I haven’t been to the SDMB for about 6 years and maybe today was just a bad day (the moon in void everywhere at once or something?) but the GQ seem much less fanciful than they used to be. Have all the great questions been asked already do you think?
First, every forum has high periods and low periods. GQ isn’t especially active right now. There probably isn’t a reason why.
Second, a great question is never answered and sparks more questions in the process of being discussed. Great questions are the kind that end up in Great Debates, however, not GQ.
I think I know what you mean. I think there are several things at play here.
First, I can’t remember when SDMB went to paid memberships, but I think that changes the overall character of the participating population. (I started on alt.fan.cecil-adams and then followed this board when was an AOL site.)
Second, the overall Internet-savvy population has grown, also causing a change in the participation profile.
Third, after having been in existence so many years, lots of the same questions get asked over and over, and you know see posts all the time that “that topic has been done to death here.” A few of my favorites are on my Unofficial FAQs
In the old days did the rules permit GQ questions that don’t have factual answers?
Same rules as long as I can remember.
I started posting and it’s been turtles all the way down.
I have been here seven years and I don’t notice any really strong trend. Maybe it was too slow for me to notice because it is hard to search back really far. People still ask off the wall questions if that is what you want. I think some things like the sophistication of responses to pure science questions has actually gotten much better over the years. Some questions were good at one time but they have been asked so many times now that the typical response is just some links. Wikipedia and google have also changed the nature of GQ inquiries. Back when I started here, hardly any of us knew what google was. Now any old bozo can come back with an answer to a complicated topic without even knowing anything about it beforehand.
Thanks, I hadn’t considered that, but you are right. If it’s real, it’s probably another example of google producing homogeneity and banality.
Being able to get information quickly is homogeneous and banal?
As of this post, a thread titled “cannibal cows” is at the bottom of page one. I think we’ll be all right.