I tried to join the snopes board many years ago, but they required an admin to approve new members and I never got an approval. Their lack of administration seemed pretty odd.
Yeah, it seemed like for a period of probably several years the snopes board was just sort of left to decay. While the the board still existed and old members could still log in and post, it seemed like there was no administration or moderation at all, and no new members being approved.
At some point the entire Snopes site went to shit- right about the time they started begging for money-who the hell do they think they are? Wikipedia at least provides a valued service.
Seems at first pretty much everything they researched was legitimately questionable, but at some point it turned into disproving ridiculously obvious photoshopped photos of Obama shitting on the American flag or Bush using a spoon wrong, now its everything Trump (is this photo of Woodstock in 1969 really a photo of yesterday’s Trump rally?).
Maybe one of twenty now are legit, the others so obviously false you don’t bother to read past the title. And if you accept ADS, don’t ask for money on top of it, legal fight be damned. Not like someone else cant come along and do a Snopes like site if it comes down to it, the Snopes team doesn’t have a unique ability to disprove nonsense- would anyone send their own money to save Amazon?
For a long time Barbara and David ran the site together; then they got divorced. I don’t know why they got divorced or any of the details, but apparently it turned nasty. I think the boards became one of the casualties. Whether the main site will eventually wind up becoming one also seems to me currently unclear.
I hope the cats are OK.
The lolcats?
Snopes is still alive and well on Facebook. David has 2 forums there (one allows gifs and one doesn’t). Snopes Tips | Facebook (no gifs or memes) and where you submit stuff to be debunked and Snopes Forum | Facebook which is a bit more raucous.
David and Barbara’s cats, I assume.
It’s there, but it’s not really the same. The Facebook group just doesn’t have the same tone as the old board, which always seemed more civil. In my experience the snopes Facebook group mostly seemed to be people posting stuff and demanding we tell them whether it’s true or not, albeit that was before it was split into two groups.
Yes, that’s what I meant. They used to get referred to fairly often on the boards.
– I don’t do Facebook. But from what I’ve heard from those who do, the snopes pages there are nothing like the boards.
I had completely forgotten about the cats. Their mentions evoked such charming mental images.
Concur. I actually just left the “forum” group. Not impressed.
I just drifted over here as well. I was a member of snopes since 2001 (senior year in high school!) under the name Morrigan. I rarely posted at the end years, however. I’ve been here (SD) a few times reading but never posting.
Hi narmowen / Morrigan! Good to see from you!
Just had my 5-year law school reunion, and while it wasn’t as insufferable as I’d feared, I have to say this thread is better. Hi Morrigan!
Hi Morrigan!
-erwins
bumping an old thread…
I was “callee” on the old snopes board. I can’t remember if I joined in 1998, 2000, 0r 2002, but one of those I think. I remember when cervus joined in any case. I remember a lot of people from back then, like bonnie, silas sparkhammer, anglrdr, and one whose name I’m blanking on, it was joe something or other, and he was from norfolk. ended up marrying another snopester. also chloe, fourkitties, Jenn from alberta, and of course ryda wong - the evil bitch from colorado. (she was actually quite nice)
I posted a lot for a while, and went to a couple of the local get-togethers in toronto. I remember meeting “canuckistan” there.
I think one of my favourite memories was the traveling fish that got mailed around between the members.
Like most people my posting slowed down, though I still logged in once or twice a year and kept contact with a few people, like avril or Tgirl.
I tried to do my yearly check-in a while ago, and that’s what ultimately led me here.
It’s really not surprising to me that david would shut the old forum down with little notice or follow-up. At the start I tried to respect him, simply because of what he had accomplished, but eventually you just couldn’t ignore his behaviour and how he treated the little people. It was why I left. I feel terrible for barbara, how he treated her.
Anyway, just thought I’d check in and say hello.
Howdy, callee! Welcome to the Straight Dope!
Hi, callee!
I remember Canuckistan from when I was first lurking – can’t remember whether he was still there when I finally started posting. And that’s rather a string of familiar names –
Hello callee! Glad to see another familar face.
There are many names from snopes that I will always miss. The loss of Barbara’s words of wisdom is something else I miss.
I’m liking The Straight Dope and plan to stay a while.
I live in fear that someone’ll do that here. I really don’t know what I’d do… talk to my wife? That’d annoy the hell out of her. Can you imagine…? [cue Imaginary Scene SFX]
[Me, calling up the stairs]: “Hey, Hon?”
“What? I’m busy!”
“I really need to ask you something!”
“What? Make it quick.”
“What are your favorite TV shows that weren’t picked up as a series, or never came to be?”
“The hell? Yesterday you wanted to know what I think of when you say ‘The Tri-State Area’, this morning it was ‘Anne Coulter: Slut or Victim’? I’ve got my own life, go ask… I know, call your friend Winkelried, if he hasn’t banned you by now.”