Quantity does not equal quality.
Does McDonalds make the best food on the planet?
Which planet?
Mwa-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah!
Uh, I mean, really, there’s nothing to be scared of in Great Debates. Heck, we always need fresh blood–er, that is, new viewpoints. Yeah, new points of view. In Great Debates.
Oh, and archmichael is having a ball in here. He’s, uh, you know, playing with all the cute puppy dogs and fuzzy bunnies and running on the green grass and stuff.
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu Great Debates wagn’nagl fhtagn.
GD seems to go in cycles. Sometimes it’s full of bloodthirsty scum, sometimes it has enlightening arguments.
Pick a subject and go for it. Anyone who attacks you for the (supposed) quality of the post vs the content thereof exposes themselves for the cheese heads they are.
Similar things can be said about MPSIMS. Sometimes the fluff threatens to choke out any higher thought what so ever, sometimes it’s full of ponderable ideas.
Give the entire board a chance. Each of them has their merits and problems.
The few. The smart. The Straight Dope.
When the Old Ones come to debate the world, may you be refuted first!
Perhaps not as true now as it was a few years ago, but for the most part, our average can only drop.
I’m afraid the 50,000 number is not quite accurate. It’s actually closer to 700; I have over 49,300 sock accounts. Sometimes I’ll start ten page threads in the Pit where I discuss what a retard I am and call for my banning. Other times I’ll have a lively flirt thread in MPSIMS, wherein I ask how I’m doin’ and imply I might like to break me off a piece of that sometime. Cafe Society? All me.
Don’t feel bad, though: I’m very tolerant of you “reals”. Occasionally one of you posts something interesting.
That’s sorting by number of posts, though. The Straight Dope is way down in 313th place in terms of total membership, and even then the vast majority of our 50,000-odd members aren’t active anymore.
I think it is partially because of the wide variety of topics covered here.
We can talk about American football (but there are 10’s of MB that “do” football better), or talk about MJ (“ditto”), or Bush’s latest newsmaking (ditto). There is no one big topic, or even type of topic, that brings people in. All these topics are expected to be discussed here semi-seriously & without trash talking or flaming which are other self selecting factors. So we are wide but not deep as an attractor and unless you get “hooked” you don’t have a reason to shell out $5.
It’s the puppy that I’m worried about.
Droit de seigneur, or jus primae noctis and all that.
There are a lot of people out there, that have reached the end of the Internet, never to be heard from again. Potential Dopers all, I bet. Sad.
I can’t remember a thing about it, but my wife says I haven’t been the same since.
I look on the SDMB as a great little bar with your favourite beers, a pool table, a jukebox, an antique Gyruss machine, comfy sofas and cool regulars: you’ve stumbled across the place by accident, you hang out there when you can, you might bring along a couple of friends who’ll appreciate the ambience, but there’s no way you’re gonna invite the office party there.
Wasn’t DreadCthulhu banned? 
You’re not a poor sock that he is telepathically controlling, are you? 
You know the saying “90% of everything is crap”? This is elitist, but that aphorism applies to people, too. I sometimes hang out on a few other message boards and honestly, 70% of the posters there would be banned in under a week for obnoxious behavior, while 80% (fair bit of crossover) wouldn’t know a cite if it bit them on their endnotes. Add in the fee and the desire for anonymity, and I’m surprised we have as many people as we do.