This threadelsewhere proposes the idea of an Old Dopers Retirement Home, which I imagine to be a place where, as the name suggests, old dopers can go to fade away or raise hell or pontificate or complain or fall in love at first sight or whatever.
This is a poll to ascretain whether there is any serious interest in such a project in real life in the real world. This poll does NOT deal with the question of, “How can everyone possibly agree to <FITB*>?” The answer to that question doesn’t need a poll, as the obvious answer is “Who the fuck knows?” I’m just curious about the numbers… a few? dozens? hundreds?
Obviously, this isn’t any kind of a commitment–just an exploration.
*FITB = Fill in the blank
THE QUESTION: Would you consider the possibility of living in an Old Dopers Retirement “community” of some sort, allowing for purposes of this poll that something agreeable to you (location, cost, amenities, etc.) could be brought into being (possibly by magic)?
No way - far too many people on this board have been getting more curmudgeonly, disagreeable, prone to irrational beliefs, and insensitive, if not outright racist as time goes on. The late 90’s and early 2000’s crowd, I could see retiring and hanging out with. So my vote as of now is nyet.
Same for me. My husband thinks Dopers are weird, even tho he’s seemed to like the few he’s met. But if he was gone, I’d consider retiring among my people.
I don’t think the curmudgeonosity is any worse here than society at large. IOW, would-be retirement home residents will be dealing with that anyway regardless of whether the home is SDMB affiliated or not.
My objection is geographical. I’m going to retire near here. Most of you all are not near here. And many of my favorite Dopers are not only a much different age than I, but are particularly far away.
I didn’t vote, but my attitude is “If by great luck it appeared near here, I’d consider it right along with the other local choices. If not, not.”
I have long considered that the SDMB *is *a retirement community in waiting just as it is. When I have all day to hang out and chew the fat, this (virtual) place will be where I’m doing a bunch of it. Y’all can’t help me take a bath or cruise the thrift stores, but you sure can keep my mind sharp & my curiosity simmering.
IMO the magic of SDMB is that we’re so vastly much more diverse than any physical community ever could be. What we share is a (mostly) charitable attitude to sharing our ideas & experiences. Let’s run with that, and leave preparing the strained peas (no salt) to businesses that are experts in it.
There are Dopers who I could hang out with and enjoy spending my sunset years with. But there are a whole lotta Dopers who’d seriously work my nerves, who’d surely hasten my death.
monstro: exactly so! All y’uns-all are scary enough at the distance of my computer monitor and a shield of anonymity. There are a few I’ve confided my real name to…and a few I wouldn’t want to be in the same time zone with unless I had police protection.
If this theoretical community were located geographically in a convenient area, I’d be game. I want/need to be in visiting distance of my boys and eventual grandkiddos.
Knowing me, I’ll be up for a good discussion/argument/verbal sparring match/cane waving session until I’m approaching a vegetative state. I’d far rather hang out with y’all than with an assortment of strangers who couldn’t offer me a good …err…discussion.
My college town built a senior citizen apartment complex and when I saw that I thought that that sounded amazing as a place to retire. I have never really felt mentally stimulated like I did in college.
As far as dopers, there are some here I would really like to meet and hang out with, but there are a fair number of assholes too. Many I don’t know anything about.
Take all of the arguments against eternal life - it has to get boring after the first 20 million years, etc. and multiply by 100.
Add to that the number who would be most likely to want in would do so because they don’t have anything better to do. You know the kind - see the Pit.
Now, with that group of sterling companions, what on earth would attract a person with two or more working brain cells to such a place?
THAT’S the option I forgot. Spouses and Significant Others would be welcome, of course just like in any retirement community. This would NOT just be for single people.
And in any retirement community (and in **any **community) you hang out with the people you like and avoid the ones you don’t like. There would not be compulsory activities that force people together. You don’t have to make nice with people you consider assholes.
And for those of us who avoid MOST people, there will be lots of places to hide. Alone.
The whole idea of this fall in line with a fantasy community/park I have been working on for several years. Dopers and others with various skill sets in nearly anything imaginable would be encourage to either vacation at or become residents of a think tank and development center interacting with the public. Arts, sciences and trades would all be encouraged to form loose, voluntary collaborations of any kind.
I would consider it. Even the ones who truly annoy me are still interesting to some degree and I can’t think of any group or place that would be “annoying person free”. So I wouldn’t mind giving it a shot.
As long as we can set up some stickies for behavior at this home:
[ol]
[li]All arguments have to be taken to the BBQ Pit room, where one is provided with those soft bats and similar implements of non-harm. [/li]
[li]Religious witnessing is only allowed in the chapel. [/li]
[li]Remarks about the weather are limited to one sentence per person per day, except in the case of actual survival-endangering events. [/li]
[li]There is at least one debates-free and politics/elections-free zone indoors and one outdoors. [/li]
[li]There are no moderators to enforce these rules; social ostracism will be given a chance to work.[/li][/ol]Actually, my greatest dread if I ever did have to move to any kind of old person’s home is that I would be stuck socializing with people with whom I have nothing to talk about. I think in a SDMB home, that would have a smaller chance of happening.
I don’t really mind the idea, considering that most of the Dopers I don’t get along with are somewhat older than me, and presumably I wouldn’t have to live with them.
