Look at what we did…

About This Message Board
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I’ve posted enough… too much really… in the Dopezine, but the 4,986 words my five pieces alone contributes to it still was not enough.

I want to publicly thank each and every one of the volunteers – @Ann_Hedonia, @Beowulff, @Broomstick, @Exapno_Mapcase, @Martini_Enfield, @Max_S, @Ruken, and @solost – for joining me on this project. When I was first reminded of the original The Long Boom article in January, I knew it required more than a single OP. And, even more to the point, for an internet community as old as this article, a community which has survived the entire journey of what was to be our Long Boom, our shared experiences made a shared review a natural fit. After all, the contributors have a total of 169 years on the Boards discussing these very trends (many times talking right past each other, I’m sure :stuck_out_tongue: ).

I am proud of the quality of the pieces submitted: Everyone worked to the top of their abilities. Please, please thank them for their efforts for the fact that everyone did so well is a credit to not just themselves, but to the Straight Dope Message Board.

And it’s to that last which I wish to close. This place means something to all of us. I know there are a few of us waiting for the SDMB to die a heat death, fading away… but that’s not necessarily how it has to be. We nine, alone, have spent 169 years combined here, and the odds are good that every 6th reader of these words adds another century to that total.

We matter. The Straight Dope Message Board matters. For more than a quarter-century we have fought ignorance, and each other, on only one term: You declare something as fact, you’d better back it up. I know of too many influential people who were active members of the SDMB, some back in their HS days in the early 2000s, some who registered in the last year. And in our venue, the internet… well, we’re one of the Old Guard as (judging from Ann’s bio), the SDMB may have existed before the Netscape IPO (August 1996). Hell, the Giraffe Board is now part of the old guard as well, lol.

And that’s why I started this project. Because the Straight Dope Message Board matters, we love it here, and we do not have to let it wither away. Hell, we cannot for the very reason stated in our motto:

It truly is taking longer than we thought.

Thanks to everyone who participated, it was a blast running this project, can’t wait for the discussion and comments in the Dopezine, and I, for one, am looking forward to another 25 years of the Dope!

JohnT

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Well done, all of you! Wired is an excellent venue for your (our) range of well-considered opinions and expertise — fellow travelers in observing this historical era.

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Just to clarify, these posts are riffing off of Wired Magazine’s article from 25 years ago, but are not published in, or officially related to, Wired.

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Fantastic!

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Ah, thanks — my mistake! Fun stuff.

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That’s correct.

The Wired magazine piece was 25 years ago, and we have come to the end of their quarter-century period.

A number of us Dopers came together to create an old-style “e-zine”, writing original pieces both about the article itself (Max and I) and about the far-more-accurate sidebar (Exapno, Broomstick, Solost, etc). We got together last Wednesday night and posted the pieces in order. Martini had an unexpected work obligation so I had to post his “Technology which didn’t happen” piece under my name, but other than that hiccup… well, one other (see below)… everybody did a fantastic job.

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The other ‘hiccup’… has anybody seen or heard from @XT ? He volunteered for the project, was engaged in it until March… and then XT disappeared from the SDMB mid-March, not responding to PM’s (or any threads, of course).