Ah. I thought it had been a while since I was informed I had to pay for another year. :smack:
And to the OP, the Dope is as wonderful, fun, and often awe-inspiring as ever.
This thread is terrible. Where’s the pathos? Where’s the apocalyptic mutterings about the “end of the board” being imminent? Where’s the anger at the Mods for destroying all thats good and holy and crushing the life out of Board?
Threads complaining about how this place is getting worse used to be a lot better back when I first joined.
Am I misunderstanding you? Since the internet has gotten larger and people can search and find answers there better, wouldn’t the number of questions for Google go up?
Yea, sorry, I meant down of course.
In the good old days I never screwed up like that.
Get to be? 
I think you are experiencing the “good old days” syndrome, where selective memory kicks in and you remember only the good times and forget the bad.
When you are new here, all the posts looks fresh and funny and interesting - but after the 9,874th LOTR post and the 2,769th favorite song/movie/book post, you start to get a bit jaded.
There are still threads that crack me up, still threads that are interesting, and I still learn a lot by just reading some of the things people write. I have found some great links that I would otherwise not have discovered. Plus, it is good to read threads about big news stories and see how others are reacting and read their comments.
I think there used to be more activity - threads would come and go in a matter of minutes instead of lingering for days/weeks - but maybe that is my imagination.
There seems to be less of a clique. When I first started posting, I often felt like the uninvited guest in some threads and was totally ignored by the more frequent, popular kids who would hog the conversations. I don’t see that happening as much anymore.
I do admit the BBQ Pit has lost its luster for me - now you just get angry people who will pile on you for saying the day’s date and say you are an ignorant asshole. Not that it was all fuzzy and warm in the old days, but they seemed to at least know what the fuck they were talking about before just spewing wrath.
And my guess is that in five years, someone will write a thread about how things have gone downhill since the glory days of 2012.
I think some of the changes (like how the Pit is allegedly milder) are because people are doing their real venting on off-site forums. It’s more fun to use the insults that’ve been banned here, and they feel less guilty talking behind someone’s back because they’re reasonably confident that person will never see it. People tend to be brutally honest when shrouded by anonymity… so, those issues don’t crop up here anymore.
There’s also a general misunderstanding of some rules, leading some people to think the SDMB is milder than it really is. You can say cunt all day long and use it to insult people who aren’t members here, you just can’t call a board member a cunt.
2,769? If you counted right, I missed 4 of them. 'Scuse me, while I go find 'em.
I totally agree with your post, esp. the part about cracking up and learning something. Potent combination.