal number of “Thumbs up”. 
It’s who i am. I reply to most everything, and have to have the last word. On a positive note, I will not revive a dead thread. Ever.
As having a like/dislike button for a post.
We don’t have that; it’s disabled.
And it’s OK to revive a dead thread here, if (and usually only if) you’ve got something new and interesting to say on the subject; though you may get some jokes about zombies.
No such thing as “the last, final most brilliant word” on the Dope. Ever.
Sorry.
It’s in perpetuity. Forever. We have dead posters who still have open(active?) threads.
The brevity needs are not met on the Dope. Need at least 5 characters, I think. No emoji only posts. We have that nasty @discobot baby sitting us, even though we have very astute mods.
Yeah, this the best place ever.
Hi! To find out what I can do, say @discobot display help.
Alli, are you a FOC? (Friend Of Cecil)
Is your cat declawed?
Welcome. Glad to have an enthusiastic newbie on the board.
I never feel like I totally fit in anywhere but I pretend and that seems to work most of the time.
ChatGPT weighs in when I ask, “Tell me about the culture of the Straight Dope Message Board.”
It’s a peculiar and enduring little ecosystem—part think tank, part dive bar, part improv troupe.
The core mood: analytical mischief. People there love to argue well—not to win, but to show their work. Posts are long, citations are expected, and a dry one-liner can land harder than a whole paragraph if it’s timed right.
Sub-tribes:
Great Debates: where policy, ethics, and philosophy get dissected until someone finally cites a 2003 Pew survey.
General Questions: the heart of the place—basically “explain this weird thing” with surprisingly expert answers.
Cafe Society: pop culture discussion with a whiff of English-major nostalgia.
Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS): the lounge, where longtime posters drop life updates and gallows humor.
The BBQ Pit: flame zone with rules—profanity welcome, doxxing not. Think venting as an art form.
The ethos: skeptical inquiry, articulate sarcasm, and self-awareness about both. People stay for decades because it rewards wit and memory; you can resurrect a 2001 thread, add a new footnote, and someone will actually get the reference.
Tone-wise, imagine if Jeopardy! contestants ran a pub trivia night that occasionally devolved into a philosophy seminar. Earnest and jaded at once.
You’ve read it before, haven’t you? It’s got that old-web smell—HTML beige, Courier type, and a faint ozone of moderation drama that never quite dissipates.
You can’t revive threads that refuse to die.
A very bad idea. Turns people into posers and wannabe influenzas. Good thing we disabled that.
Pro tip: Don’t use ChatGPT or any other LLMs.
Welcome, young Grasshopper. Prepare to learn.
Welcome. We are a decent lot. A few screwballs drop in occasionally, but usually don’t last. I remember somehow stumbling onto this place long, long ago. The thread that caught my eye was ‘Was math invented or discovered’. I’ve been here ever since, and no, I don’t know the answer to that question.
Hey !
I heard that.