# Ways To Improve Going Forward: Your thoughts on the matter. **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 3, 2018, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049 "2018-08-03T16:29:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 23
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/441 "2018-09-09T20:07:53Z")
My one suggestion is to create sticky threads for events. Fun topics that everyone can participate in. They’d probably fit best in Mundane. Think of the SDMB as planning a party. You have to put things in place for your guests to have a good time. Give them a reason to visit. For example… A beginning of Fall thread. Covers fall colors, cooler temps, fun trips, hiking, hunting, whatever people do in the Fall. Halloween thread - pretty obvious 😉 Winter thread - going skiing or sledding? Fun things to do in winter? Vacation Trips to a warmer location? Thanksgiving, and Christmas threads. What’s your plans for the holiday? How’d it go? Any funny stories? Spring - similar to the Fall thread. Warmer temps, gardening, fun trips, excited about the winter cold ending. Summer thread. Close the thread and unstick when it’s no longer relevant. Start a new thread when it’s relevant again. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/442 "2018-09-09T20:11:03Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’m having trouble understanding what this board actually costs it’s owners? > Why isn’t revenue from prime memberships and ads not covering expenses? No one said they weren’t. No actual numbers or even that the SDMB is running in the red. Just that they want _more_ money. "\*It’s obvious we can’t continue as we have; that’s not profitable for the owner of this site. To strain the metaphor to the ridiculous place, with your help I believe we can turn this boat around and make this site profitable." \* See that implies the site isnt profitable but does not say as much. My WAG is that there is a tiny profit but that for the Sun Times is so small it may not be worth it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/443 "2018-09-09T20:27:31Z")
A bit more on sticky, seasonal threads. We need to encourage participation. Perhaps offer contests and small prizes? For example, in the Fall Thread. Encourage people to link personal photos of Fall colors and photos of them hiking or camping. Any photo of an activity related to the fall season. Create a poll for the four best submissions. 4th prize gets a SDMB coffee cup. 3rd gets a packet of coffee and a cup. 2nd place a T shirt. 1st gets the T shirt and Coffee cup. It’s all about bringing fun to the board. Make it a place people want to visit. Give them a reason to visit. Little contests with inexpensive prizes would drive more people here. That increases ad revenue and pays for the small additional cost. ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/444 "2018-09-09T21:45:34Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > My one suggestion is to create sticky threads for events. Fun topics that everyone can participate in. They’d probably fit best in Mundane. > > Think of the SDMB as planning a party. You have to put things in place for your guests to have a good time. Give them a reason to visit. > > For example… > A beginning of Fall thread. Covers fall colors, cooler temps, fun trips, hiking, hunting, whatever people do in the Fall. > > Halloween thread - pretty obvious 😉 > > Winter thread - going skiing or sledding? Fun things to do in winter? Vacation Trips to a warmer location? > > Thanksgiving, and Christmas threads. What’s your plans for the holiday? How’d it go? Any funny stories? > > Spring - similar to the Fall thread. Warmer temps, gardening, fun trips, excited about the winter cold ending. > > Summer thread. > > Close the thread and unstick when it’s no longer relevant. > > Start a new thread when it’s relevant again. All those topics or some variation of them happen every seasons already, more or less. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/445 "2018-09-10T02:23:26Z")
> [@Amara\_1](#): > > All of this. Let the racism and sexism continue to stand and the mods are very explicitly making a choice of who is welcome here and who is not. Bone’s comment overlooks the fact that racism and sexism will also turn off both current and prospective posters but he appears to view that (and their views) as non-important and is focused on ensuring that posters who repeatedly make racist/sexist posts stay because they “may add value”. You guys are making a very clear choice every, single day. Don’t be surprised if your choices have consequences. And to be clear Bone’s still far better on this than tomndeb. Like Lamia said, you guys just need to own your choices and make them explicit so posters can make an educated choice as to whether to remain. Like Lamia, I thought the issue was that some of this wasn’t recognized. > > Losing Lamia is a huge loss, potentially losing Kimstu (who has been gone for a while and I’m not sure why) would be a huge loss. It’s ridiculous that they are being compared to