# Wait a sec... Is the SDMB on the verge of extinction??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 28, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905 "2008-10-28T06:30:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/61 "2008-10-30T22:54:56Z")
To all whom it may concern: This might be a blessing in dis… no wait… It’s a really bad thing. The SDMB has been nothing but a good thing. I actually think it’s increased my IQ by more than ten points. It’s improved my personality, helped my job, entertained me for over six years. So… on that note. If this does happen we should be prepared for it. We should formulate a plan to recreate the SDMB in some form independent of CL. Here’s an idea - all of you should move to the Isle of Man and we’ll just have one long dopefest. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/62 "2008-10-30T23:45:53Z")
Why don’t we just build our own new community, if it comes to it? [This website](http://www.yuku.com/) is one I’m familiar with and allows the creation of online forums, it’s cheap to run and could be created in exactly the socialist democratic method that people were agitating for in the relevant pit thread. Surely that would be better than trying to jump onto an existing site that isn’t designed the same way to what we’re used to? Not that I’m agitating for revolution you understand, just making clear we’ve got options if we need them. God this is like a modern Noah’s ark story! ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/63 "2008-10-31T00:16:47Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Here’s an idea - all of you should move to the Isle of Man and we’ll just have one long dopefest. You got a job for me? In that case, I’m game 😉 > [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > Why don’t we just build our own new community, if it comes to it? [This website](http://www.yuku.com/) is one I’m familiar with and allows the creation of online forums, it’s cheap to run and could be created in exactly the socialist democratic method that people were agitating for in the relevant pit thread. > > Surely that would be better than trying to jump onto an existing site that isn’t designed the same way to what we’re used to? Not that I’m agitating for revolution you understand, just making clear we’ve got options if we need them. > > God this is like a modern Noah’s ark story! \*\*Elmwood \*\*just did, earlier today 😉 As per a bit down in this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=490033). ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/64 "2008-10-31T01:36:48Z")
Haha - that little bit of confusion gave me a mental picture of a lot of Dopers all trying to be really together and prepared for disaster, but discussing so much and waving hands around so much that we would sink the lifeboat. 😃 Or raft, whatever it is. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/65 "2008-10-31T01:40:22Z")
Lifeboat? Raft? We’ve got time to piece together something better than that! We need to be able to raise sail, like they did on Shakleton’s Expedition! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/66 "2008-10-31T03:12:36Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > I’ll be over at FFF. > > I’m sure word will arrive there. An excellent suggestion, the first place I should check. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/67 "2008-10-31T03:17:15Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Here’s an idea - all of you should move to the Isle of Man and we’ll just have one long dopefest. If you could convince your government to let me move there, and my employer to let me telecommute five days a week instead of only two, I’ll consider it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/68 "2008-10-31T03:26:12Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > all of you should move to the Isle of Man and we’ll just have one long dopefest. No, 'cause Skald would keep staging Coup d’e’tats, however you spell it, bring all those gawdam flying monkeys, and Siam Sam would keep parking his car in neutral. No, it just won’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/69 "2008-10-31T03:44:26Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > I expect that all of the papers would continue to operate. That’s the only way they have any significant value. From the bankruptcy filing, the entire tangible assets (physical assets) of Creative Loafing are under $2 million, and they paid $40 million for two papers. The only way to recover anything close to the $40 million debt would be to sell the papers as functional newspapers. [With even the NYT rumored to be in trouble:](http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/10/new-york-times-nyt-running-on-fumes) > [@](#): > > Not sure how it came to this so fast, but the New York Times (NYT) is approaching the point where it will have to manage its business primarily to conserve cash and avoid defaulting on its debt. This situation will only get worse as advertising revenue continues to fall, and it will be very serious by early next year. > > The company has only $46 million of cash. It appears to be burning more than it is taking in–and plugging the hole with debt. Specifically, it is funding operations by rolling over short-term loans–the kind that banks worldwide are cancelling or making prohibitively expensive to save their own skins: I would **not** be willing to bet money on that. We should have seen this coming when _The Weekly World News_ went tits up. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/70 "2008-10-31T04:24:14Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > Lifeboat? Raft? > > We’ve got time to piece together something better than that! We need to be able to raise sail, like they did on Shakleton’s Expedition! Ah, good thinking, that man! Ooh, I just remembered something from the local evening paper here a few days ago. Right, a sad sad story of two ships/boats – look big things that float, OK - that are also very homeless and need rescued. What a happy coincidence. 