Well? Is it new, or something which I have never, ever seen in the X years it’s been in existence?
I never click on the root directory which has the stats
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/index.php
Because, when leaving a thread, I always end up here:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=15
So, anyway, how long has that been there?
I’ve been a poster since 2005, and I don’t ever recall it NOT being there, but I don’t have any direct knowledge beyond that.
Amazing.
Hi, RitaBaker, welcome to the Dope!
Already banned.
It’s always been there. There have been threads based on seeing controversial new user names in that widget before they’ve posted anything going back many years.
Well, I don’t hang around ATMB either, so I’m sure I missed those too. 
So long, RitaBaker, we hardly knew ye. Or maybe we did, and that’s why you’re banned.
Yeah, my favorite was years and years ago when our newest poster was ‘Fuck the Mods’.
You want a quick banning, that’s the way to do it.
There goes my new sig idea. Thanks for pissing on my leg, JC
Huh, I didn’t know you were into that sort of thing, Superdude.
I check it somewhat regularly, after I discovered it just over a year ago myself.
And I don’t like how it is going at all with decline in active membership. Just since I last posted that thread, we’ve already lost another 1,500 active members in just about 15 months time. Losing roughly 100 a month should cause us all concern.
Several moderators in that thread explained some of it by ridding us of spammers, banned members, socks and such, but acknowledging overall active membership has been declining for some time.
It’s like prom night all over again.
People don’t realize this board exists. Many who are frustrated by the limitations of Twitter and Facebook would enjoy posting here–but they don’t know it yet because they’ve never heard of it.
If I win the lottery I will certainly offer to fund some ads—preferably on Twitter and Facebook themselves.
Tired of frustrating 280-character back-and-forth ‘conversations’ with bots? Come here and have some real conversations!
My fave was ‘Shut the Fuck up Donny’, which lasted all of about an hour.
I like that idea, and if I thought it would help would donate to ads on both of those.
Does anyone know if Straight Dope offers any significant advertising elsewhere?
I suspect not but I’d be thrilled to be wrong. I certainly have no budget for anything.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
One problem I see is that the SD website performs poorly:
https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.straightdope.com/BKtZd13T
A webmaster should optimize the site for lower load time and SEO.
Each extra second to load results in significantly higher bounce rate. New viewers could be clicking in, but they’re going to bounce right on out if they have to wait (today’s internet denizens want immediate results).
Also, I’ve mentioned this before, but I believe the SDMB would benefit from fresh content. I’d like to see a new forum dedicated to posting original content created by members (humor, photos, short stories, music clips, artwork, etc.).
I really think an Onion.com type blog would be popular and fun. It could be a menu item to the right of “Archive” on the homepage: https://www.straightdope.com/ Maybe call it “the Scallion”. The blog page would be designed to look like a news site. Members would have editing privileges to submit humorous stories (with or without Photoshopped photos). Could also be split into World and Local (SDMB community) news—e.g. “Mods Given Remote Keyboard Tazers to Keep Dopers in Line.”
This wouldn’t be difficult to set up and it could cost nothing, or next to nothing.