An ATMB post by A.U. seeks to restrict the visibility of Straight Dope Chicago.
Let’s all 5 of us publicly support this forum, and show him/her the strength of our unified, few voices!!
Long Live Straight Dope Chicago!!
(go blackhawks)
Viva Le Dope Straight du Chicageau!
(Go, Cubs. No, really, go. Go to Rosemont or go to hell; you make driving East suck.)
Driving east? More like taking the Red Line north. During rush hour. I mean, it’s fantastic that they’re taking the Red Line and not driving around drunkenly and running over pedestrians, but Cubs fans en route to Wrigley are not known for their public transit savvy, or for their contributions to an atmosphere conducive to reading.
Anyway, the suggestion is to move the forum to Side Conversations, not “restrict the visibility”. This Chicagoan is not really getting worked up over the thought. It can have its trickle of posts just fine as the third forum from the top, or somewhere near the bottom. I’ll still check it.
If I were running this board (and God help us all!), I would make a top-level board called “Local Dopes” or some such. And under that, I’d have dozens of local city-based sub-boards, including Chicago. Of course, ours would be the best, but there are lots of other municipalities that deserve a chance to get the dope treatment.
I miss Chicago. I haven’t had a proper deep-dish pizza in years.
It’s not a bad idea. Reddit has hundreds of local subs, including r/chicago with 35k subscribers as of today. But the only reason there’s a Chicago forum here is as a companion to the Straight Dope Chicago column, which never really took off and appears to be totally dead now. So your idea, while sound, is unfortunately not feasible 'round these parts.
Of course, once you start adding these you run into the problem of how to organize and moderate those forums. Probably not something the Powers That Be are eager to tackle.
As I recall, that was the original plan. Everywhere Creative Loafing (the owner back then) had a newspaper, they were going to have a local board. I think Atlanta and Washington were going to be the next launches after SD/Chicago proved its worth.
But even the most ardent fans of this particular forum have to admit it’s never really been as active as it should be.
But was always interesting.
Chicago is at least as interesting as World of Warcraft, so why doesn’t this forum have multiple threads of multiple hundreds of posts like that game does in The Game Room?
Actually, I have to ask… why did the SDC column seem to die? Corporate master not interested? I love reading the back columns.
No, I don’t live in or near Chicago. In a way, the columns and this forum are a form of armchair tourism, and I think that’s a perfectly legitimate reason for them to exist.
Long Live Straight Dope Chicago!
Chicagoans, represent. 
Excelsior Chicago!
Sears Tower
Rosemont Horizon
Comiskey Park
Meigs Field
Kiddieland (did you know the sign was saved by the Melrose Park Library?)
That is all.
Am I a Chicagoan? Let’s see:
- Pizza is supposed to be thick, almost a casserole in a crust
- A proper hot dog never has catsup on it
- I can still do the Super Bowl Shuffle (and I cried when Sweetness died)
- I put chairs on the street to save my spot after shoveling
- I watch Ferris Bueller or Blues Brothers and point out the location goofs.
- Disco Demolition, baby!
- It will always be Comiskey Stadium and the Sears Tower. None of this Cellular Field and Willis Tower crap.
- All of our professional sports teams have had championships within the past 30 years. The Cubs are basically a glorified AAA team.
- I remember Chicagofest before it became Taste of Chicago. (Jeez, I’m freaking old!)
- Johnny in the Morning on The Loop (“We’re all crazy in Chicago!”)
- Steve Dahl and Gary Meier with such classic hits as “Heal me!” and “Another kid in the crawl”
Yeah. I’m a Chicagoan. South Side Irish all the way.
I think that “Straight Dope Chicago” deserves its spot for historical reasons, but …
Since the problem is that it is a low-traffic forum, this appeal thread runs the risk of being neglected.
Mods – how about a move to IMHO? 
If I could play softball all year 'round, I’d move back.
Whirlyball!
Is that specific to Chicago? I’ve only played it once. Oddly it was the only “sporting event” I’ve ever been involved in where two participants actually suffered broken bones. Weird, huh?
And, I don’t know if it is the only place, but I found the Whirlyball place on North Ave. to be kinda sketchy.
Yes, that was the original plan. Chicago was used as a test, to see how it fared, and then similar boards would be launched for other cities, Atlanta and Washington were the next targets. I’m not sure exactly why it didn’t proceed, but my WAG would be that there just wasn’t enough posting going on so that the benefit/cost analysis of trying to start (and moderate) other cities just wasn’t worth it. ANd then Creative Loafing sold us…
Don’t know if it’s a Chicago thing but the place in Lombard is pretty good. Had a “team building” event there. Lots of food, lots of beer, lots of chances to slam my boss’ car against the wall. I think my coworkers and I gave him whiplash because he didn’t come in to work the next day. 
Viva Le Southwest 'Burbs!