Kal, please don’t leave. I see far too little of you as it is, and I enjoy your posts. You’ve taught me a great deal.
As for me, of course I’m sticking around! You folks teach me far too much and make me laugh and think far too much for me to give this up.
CJ
Still undecided, leaning towards not renewing.
The place just has a nasty undertone to it nowadays, where people (including myself, unfortunately) say “fuck you” when a simple “I disagree” would suffice. And I kept seeing the same threads, almost post for post, over and over again. And people (including myself, unfortunately) so obsessed with one topic they just mention it over and over again.
And any sense of “community” I ever got from the place has been pretty much killed by all the LJ B.S. and the two-faced people so wrapped up in a message board that they need to build a little virtual henhouse to gossip about it. And then insist on defending it. I guess I was under the impression that if you got a bunch of intelligent people together sharing ideas, it’d be immune to all that pettiness and gossip and shallow nonsense I thought I’d left behind in high school.
I see what you’re talking about, Sol. Even in the (relatively) short time I’ve been here, I’ve seen what could be perceived as a degradation of the sense of community and mutual respect that set this board so far apart from the rest when I first discovered it. Thing is…call me stubborn, call me idealistic, but I remain not entirely convinced that things are necessarily as bad as they seem.
It seems to me that the renewal period has just happened to fall quite nicely atop a heaping pile of the shit that’s been going on recently. The uproar over the so-called “Tubagate”, the Kaitlyn affair, the influx of thinly-disguised sock Guest accounts, and the increased attention given to the snark boards over at LJ courtesy of the above, have combined to make this place a lot less pleasant than it once was. It seems as though everybody’s pissed off about something or another, and lately there’s a lot to choose from.
But, in the words of many people much wiser than I, “this, too, shall pass”. It won’t be long before all this fades into SDMB history, and becomes one of those periods we all remember but don’t reference unless necessary. I trust I need not draw comparisons to specific past occurrences; feel free to take your pick. You’d know them better than I would anyhow. As to the snark boards, we’re all aware of the state of mind inherent in the majority of the posts there. They need receive no more attention in their current stomping ground than they would were they to bring their screeds here. DNFTT, but more importantly, don’t let the trolls feed on you. You’re better than that – we’re better than that – and each of us ought to know it.
The timing of the first round of renewals has created an artificial fork in the road. Correctly or otherwise, many are viewing re-registration (or lack thereof) as a symbolic acceptance or rejection of the SDMB as a whole, and they are doing this based on the current state of affairs. Now, I do not question the soundness of the judgement of those who disagree with me, even if I do not accept their conclusions. All I would ask is that, before you decide to turn your back on the boards for good, think back on what brought you here to begin with. Reread the old threads, reflect on the friends you’ve made, and remember what it is – who it is – that has made this place more than “just a messageboard”. Yes, we’re going through a series of problems right now that might take some time to work out, and some people are most likely going to remain unsatisfied. But at the end of the day, are we not still us? Have the people you know here changed that much? Have you? Has everybody here become so alien that, when you look at what’s happening right now, and where the SDMB is as a whole, you have no choice but to believe that this – unlike all the other difficult times this board has faced – is the crisis that divides us so strongly that we cannot recover? If so – if you can answer “yes” to each of these questions without a doubt in your mind – then I understand your decision to abandon this place.
But I don’t believe it.
I don’t know many of you all that well. In fact, I’ve only had personal contact with maybe three people here outside of the boards. Still, what I’ve seen in my time here, in the way of intelligence, in the way of fellowship, in the way of support, in the way of lending a helping hand, in the way of respect, and in the way of general human decency, leads me to believe that we as individuals – and we as a community – are different.
This is the Dope, and we are Dopers. What does that mean to you?
Is it really “just a messageboard”?
Hey, maybe I am laying it on a little too thick…but I’ve gained a respect and an admiration for many of the people here, and I’d be sorry to see you go. Every poster that leaves this board of his/her own volition is a loss for the ones that remain. It’s no good having a melting pot if you’ve got nothing to melt in it.
Well…I guess that’s all. Sorry if it was off-topic, but I’ve been wanting to say this for a while, and this seemed as good a time and place as any to say it.
Doubtful.
