Wow, Odie. I wish I had read your thread at 4:15 yesterday afternoon…so I could add my “me, too” and be in such splendid company. Now I feel outclassed by all the keen folx in this thread!
I don’t think I “make the place,” granted…but I see folx, like me, but who have been around for longer…and see that their posts, like mine, just get breezed over. I’ve wondered if I have to be sexier, cuter or ;)-;)-nudge-nudgier to get a response…but I think the rejection of even that being ignored might be a bit too much for moi.
Well, if the 90 percenters would just post naked photos, we could bring that ratio down to 4 or five percent.
Well, I’m never mentioned, but it’s not for lack of trying… oh god, I’m a board clique wannabe. Time To Embrace My 90% Brethren!
(At that moment, Totoro looked into the crowd, and a shout was heard…)
“We Don’t Want You Back! You’re A Sell Out!”
(And with a facial expression that could be only described as shocked unhappiness, he turns back to the 10%)
“Oh no. You’re not coming over here.”
(With the same expression, he turns back and forth between groups. Then, suddenly and without warning, he rushes off into the sunset…)
[sub]Man, as if it weren’t enough to be alienated IRL…[/sub]
Hey! Me, too!
I really don’t understand this. By this, I mean my situation on the board. I suck at flirting, I’ve only gotten nekkid once or twice and that was just because everyone else was doing it. (So I’m a follower, sue me.) I think about what I’ve been posting about lately. I’ve been whining about my depression, I’ve been whining about how terrible I am at doing my school work. I started a thread about house keeping for god’s sake! How sexy is that? Still, I was nominated in the sexiest doperchick thread. And got votes too! I really, really don’t understand it. Sure, I have a link to my pic on the peoples pages in my sig, but it’s not like I’m flashing my tits in it or anything. I’ve been here less than a year, and I am scared shitless of all you longtimers and high post counters. Half the time I think no one even knows I’m around, and then someone drops me an e-mail and brightens my day. And then someone thinks I’m sexy to boot! I’m sorry, but I needed that. I loved it, loved the attention. I don’t want to be a clique poster. I just want to hang out, have fun and talk to people who really have come to make a difference in my life. My mother doesn’t understand it, but I know you do.
Ok, so I have no idea what I wanted to say with all this nonsense. I just needed to vent.
I know exactly what you mean Odie 
I have done a small amount of flirting, I have been mentioned in a crush thread, (ok, ok, it was a mention on a list of about 25 women Mr. Cynical wants to boing, but hey, it was a mention, right? ;)) but I have never really felt like everyone knew me, or would even miss me if I were to disappear. And you know what? That’s ok by me.
I have my own ‘elite clique’ of posters I know, adore, and talk to on a regular basis, and I know that they’d miss me if I wasn’t around. I know if I posted a sympathy thread, my friends on the board would offer me their shoulders to cry on, and try to help me out any way they could. I also know if I posted a ‘Congratulate Me’ thread, the same people would be there cheering me on. Of course, I would do the same for them. It may only be a handful of people, but it is a handful of people I care about, and to me, that’s better than the sympathy or praise of 12,000 strangers.
I may never be a superstar on the SD, but I know I am important to some, and that’s all I ever really wanted anyway.
Rose
Checking in, because of who started the thread. Count me in the group!
I just wanted to jump in, Keith, and second what Scotti said. How dare you say that I wouldn’t notice if you left! I’m insulted 
As for the OP, I think I’m somewhere in between. I’ve got a few good friends that make sure I get a mention in said “sexiest” threads, but (with a couple thread exceptions) I don’t flirt a lot either. And I certainly don’t consider myself part of any “elite clique”. My posts have been ignored and the couple of threads that I started died a very quick, thankfully painfree, death. (I don’t start anymore now :D).
But then again, I don’t shy away from posting TMI about my life (be it something sexual or mundane), but I’m like that IRL too, I don’t really think I have a “Board persona”. I’m just me. And if I’m not liked, shrug their damn loss not mine. 
[sup]I really should remember to not post until I’m fully awake, this makes no sense!
You are SO a star, my friend. And if you go, you will have to take me along, too.
[sub]I love this place, so I sure hope that Odie and dropzone don’t leave.[/sub]
Scotti
Another 90%er checking in.
Okay. I wasn’t going to post anything because after the last round of flirting got kinda out of hand I decided I was going to keep quiet for awhile, not that most people would notice. I changed my mind. Sue me.
Yes, I’m a flirt. Pretty shameless about it for the most part. Like Soda, sometimes I need it. I’ve don’t own nekkid pictues of myself, don’t even have one on the People Pages, mainly because I’m really only comfortable in my own skin with people who really know me. But I don’t start pity me threads and don’t see the point of post count parties. The only threads(2) I started were related to projects for school.
I’ve posted in every forum, not just here in the flirty threads. So I don’t make a big splash in GD and generally don’t post in there because I tend to get too emotional about certain topics. I can still answer the ocassional question in GQ, I have an opinion for IMHO and the Pit and I do have a lot of mundane points as well as alot of pointless stuff. I also have posts (most of mine it seems) that completely fall under everyone’s radar and I seriously doubt that anybody reads a thread just because I posted to it or because I started it. .
People have said that they opened this thread because of who started it. I’m one of them. Doesn’t that make odieman one of the “board stars”?
I think I might have been in the top 20% for a month or two, when I first joined. I don’t post nearly as much as i did during my first six months, and there are a bunch of new people on the boards nowadays. I’m actually cool with that, because I’m really enjoying being The Lurker Who Occasionally Posts much more than the drive by wiseass that I was when I first joined up.