StarvingArtist & SlackerInc. But the “free speech” of the latter is apparently more important than bigotry. Both of them should be topic banned IMO. Finally it’s kinda telling that the mods acknowledge that there are prominent posters here who could not follow rules that would ban sexism/racism and they would, therefore, be banned under that scenario. Some of the usual suspects have jobs and one would suspect that they know enough to abide by those rules there. Why not here? Or in other words, why are they being held to lower standards than anyone else? The idea that you can’t ban sexist/racist posts because that would mean banning posts who would refuse to follow the rules…I can’t even. But you do you and enjoy your board filled with posters like StarvingArtist and SlackerInc while Lamia, UnaPersson and others like them leave. The issue with this fixation on so-called trolls, racism, sexism, stereotyping in general is that no one is in favor of a general ban on all types of that language. People pick and choose with all sorts of ad-hoc rationales what sort of language they want moderated. Another problem is that legitimate discussion on topics such as gender gap, immigration, cultural appropriation, how sexuality is determined, genetics etc are impossible to have if people are afraid of a loud, organized mob clamoring for bans due to a false accusation of bigotry. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/446 "2018-09-10T03:41:15Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > The issue with this fixation on so-called trolls, racism, sexism, stereotyping in general is that no one is in favor of a general ban on all types of that language. Sure. But the Mods can hand out warnings for those things, but they focus on trivialities instead. Warnings do not mean bannings, altho enuf can lead to one, of course. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/447 "2018-09-10T05:27:58Z")
> [@expectopatronum](#): > > All those topics or some variation of them happen every seasons already, more or less. I’m not a marketing specialist. I was making the point that the board needs promoted threads. Perhaps offer contests and small prizes to encourage participation. Put some excitement into coming here. Give people a reason to login. I’ll defer to people in marketing to recomend how that’s implemented. I see far too many new posters that lose interest and leave after a few months. That needs to change. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/448 "2018-09-10T10:58:02Z")
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Stack Exchange / Stack Overflow as a reference / competitor. In my view, it’s become one of the most credible Q&A sites on the Net for IT and programming, of course, but also sci-fi, maths, and several other broad subjects. It’s certainly more credible than Quota and Experts-exchange. There are important differences with the SDMB, of course, but it’s consuming the same demographic of people with questions. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/449 "2018-09-10T12:58:37Z")
I don’t have innovative ideas on how to rearrange the deck chairs on the Dope\*. Here are a few suggestions on what _not_ to do: 1. massively changing the format for no other reason than to create an impression that the SDMB is thoroughly modern 2. adding a bunch of forums 3. a new round of intrusive ads (or adding anti-ad block software) 4. cracking down on perceived rudeness/mean posts so the Dope is more “welcoming” \*except I always craved an SDMB t-shirt and refuse to believe there isn’t a way to market them successfully, or at least without losing money. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/450 "2018-09-10T13:20:02Z")
One thing about the Mods is that they are volunteers. Moderation will be inconsistent. Different mods will have different priorities. Different mods will have different amounts of time to spend on the board. I worry that all this griping about mods is just going to serve to make them quit. Who wants to put up with all these headaches for a coffee cup? Who would want to spend their free time on a task when it’s just means endless griping about what you did and didn’t do? Especially when the nature of this board means having spirited, contentious debates is the norm. It makes the pool of potential volunteers that much smaller. I think we’d all be better served by realizing that they are volunteers giving up their free time to do this. It’s not going to be perfect. They won’t be able to make everyone happy. I think there’s too much focus on “mods aren’t perfect” that we’re going to end up with no mods at all. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/451 "2018-09-10T14:10:40Z")
