I know a lot of people were pissed off about the hacking that took out the Dope for most of February and a chunk of March, and with good reason. But I’m one of those “glass is half full” kinda guys. Whadaya call ‘em. Optometrists. That’s me, a big ol’ optometrist. So, I’m looking for the silver lining in all this. I think the board being down for almost entire month had some ups to it. For example:
[ul]
[li]Time wasted staring at computer screen could be better spent staring at TV screen.[/li]
[li]Many of our more prolific posters had time to take care of things they’d been putting off for some time, such as bathing.[/li]
[li]Our resident crop of trolls actually ventured outside, and were turned to stone by the sun.[/li]
[li]Time away from Straight Dope allowed Dopers to catch up on all the porn sites they’ve been neglecting.[/li]
[li]Almost a whole month without a new Pit thread dedicated to jarbaby.[/li]
[li]The “virtual manilla” color of temp board had side effect of performing laser eye surgery if you stared at it too long.[/li]
[li]Carpal tunnel syndrome caused by too much typing heals; users could focus on carpal tunnel syndrome caused by too much Return to Castle Wolfenstein.[/li]
[li]Allowed “cooling off” period in such heated debates as, “Who would win a fight between the Enterprise and a Star Destroyer?”[/li]
[li]Members could spend time at home with family; remember why they prefer to spend time with on internet with strangers.[/li]
[li]Prolonged downtime sure to spawn bumper crop of inventive new cuss words.[/li]
[li]Good opportunity to practice typing without using vB tags.[/li]
[li]Dopers take opportunity to explore other bulletin boards. N’Sync fansite overrun with political analysis of Enron scandal.[/li][/ul]
See? It’s not all bad. To what constructive uses did the rest of you put your free time?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Miller *
**
[ul]
[li]Time wasted staring at computer screen could be better spent staring at TV screen.**[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
Yup, I rediscovered my love for Daffy Duck cartoons.
[QUOTE]
[ul]**
[li]Time away from Straight Dope allowed Dopers to catch up on all the porn sites they’ve been neglecting.[/ul]**[/li][/QUOTE]
Well, on the plus side, we all knew that one day the boards would have to go offline for this upgrade - the hackers just saved us from a formal announcement and time for worrying and stressing over how we were going to cope.
And look! We’re back, better than ever with this flashy new board and colors . How cool are we? See that! Click that smilie, and it appears!! Excellent!!
Well duh, the Enterprise would be blown to space dust:D
I have returned to Newbie status, and I feel like a new man (OK I was only on for a month before the place blew up (wuzzint me).
I think I killed more time on the Fathom Forums (ya know they got a really spiffy chat room over there) than I ever did here.
OpalCat is a real cool cat, she lives on top of Manhattan Chase
But I also di something I haven’t done in many moons; I read a BOOK (did you know that the Chicago Tribune was (tangently) involved in an attempt to topple Fidel and Che back in '58?)!
The day before the boards went down, I lost my job (well, my assignment ended - I am a temp). The day it went back up (today), I got a new assignment. How’s that for bizarre?
Anyway, I used the time to learn how to design a website and master that new scratch I’ve been working on.
Shortly after the board went down I bought Diablo 2. I cannot belive how amazingly addictive that game is. Now that the boards are back, I can now spend less time playing D2.
See that! Click that smilie, and it appears!! Excellent!! 