This is not a complaint or whine: I think that it’s funny as hell that my name is rarley mentioned anywhere, much less in the flirt threads, but that my sig has been paraphrased in a lot of different threads. I smile everytime I see that.
It looks like Odie appears to have become one of the ten percenters without even realizing it.
He even managed to draw one of our favourite people out of seclusion… (((Hi Sue!)))
Boy, can I identify with this! I’m in exactly the same boat. The only time I’m ever noticed is when my opinions completely violate PC-ness or I pipe up on gun control (in fact, the only thread I ever started that didn’t sink faster than a .com stock was on gun control).
Here, however, the analogy breaks down.
For those who want to get more involved in the boards, I have a suggestion (and OK, I’ll admit it, a plea).
Come to GQ. Really! You don’t need to be a rocket scientists (although we could always use another one for the questions about LaGrange points and whatnot!).
Because in General Questions, we have great answers coming out the Wazoo. What we need, badly, are better questions.
Do you know that when the Leakeys announced an entire new genus of proto-human the other day, not one person asked about it? I expected questions like “What is the scientific standard for declaring new genera?” and similar.
We got about a billion questions about “Why can’t we just send Mir into the sun?” but not one on “What actual good science, if any, was performed up there?” Nope. I got a question about the Estelle Getty and the use of flashback episodes.
And the problem feeds on itself. If we have too many questions about bad 80’s sitcoms and “what song was this” (we do – way too many), than a lot of the good question answerers will abandon GQ or check in less often. That leads to good questions sometimes going unanswered, which leads people to ask easier questions, etc.
So help out GQ and eradicate your ignorance (and mine) all at once! Think about something you have always wondered about, run a web search and when you need more information to round out your newfound knowledge, come to General Questions.
Thank you for your consideration.
and I have no compunction about coming up and begging you to return (if you leave). I will use any means necessary, including Tim Horton’s donuts, backrubs and cases of diet Cherry Coke. I’ll even bring videocassettes of Alton Brown’s show, if it’ll help.
All kidding aside, Keith, you’re one of the very bestest friends I’ve got in the world, and I would certainly miss you if you left.
Same goes for anyone else (but you need to send your address). Everyone is a valued member of this board, and losing even one person diminishes the depth and flavor of the discussion (even JDT; he at least brought entertainment).
Robin
Another 90%er checking in. I also consider myself one of the 30% of board members that Tequila Mockingbird hasn’t sent nude pictures to yet. (Sigh) (Of course I haven’t asked yet either…Hmmm.)
Manhattan, while I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent person,(tho a lousy speller at times,)GQ intimidates the hell out of me. I think it’s all the demands for cites. I have a head for useless knowledge, and soak up info like a sponge, but I sometimes have a hard time remembering WHERE I picked up a certian bit of information. I lurk there a lot, but am a bit nervous about contributing.
Though that May change…
Odie, thanks for starting this thread.
I thought for a bit about what to contribute to this thead, and I’m still not sure what I want to contribute. But here goes.
I consider myself in the 90%, and that’s fine. I’ve had my share of threads that sank like a stone, and I’ve had a couple of rather provocative ones that didn’t. I even had one in GD that went for several pages. I started one self-pitying thread several months aga at a weak moment that, in retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have.
When I first arrived, I contributed to a few post party threads. After a bit, they all seemed rather pointless, so I started a thread asking if I was the only one who didn’t understand the appeal of post party threads. I posted to one thread a long time ago where I “named names.” I don’t do that anymore. My 1000th post came and went with no post party, and that’s fine with me. My birthday came and went without a birthday thread, and though I would have been happy and slightly embarassed had someone started one, again, I’ll survive.
I am virtually married to no one. I am virtually engaged to no one. I seldom if ever get mentioned in the flirty threads, and that’s fine with me. I have been known to post the occasional flirt; if I see an opportunity for an amusing double entendre, I will not hestitate to post it. The people here whom I consider friends know that they are friends; I really don’t care about the opinions of the rest. My posts to the “Sexiest Doperchick” thread were not sour grapes; I was merely agreeing with the sentiments that others posted. The Dopers I was referring to in my post to the “Sexiest DoperGuy” thread know who they are if they happened to read it.
This is the closest thing to a nude pic I’ve ever sent anyone. I don’t need to send provocative pics to anyone to prove I’m comfortable with my sexuality. Hell, I brought a vibrator to a DopeFest and brought it out in public; that should be good enough. 
The reason I brought it - we were joking around in one of the threads about it, and I said I would, and I thought it would be funny.
Tequila Mockingbird wrote
I have to disagree with this. The bottom of what? When I was a newbie, I never felt like I was on the bottom of anything (so to speak ;)). People didn’t know me, and that’s fine. Some people do now, and some don’t. It’s a large community and it takes a while to get name recognition.
At this point, except for DopeFest threads, I generally only post if I have something to contribute. I get most of the pointless chatter out in chat, so I have no need to do it here.
Odie, you forgot something very important. The first rule of the Elite Clique is do not talk about the Elite Clique. The second rule of the Elite Clique is do not talk about the Elite Clique.
Now odie, I opened this thread just cause it was yours.
I think I used to be in the 10% club as you term it. But not anymore. I’d rather be in the 90% club because well… it’s bigger! Joking aside, I do prefer to chill in the backround these days. Sure I’ll occasionaly flirt on the board, but simply in pure sillyness and fun. Moreover, reading or taking part in interesting discussions - with people I’ve come to know, have met, and don’t know - is what makes this place enjoyable. Agreeing with others, it’s the diversity and intelligence which really keeps me here.
another 90%'er here. I would have been voted “Most likely to be Ignored” but no one even noticed me long enough to nominate me.
Gone for 2 months, nary a worry out of anyone.
I feel so loved.