And I don’t even HAVE my coffee cup anymore. Damn kids. The griping and such really isn’t that big a deal. We do our best to deal with it and let a lot of it roll off our backs. I am always curious, though. How does anyone think something like this is sustainable without ad dollars? Ad blockers and such are real problems. I’m not privy to the financials of the SDMB but I was in publishing for about 20 years, man and boy, and membership drives and sales won’t bend the curve. Without ad dollars it’d be difficult to make it work. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/452 "2018-09-10T14:36:30Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > I am always curious, though. How does anyone think something like this is sustainable without ad dollars? Ad blockers and such are real problems. I’m not privy to the financials of the SDMB but I was in publishing for about 20 years, man and boy, and membership drives and sales won’t bend the curve. Without ad dollars it’d be difficult to make it work. I keep an ad-blocker on by default, but I’ve turned it off for the dozens of sites that have politely asked me to–and that serve only non-intrusive ads. Some sites (I’m looking at you, [kenken.com](http://kenken.com)) serve literally hundreds of “ads” per page that get blocked by Adblocker; if I leave the adblocker turned off, the single page will freeze my browser, and occasionally deliver me some faux ransomware. No way am I turning it off for those sites. Straightdope isn’t as bad as kenken. But it’s probably the second-worst site I’ve visited in the past five years for serving intrusive ads. Get a better handle on how more professional websites serve ads, and be a little more aggressive at detecting adblockers, is my suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/453 "2018-09-10T17:27:19Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > I am always curious, though. How does anyone think something like this is sustainable without ad dollars? . Because afawk, the expenses for the board are so small, the subscriptions pay for it all by themselves. No actual info has been shared. And of course the SDMB has a unscrupulous or uncaring ad provider that has served up some malware. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/454 "2018-09-10T17:51:39Z")
Ads are fine. If the reader would sell advertising space my adblocker wouldn’t even kick in. I object to 3rd party adtech serving up malware and following me around. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/455 "2018-09-10T18:03:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Because afawk, the expenses for the board are so small, the subscriptions pay for it all by themselves. > > No actual info has been shared. I’m in the same frame of mind here. ProBoards and all the other free boards (basically without ads) were so common that I never thought of the SDMB as being much of an expense. To go further I figured it was actually turning a profit just from the various subscriptions and all that the paper was using for other things. From my Ecunet time I know this isn’t always the case but this was enough bigger that I figured it had to be close to a wash at the worst on what we paid for membership and all. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/456 "2018-09-10T19:08:56Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > I’m in the same frame of mind here. ProBoards and all the other free boards (basically without ads) were so common that I never thought of the SDMB as being much of an expense. To go further I figured it was actually turning a profit just from the various subscriptions and all that the paper was using for other things. From my Ecunet time I know this isn’t always the case but this was enough bigger that I figured it had to be close to a wash at the worst on what we paid for membership and all. Like I mentioned before, when I was working at a school district it cost us literally nothing to set up a WordPress multi-user server. We already had a domain, a connection and public IPs. I was on salary and set it up in slack time, so no extra labor costs. It took less than 30 minutes to download and install. vBulletin isn’t free, but the latest version is only $249. Without existing network infrastructure vBulletin Cloud is under $800 a year for the highest tier of service. At $20 a year it would only take 40 paid members to cover that. ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2018, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/457 "2018-09-10T23:43:20Z")
Could a mod or someone ask **TubaDiva** to drop by this thread when she has a chance? I’d like to see what she thinks of some of the suggestions made on the last couple pages. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/458 "2018-09-11T16:08:11Z")
> [@expectopatronum](#): > > Could a mod or someone ask **TubaDiva** to drop by this thread when she has a chance? I’d like to see what she thinks of some of the suggestions made on the last couple pages. I passed the message along. ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/459 "2018-09-11T21:07:50Z")
Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049/460 "2018-09-11T21:53:03Z")
> [@expectopatronum](#): > > Thank you! You betcha! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049.md?page=22) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-to-improve-going-forward-your-thoughts-on-the-matter/819049.md?page=24)