I have spent a lot of time over the last few years browsing message boards all over the web and I have found this board to be “the cream of the crop.” I’m not trying to suck-up to Cecil,
(allthough none is more worthy) I have encountered very little in the way of inteligent discussion from other places.
Am I off base here? Are there other quality boards out there?
Wheres the debate?
Dunno if it’s “the best,” because it depends on what criteria you use to define “best,” but for having people held accountable for their claims, this board definitely spoils you after a while. 
I can’t even read anything at Yahoo! any more without shouting “Cite!” at the outrageous bullstuff that gets tossed around. 
I haven’t been on any other messege boards, so I couldn’t say I think it’s the best one. But from what other Dopers have posted in various threads it does seem to be the popular opinion.
I have been all over the internet on messageboards. The only other decent place to have a discussion that I have found is Google Groups. Its not perfect, but because messages take between 3-9 hours to get posted people tend to make longer and more intelligent postings.
This is the best so far, IMHO =)
www.snopes.com is pretty good, although I left when a group of posters defused to accept that we’ve learned more about space from unmanned probes than from manned missions. :rolleyes:
The SDMB is best because people post in the right forum.
IMHO.
Moderator’s Note: Moving to IMHO.
I live in dread of the Times or some other big media “discovering” us and opening the floodgates . . .
One of the nice things about Snopes is that they have categorized their debate topics. So, if you want to go on for ever debating Creationism versus Evolution, you go to the Religion section. Whereas at SDMB Great Debates, sometimes you get domination of threads about the same old subject that keeps on coming back.
Encouraging participation of more people with Collounsbury caliber (less his asshole behavior) is also important in combating ignorance. It is easy to ban Collounsbury, but how do you encourage more participation of the 10% knowledgeable people, and less participation of the 90% who fill up the threads with a poster quote and then simply say “I agree”, or “I don’t agree”.
So, where is the debate? Here it is:
How would you improve SDMB to better achieve its objective of combating ignorance?
Ban more conservatives!
Un-ban December!
I think Usenet as a whole (a previous poster referred to this incorrectly as “Google Groups”) is better. It’s been around forever, and has many many experts on all sorts of things posting on it. Occasionally even a “celebrity” such as Douglas Adams or such would post something. It’s crazier at times, it’s got more of it’s own culture, it’s untamed, it’s far quicker to access (through Google Groups, gnus, Outlook, Mozilla, etc), it has threading, it has legends to make our pet psychos look well adjusted, it has a many types of flame warriors, it has groups devoted to anything and everything, it has porn, it has mp3’s, it breaks the law thousands of times a day, it goes back to the dawn of the internet, it has the glory days before the September that never ended, it has cancelbot wars, it has everything.
I go on many message boards.
Most of them are teen message boards that the average age is about 14-20.
Being 23, I feel out of place on them, and yes, the quality of posts and topics here unmatched compared to those places…
This one is by far the best I’ve ever been to thus far.
It’s the best general one I’ve found, though there are better ones for specific subjects. Avumede, I lurk on various Usenet groups, but I’d have to put a fair amount of effort in to avoid all the spam and idiots, especially if I wanted to post. I like moderation. The sheer volume is impressive for reference though.
I participate on an excellent message board but it happens to be topical (horse-related). Quite a few top experts, riders and trainer post there, so it can be incredibly informative.
But for all-around general messageboarding, SDBM is the best.
In specific ways some MB’s may be better, but overall, nothing comes close to the SDMB.
I’ll chime in with another vote for the SDMB being the best. The percentage of posters who are intelligent and polite people, while admittedly below perfect, is certainly higher than anywhere else, the moderators exist and they actually moderate effectively, and there’s discussion on a huge range of topics. I visit other topical boards too, but no other general purpose boards.
I’ve only been here about ten minutes. I like the…um…diversity, serendipity, randomness. What I have noticed is that it’s vvvvvveeeeerrrrrryyyyyyy ssssssllllllllllooooooowwwwwww. My connection is fast enough that it shouldn’t be a problem, but it is.
I would say yes.
I have been on message boards for about a year. All of them related to certain television shows. And frankly I am sick of the whiney 13 year olds who want nothing more then bigger boobs and kewler explosions. Even in their off-topic and mature-topic sections the 13 year old influence shines through (no offence to any 13 year olds here… I was using it as a general term).
The discussion here is excellent, and I love it.