# Is there an online forum w/intelligent people and little moderation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 7, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151 "2008-12-07T18:54:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/83 "2014-07-03T14:02:49Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Like when I point out that you are responding to a five and a half year old post made by someone who hasn’t been here for about a year? See? Isn’t he charming? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/84 "2014-07-03T14:32:45Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > See? Isn’t he charming? Was I supposed to wait until you looked in the mirror and said my name three times? ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/85 "2014-07-03T21:18:56Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Also, grow some skin. You might get some flack from somebody like **Czarcasm** , but don’t let it bother you. Like Richilieu said, “Give me six lines written by the most honest man in the world, and I will still find something to hang him.” Just regard the haters as barking dogs that stay in their yard and never venture out. If you have a problem with another poster, use the Pit. Do NOT make another post like this outside of there again, it’s out of line. Now both of you take the kerfuffle out of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![lazarus102](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazarus102/32/4118_2.png) [@lazarus102](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazarus102)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/86 "2020-04-12T10:54:30Z")
> [@Cagey\_Drifter](#): > > hm, i realized something intriguing a moment ago. YouTube is kind of a weird community to observe. The drive-by nature of the commenting, and the ability to say as fucked up comments as you possible can think of without accountability. It’s a place filled with trolls and people waiting to be trolled-- and the broad range of videos essentially divide it up into discussion topics. The commentary never gets much beyond arguments about how the accompanying video is dumb/no it’s awesome fuck you, crazy wackjob conspiracy theories, and lots and lot of LOLZLZZLZOZLZ!!1 But if it could be reigned in somehow-- harnessed, if you will-- it could be a neat place to hang out. At least in theory. But it would take a lot of work, to build and to maintain. But right now, you can’t even search your own comments history, which is simply shocking for a site that seems to be trying to build a community. This made me laugh until I realized that you posted that in 2008… YouTube has turned into a real shitbucket lately… I’ve had entire multi paragraph comments autodeleted on me just because I tried to edit them a minute later to add a sentence or correct a misspelling… But ya, not easy to find forums that feature intellectual folk… I’m a critical thinker with a lot of patience for parsing the facts. So when I ask a medical question on a forum, while leaving a disclaimer politely asking people not to just tell me to “go see a doctor”, and the first 3 replies are exactly what I asked against, and the followup replies are just arguing with me about it… I just wanna toss my whole damn comp out the window… With the level of blind ignorance in modern day society, it’s no damn wonder why we haven’t reached the level of mainstream technology shown in the back to the future movie yet… We live in a world in which there is 100X more outrage and concern about transgender washrooms, than the act of circumcision still remaining legal to perform on unwilling children and infants in first world countries… the ignorance is real… ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/87 "2020-04-12T17:07:53Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > For example, if any of the SDMB cliches (Hi Opal, Marianas Trench, 1920s style death ray, etc) were used on SA a month or so after they first emerged, and the mods said “no more”, anyone using them afterwards might find themselves suspended for a day. Now that the OP’s topic has been beaten to death and is starting to become derailed I assume a slight hijack would be ok. I must have joined the SDMB after these cliches became such and I’ve always wondered what, exactly, do they mean? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/88 "2020-04-12T18:24:39Z")
> [@skdo23](#): > > Now that the OP’s topic has been beaten to death and is starting to become derailed I assume a slight hijack would be ok. I must have joined the SDMB after these cliches became such and I’ve always wondered what, exactly, do they mean? **Opal** (of fond memory) was a poster who insisted (jocularly) that a list had to have at least three items on it. Two things didn’t deserve being put in a list. So people started making lists of two points of sbustance, and “3. Hi, Opal!”. Then all lists of three or more things started having “Hi, Opal!” as item # 3, even if the list was naturally longer than three. And so on. “1920s style death ray” started out as a genuine question, asking if there could ever be a death ray of the sort used in pulp sci-fi from the 1920s. It generated some real answers, but then degenerated into a lot of silliness, until the phrase became a catchphrase. (I think kids these days call it a “meme” or somesuch.) I missed the memo on “Marianas trench”, but it seems to be used for something that has only occurred once, like the deepest humans have ever gone on Earth, to the bottom of the Marianas trench. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/89 "2020-04-12T18:40:29Z")