I’ve been doubting it for a while, but **C K Dexter Haven’s ** nasty attitude, and TubaDiva responding to it with a lame attempt to cover his butt, tipped me over to not renewing. Any place where replying to a polite question with “You did WHAT? How asinine!” is perfectly acceptable customer service is not a place that will have me as a customer. Not that anyone will particularly care. Nor will I care when this place disappears because people got sick of being treated like freeloaders even when they were paying.
Yeah, I saw those threads today and I’m in total agreement with you. I’m outta this crap.
Heh. I feel like Jerry McGuire. Well, he was TRYING to get people to follow him, so it’s not really the same.
If it makes any difference, I hope you decide to stay.
Regards,
Shodan
Thanks; if it makes any difference, you are one of the handful of reasons that I would stay. But the lefty agit-prop I get blasted with and have to wade through upon opening just about any thread gives me the agita just to look at, and that I don’t feel like paying for.
I don’t mind differing or alternate points-of-view, when presented civilly, but the internet’s ability to give every asshole a blank check to say whatever they want, however they want, from behind a screen of electronic anonymity, just chaps my ass. I could just as easily get this crap from DU.
Gimme a face-to-face conversation any day of the week; the impetus to NOT piss off the person sitting across from you lends a modicum of manners to the speakers.
On the contrary, if I do tend to " offer my views and opinions in an intelligent, polite manner", it’s because being on the Dope has taught me to *think * instead of react most of the time, and not to knee-jerk and not to take personal offense at someone just because they disagree with me vehemently.
But I thank you highly for the compliment! And since I am posting and was a dubious, I’ll say that obviously I’m staying - thanks to a certain handful of posters who expressed sadness at seeing me go, and a big thanks to gum, who paid for me and wouldn’t let me pay her back. I promised her I’d do this:
The Dutch Are The Bestest People In The Whole World!
About the only forum I read with any regularity lately is GQ, for just this reason. Hell, you can’t read anything in MPSIMS without some self-important jackass attempting to politicize a thread about muffin recipes.
I’m not sure if it’s worth sticking around just for GQ.
I’ll miss you, Exgineer.
Anaamika -I’m glad you’re staying. Vielen Dank to gum !
I am sorry to see so many leaving, but such is the nature of the beast. My time will come to move on, but not now.
I think the mods have a terrible job (not excusing or condoning any actions here), but also see that people do get to points where it is the right thing to go.
Best to all who depart. And welcome to all who arrive!
MinniePurl, I’m sorry to see you go, but I can understand how you feel, because I saw that thread. You illustrate an important point about customer service, especially since we are now required to be paying customers. Holier-than-thou mods and admins who are above the law are not good customer service, and we can see by this thread alone that such actions are scaring customers away and could kill the board entirely. Maybe that’s what they want, I don’t know.
Also, I still don’t see why what you did was so “assinine” [sic] in the first place. Even if it was, though, C K Dexter Haven’s reply was completely out of line.
'Heh heh. Well said.
As a person with less than a 1000 posts in over four years, I guess I really don’t need to renew. I could just become a total lurker. But I’ll renew anyway. It’s only $15.00. Maybe less. Do they have the discount again? I guess I better check.
I likely will not be renewing. The adminstrative bs has turned me off, and I also find myself having less time to browse the boards, and to post. It’s been interesting, but I’m thinking it’s time to move on.
This is driving me crazy. Somehow, I’ve managed to remain completely oblivious to the issues that keep being referenced here. I wish someone could at least post one good link to one of the juicier threads.
Haven’t really thought much about whether I’ll renew or not. To tell the truth, I kinda assumed they’d autocharge my credit card unless I asked them not to. It’s nice knowing I have to choose whether to renew or not.
One tiny irksome thing is that I’m a “member” and not a “charter member,” just because I waited too long to pay up. It’s not a big deal though, everyone can see my original signup date and knows how long I’ve been around. It could say “asshole” under my screename and I’d wear it with pride. I paid my 15 bucks.
Thanks, Manny, for that reminder of why The Straight Dope is still hard to beat.
I still have very fond memories of the Great Goat Cannon Project.
Where the hell else could I get that on the internet?
As bad as I sometimes feel about the rancorous political nature of some of my fellow Dopers, I am also often reminded of the great people I’ve met electronically and IRL that still makes this place worth visiting.
But it’s getting hard to sift the wheat from the chaff.