I think you’re wrong there. It seems to me that the history of the boards has been one of a steady trend towards an increased number of rules and stickies. Some of which make sense but some don’t. There’s also a much larger population of people. Things have defiantely changed. You could certainly debate whether those changes were for the better.
As a side note, if you’re thinking of staying and want to give the dope a “tip” then you could let your subscription lapse and the register at the higher fee. I know people have said they wanted to donate to the board but for legal reasons they can’t. If 100 people do that then the board gets an extra $750. Just a thought.
I’ll be sticking around for the time being. So no worries, you’ll still get the pleasure of reading my sporadic posts contributing randomly useful viewpoints/perspectives with a healthy side dish of semi-relevant and/or tangental extraneous information. Rejoice. I may even start throwing my two cents in a little more often once my current situation improves; I haven’t decided. The reason I don’t post more often (or in a more relevant manner when I do) is that, thanks to the belief system I’ve cultivated and currently follow, an explanation of my viewpoint on any given topic requires an equally detailed explanation of basically every other viewpoint I have, thus making my involvement in most debates annoying to read and generally far too much trouble for everyone involved. Also, my Spock-on-weed posting style can cause confusion when things get overly complicated…but it ain’t pretention, folks; as Harimad-Sol can confirm, I talk like this too. (See previous two sentences for an example re: tangental extraneous information.)
Back to the topic, some points:
I believe that the incident we’re apparently now calling TubaGate did involve a commission of wrongdoing.
While I can’t say for certain that the incident will never be repeated, I do not believe it to be likely.
I respect the opinions of those who disagree, and in regard to those for whom public revelation of private information would constitute a major personal issue (be it for practical reasons or simply on principle), I completely understand the decision not to renew. I, however, take no such issue, and were one to use nothing but the sum of the information readily avaible in my SDMB posting history, one could quite probably locate me IRL with little trouble.
I do have more to say on the reasoning behind and related to each of these points, but this is not the place for it. Still, the above summarizes my reasoning as it applies to me personally. If it’s helpful for whatever reason, groovy.
And, since we’re pontificating on the topic: if I died, I doubt whether anyone here would notice…at least until the next Tears For Fears thread. When those pop up, everyone starts wondering where I am.
New blood is essential to the long term health of the board. Everyone misses Jack Nicklaus, until Tiger comes along…and then Michelle Wie. And so it goes.
When I log in these days, there are about 380 new posts each day - just six months ago, it was around 320. Personally, I wish the join date would be done away with. I laugh when someone joins and they’re treated as a “newbie”, when increasingly - and thankfully - they’re “mature” folks of wit and wisdom.
I’m still debating whether or not to stay on another year. There are periods when I post several times a day or get into an interesting discussion in Cafe Society (which was the reason I signed on in the first place), and think ‘I’m having fun; I’ll renew when the time comes.’ And then weeks will go by when I don’t post at all and only lurk occasionally and think, ‘It’s not worth it; I’ll drop it.’
I will be astonished if anyone notices if I do leave.
The only thing I’ll seriously miss if I leave - well there’s a lot, but the main thing - is discussing my books in Cafe Society. Never once have I posted about a book I read and not got a brand new opinion on it.
And damn, I’ll miss **Shirley Ujest ** if I leave - she’s not leaving. Cracks me up, that women (or chihauha).
It’s not your imagination. This board used to be a happy, light-hearted place. Now it seems like eveyone is just bitter and quarrelsome. I don’t know a thing about TubaDiva or what she did to piss everyone off (could someone provide a quick summary of what the hell Tuba-gate is all about?) but I’ve started to grow bored with the SDMB because it just isn’t the same place as it was when I joined years ago.
That said, I’m still planning on renewing my membership. But this will very likely be the only time I do so.
I’m probably not renewing. I love it here, but we just had another baby and we moved into a bigger more expensive house and I just can’t afford to renew. I don’t think I can bring myself to ask for a sponser, since I really don’t post anything worthwhile, so I’m probably just going to let my subscription lapse. I’ll still lurk, but I’m sure gonna miss the search feature.
From what I understand, she outed a child-molesting sexual predator on another board (livejournal, I think) and people are mad because they think she got his information from here (?) I’m not clear on whether she actually did or not.
Frankly, even being the huge privacy advocate that I am, I really don’t see what the big deal is here. Any given child molestor’s personal information is a matter of public knowledge and if you have a problem with that, you should take it up with the government, not Tubadiva.
There was also apparently evidence that he was using the SDMB as his personal stalking-ground for underage sexual prey and if that’s the case then I understand even less why people are so pissed at her.
I don’t get the sense of interaction here that I used to get when I joined first. People seemed more friendly - lately, I get the feeling that people, in general, only post for the sake of saying something, anything.
I will renew. Im not a big poster, more lurking as I only really check the boards duing my work day. Im staying mostly for CS and MPSIMS, but also because I have learned more in GD then I did in freaking high school!! Yea GD gets cranky sometimes, but still, there are alot of interesting posts and ideas that all make for some good reading. I would miss that.