> [@skdo23](#): > > Now that the OP’s topic has been beaten to death and is starting to become derailed I assume a slight hijack would be ok. It was beaten to death 12 years ago soon after the thread was started. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/90 "2020-04-12T20:51:01Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > It was beaten to death 12 years ago soon after the thread was started. Pretty appropriate that it was Lazarus that resurrected it, though. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/91 "2020-04-12T21:03:39Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I missed the memo on “Marianas trench”, but it seems to be used for something that has only occurred once, like the deepest humans have ever gone on Earth, to the bottom of the Marianas trench. Which is no longer true. There’s even a company out there that’s planning to take people down there for what I am sure is a modest fee. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/92 "2020-04-12T21:22:22Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Pretty appropriate that it was Lazarus that resurrected it, though. And on Easter, no less. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/93 "2020-04-12T23:10:13Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Which is no longer true. There’s even a company out there that’s planning to take people down there for what I am sure is a modest fee. 😉 But only for twenty minutes. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/94 "2020-04-13T00:11:12Z")
I was amused by the premise of this thread. It was like walking into a grocery store and asking “Hey, is there a place I can get better produce than this? Maybe a store with nicer checkers, oh and better prices?” Or asking a blind date if she has any hotter, smarter friends… and in the case of the OP, nevertheless dating her for half a decade. Couldn’t find any better, I guess… ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/95 "2020-04-13T03:16:39Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I was amused by the premise of this thread. It was like walking into a grocery store and asking “Hey, is there a place I can get better produce than this? Maybe a store with nicer checkers, oh and better prices?” > > Or asking a blind date if she has any hotter, smarter friends… and in the case of the OP, nevertheless dating her for half a decade. Couldn’t find any better, I guess… Not at all. I’ve had grocers tell me “We don’t carry 10# bags of Basmati any more, they didn’t sell well, but they have them at Safeway”. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/96 "2020-04-13T03:25:19Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > What’s the relationship between this board and The Giraffe message board? I recognize some of the usernames as old Dopers, and I’m wondering if it’s a community of ex-pat Dopers? It seems like a hair-down version of SDMB. I know this is a zombie post, but last time I visited the Giraffe, there wasn’t much left of it. (And I have seen what some of you have posted about me over there. Oh, well. Goes without saying that I don’t use the same username over there, on the rare occasions that I do post.) ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/97 "2020-04-13T03:49:23Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > **Opal** (of fond memory) was a poster who insisted (jocularly) that a list had to have at least three items on it. Two things didn’t deserve being put in a list. So people started making lists of two points of sbustance, and “3. Hi, Opal!”. Then all lists of three or more things started having “Hi, Opal!” as item # 3, even if the list was naturally longer than three. And so on. > > “1920s style death ray” started out as a genuine question, asking if there could ever be a death ray of the sort used in pulp sci-fi from the 1920s. It generated some real answers, but then degenerated into a lot of silliness, until the phrase became a catchphrase. (I think kids these days call it a “meme” or somesuch.) > > I missed the memo on “Marianas trench”, but it seems to be used for something that has only occurred once, like the deepest humans have ever gone on Earth, to the bottom of the Marianas trench. Thanks, especially wrt Opal. I showed up here in 2010 and for the last ten years sensed this vibe that there was a former member named Opal who was a major contributor to the SDMB that everyone loved and respected, but I never knew enough of the details to show my gratitude for her contribution to what ended up becoming my virtual family in many ways. I’ll do my best to incorporate her into a list as soon as the opportunity presents itself.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/98 "2020-04-13T13:49:28Z")
1. The list-rule user was actually **[OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php)**. “ **Opal** ” is a nickname. 2. Her user number is 36. 3. Hi, **OpalCat**. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/99 "2020-04-16T01:24:38Z")
I can’t stop thinking about what Cagey Drifter said… > [@Cagey\_Drifter](#): > > The more I think about it, the more I think that actually this board is a good mix of intelligent and ‘anything goes.’ I guess it’s really just the oversensitivity that bugs me… ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/100 "2020-04-16T01:28:09Z")
Do you guys think we’re oversensitive? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/101 "2020-04-16T01:34:47Z")
> [@Cagey\_Drifter](#): > > I guess it’s really just the oversensitivity that bugs me… I mean, it’s better than being under-sensitive. …right? ETA: Oh, great, I just checked and I’ve been worrying about Cagey Drifter’s comment for over a decade. I need a popsicle… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151/102 "2020-04-16T04:57:36Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > i know this is a zombie post, but last time i visited the giraffe, there wasn’t much left of it. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-online-forum-w-intelligent-people-and-little-moderation/476151.md?page=6)