Some members are from 1999?!?

About This Message Board
1

Looking at the bottom of every page, the copyright date explicitly says 2000-2011. Yet, some members are from 1999? The Straight Dope is based in the United States; therefore, it is written in English and presumably follows American laws. Assuming that one would be allowed to access a public discussion forum at the age of 13 years old (otherwise, it would be illegal in the United States due to COPPA), 13 + 11 = 24. Therefore, the minimum age at which the oldest member here must be greater than 24 years! If this is the case, then these members are old! :eek:

And that is a very good thing. Theoretically, becoming older means becoming wiser. So, theoretically, these older members should be wiser than I. Practically, they are!

I wonder if Cecil Adams is the first member or chief administrator of this forum. Also, where is Cecil Adams lately? Ever since I joined this site, I expected Cecil Adams to show up and answer one of my queries. Apparently, I am disappointed, because it seems like he does not exist. Perhaps, I am becoming deluded. :frowning:

2

I’m damned old for sure. Hard to believe I’m still among the living at the ripe old age of 53. But shockingly enough, there are members much older than me!

Stoid
June 1999

3

It’s little known (and never acknowledged) fact that the original Straight Dope was an outback colony for criminals and miscreants.

Years later it’s a bastion of raw intellect, but it really had a shady beginning.

4

Cecil makes rare appearances here, every once in a while he does show up.

Copyright date probably should say “1999.” Not sure why it doesn’t. We can fix that. :slight_smile:

5

The copyright date of the current SDMB software has nothing to do with the original implementation date. Haven’t you heard of updates?

And yes, I am older than you are. Or want to be.

– from the dark days of 1999

6

Yeah, I’m older than you. Wise I dunno, I’ve made more mistakes than you for sure!

7

The earliest SDMB join dates are from February 1999, so in theory, the youngest members from that date would be 25 now. (I’m not sure if that rule was in place at the time.) We’ve had younger people join since then. There a Straight Dope AOL group for several years before the message board came into existence, and like the masthead says, the column has been around since 1973.

8

“Old” is greater than 24 to you? What are you, a fetus?

9

I know I posted at least one stupid question during the AOL days. Mostly just read the articles then. No idea if I used the same name at the time. Thought I did.

10

The copyright notice is for the implementation of vBulletin for SDMB, and is held by Jelsoft. Since in 1999-2000 we had UBB before moving to vBulletin, the 2000 copyright date is accurate.

11

To be more specific, at the bottom of the page it says:

ie, the software that’s being used to run this web forum is copyrighted 2000-2011. vBulletin is a standard package being used by tons of forums, it’s not SDMB specific.

12

…And the actual copyright date for the content is given below:

13

We were so much older then; we’re younger than that now.

14

I miss all those really smart and adventuresome posters we lost along with the Earth’s moon way back then.

15

Hi there. :slight_smile:

16

It’s all the same size if you set your browser to ignore font sizes.

17

That’s what I was wondering! I’m 32. I guess I’ll just get my walker, get my false teeth out and go scope out retirement homes now, since I’m clearly ancient.

And get off my lawn.

18

Why 1984, if the column has been going since 1973? What started in 1984?

19

Presumably the first Straight Dope website that was hosted by AOL.

20

Is this AOL from another universe, where the internet and websites existed in the mid 80’s?