Might not re-up. Got a new job and most likely can’t post 6 hours a day like I used to.
But then again, its only a few bucks and I do have some days off. It is fun to drink and post shit that I probably wouldn’t say in real life. (actually, I have a BIG MOUTH and get drunk and say shit I shouldn’t say, and almost always regret it)
I thought the main reason for the fees was to juice up the server.
But it still takes f o r e v e r to read, much less post.
Not a good value, but I probably will still renew, but I do feel they should do better.
Not likely. I’ve been posting for only about 3 years. I’m more of a helpful/advice giving poster. I don’t enjoy attacking other people or seeing people attacked. I love to read the true debate threads, though most are out of my area of expertise. But I’ve learned a lot–not lately though. There’s reason #1…
There’s just not a lot of posts I’m “into”–except the LOST threads. I usually have open a post every other page that looks interesting to me.
People seem to be a more bitchier or reactionary to posts lately, which turns into a big misunderstanding and the need for clarification from multiple posters. That’s not entertaining to me to watch people call each other out for a word choice, or for expressing their opinions/anger in the right forums.
The mods are seeming to respond in a rather rude way to common mistakes or making judgements about threads. This would be fine if it were their own private board, but since they want my money, I don’t think it’s the place for me. There is a nice way to moderate, and I just don’t seem to be seeing any sort of “humbleness” from any of them. I actually picture them rubbing their hands together with an evil smile whenever someone makes a stupid mistake. And when he/she makes a mistake, there is no apology. Perhaps a clarification. But never an apology. That is crap IMO.
Sometimes, I think it’s already been “covered”. SDMB has been around a long time…the same ?'s/polls are posted–I love the joke/worst thing that… threads for laughs–but it just seems like we are revisiting topics over and over.
Religious threads bother me. Lots of attacks both ways… :rolleyes:
Anyway, I doubt I’ll be back–or that I’d be missed in any way.
Due to real life intervening I didn’t subscribe until October, so I’ve got lots of time left to make a decision, but the board would have to get quite a lot worse for me not to drop my $15 when it comes due. I’m sad to see folks leaving, but folks left when the board went pay, and this is still a place I’m interested in being. The subscription feature is going to make the board turn over a lot more than it used to, but as long as there’s new blood there’s a chance it’ll remain worthwhile. It’s worth $15 a year to find out.
The Administration has disapointed me to the point that I am forced to remove my support. I have found that I can no longer tell my friends to check this place out, that they would enjoy themselves here. I have found I am no longer proud and honored to be a member here. Its been many little things, over time, Tubagate being the most recent and most disapointing. There are only so many times you can watch an old friend behave horribly, refuse to admit that its horrible, and make you feel ashamed to be their friend before you have to cut the ties until and unless they reform their behavior.
It pains me, because I have loved this place so long, and I’m still fighting with the idea, trying to find a way to justify staying when I can’t ethically align myself with the administration… but odds are I’m going to step away.
I will still use my accounts to pay for the three kid’s subscriptions that I came with if they want to be here, but they’ll have to pay me back. I can no longer support the boards.
Presuming you’re referring to my scale-tipping missive in this thread, Starving Artist actually has a better read on it. I wasn’t suggesting that people who post be conscious of what they’re contributing simply for the sake of the contributions as writ; rather, I was trying to suggest that as we read and post we be conscious of ourselves as human beings in a group of sometimes fractious but generally like-minded other human beings, and that we make our contributions with that social reality uppermost in mind. That’s really all it was intended to be about. I had not at all the intent of shooing away people who aren’t Pulitzer-prize-winning writers or world adventurers or groundbreaking artists or whatever else is supposed to make someone “interesting” and “valuable” as a conversationalist. You’re a person, and as such I’ll miss you if you leave, same as everyone else who says they’re headed for the exits, because for me it’s the combined mass and variety of human experience on the boards that makes them what they are.
I’m not trying to tell you, or anyone else, not to leave. I just want to make sure that if you do go, it’s for the right reasons, not because you read my previous post as an encouragement to do so.
Does anyone else think that all the rancor over the 2004 US presidential election greatly contributed to the change in the tone of discourse on this board (and, in American society in general, IMO). I know that I dropped out from even lurking here as the election got closer…actually, I couldn’t stand to listen to NPR, read the paper, anything as that stupid election got closer. And, yes, while it isn’t so bad anymore, it’s still not good, and I’m not sure that it’ll ever go back to the way it was.
Not that this is the SDMB’s fault, mind you. And I suppose that the concepts of agreeing to disagree and friendly debate would be more likely found here than in other places. This is, after all, one of the few places where I think, “Wow, there are other people like me out there!” Most other people I know in the “real world” had “dropped out” of such discussions long, long, long ago…if they had ever participated at all.
So, today, I am leaning towards renewing. However, I’m still on the fence.