'Tis Fate, I tell you. [One Mississippi paddle steamer and one square-rigged cargo ship](http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.2463807.0.clydebuilt_mississippi_steamboat_is_paddling_towards_the_scrapyard.php). Could you USA people send someone to the Big Unspellable River and someone to Hawaii and grab … requisition … those? AND I’ve had another brainwave. Just remembered another boat that’s been retired, and dammit, if my taxes helped pay for the thing, why shouldn’t I dash along and grab the queen’s old yacht [Britannia](http://www.royalyachtbritannia.co.uk)? See? We’re getting there. And rum. You need to have rum to sail. Or is that only for pirates? Would whisky do? I should be able to find some of that hereabouts. 🙂 Are we going to need sledges and nice dogs as well? Well, we have a couple of Dopers in Alaska, don’t we? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/71 "2008-10-31T04:31:02Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > No, 'cause Skald would keep staging Coup d’e’tats, however you spell it, bring all those gawdam flying monkeys, and Siam Sam would keep parking his car in neutral. No, it just won’t work. (He’s referring to **Lobsang** ’s suggestion that we all move to the Isle of Man) Well, that might work, you see, because the Isle of Man has a pretty unusual constitutional arrangement anyway, so it might take them a while to notice if a few extra people were to come along and stage the odd coup now and then. I like that idea. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/72 "2008-10-31T04:32:29Z")
If there is the need for recreation, what about archives of what we have now? Or is that something that Ed or Jerry would have to do? Probably. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/73 "2008-10-31T04:41:24Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > If there is the need for recreation, what about archives of what we have now? Or is that something that Ed or Jerry would have to do? Probably. Neither Ed or Jerry will have that power as the SDMB is quite clearly copywritten by the Reader. So it’ll be up to whomever buys those assets. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/74 "2008-10-31T05:11:54Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > I was always confident that my parents would resurrect me before they moved. And hopefully you wouldn’t be looking too moldy. > [@Sunrazor](#): > > On topic: I’m votin’ early to raise the registration fee to twenty bucks to keep the Dope alive. Come on, that’s less than two dollars a month! Today’s posts alone are worth two bucks. Shoot, I’d go $30. All of the various sentiments regarding setting up somewhere else sadly remind me of college seniors all promising to stay in touch with each other, but then everyone disappearing. I hope this Board stays. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/75 "2008-10-31T09:10:31Z")
> [@Celyn](#): > > See? We’re getting there. And rum. You need to have rum to sail. Or is that only for pirates? Would whisky do? I should be able to find some of that hereabouts. 🙂 > > Are we going to need sledges and nice dogs as well? Well, we have a couple of Dopers in Alaska, don’t we? Of course we need rum! And whiskey, and gin, and beer. No waitaminute, we weren’t planning my party this weekend. As for sledge-dogs. Wouldn’t trained dolphins be better as we are going to sail the seven seas in pursuit of the dread pirate Ignorance and his henchman Confusion? ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/76 "2008-10-31T10:54:12Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > I expect that all of the papers would continue to operate. That’s the only way they have any significant value. From the bankruptcy filing, the entire tangible assets (physical assets) of Creative Loafing are under $2 million, and they paid $40 million for two papers. The only way to recover anything close to the $40 million debt would be to sell the papers as functional newspapers. We ain’t a paper, though. We barely broke even for the old Chicago Reader, and while CL may have had plans for the future of this board as a revenue generator when they bought the Reader, as it stands we’re currently a drain on resources, given that they’re paying still **Ed** and **Jerry** , among their other duties, to keep us running. Realistically, nobody these days is going to buy a message board that might only possibly make them some money in the distant future, so expect the plug to be quietly pulled sometime soon: not with a bang, but a whimper. Pity. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/77 "2008-10-31T14:29:07Z")
Get over it. Go outside. There are birdies and flowers out there! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/78 "2008-10-31T14:35:39Z")
1. Bird flu 2. Hay fever ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/79 "2008-10-31T14:57:10Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > Get over it. Go outside. There are birdies and flowers out there! Rain, sleet, bare trees and only ravens on light-posts. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905/80 "2008-10-31T16:00:38Z")
> [@jali](#): > > **shayna** (who I think told me off more than once) Oh my! :eek: I totally don’t remember that. If I did, I sincerely apologize. I do recall posting to you about your new kitty, though (BTW, I had a kitty when I lived in Mexico, who ran up to me and insisted that I adopt him. I named him Chico, and referred to him as Chico Son. 🙂 I hope your Chico is doing well!) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-a-sec-is-the-sdmb-on-the-verge-of-extinction/469905.md?page=5)