What Does the Straight Dope do for you?

In My Humble Opinion
41

[QUOTE=Stauderhorse]
The Dope opens my mind to new viewpoints, new experiences, things I wouldn’t have even conceieved of on my own. I’ll take a (somewhat embarassing) recent example: around last Christmas there was a thread about masturbation and whether or not it was “wrong”. I was raised to believe (and did believe) that masturbation was weird and icky and only whores diddled themselves. After reading the thread, I realized that this was a very narrow and wrong-headed view, and that it’s a perfectly normal and okay thing to do. It makes so much sense when you get past the “ick” factor, but I never would have realized it without that thread.

In short, the Dope helps me open my mind, which is one of the reasons why I love it so much.
[/QUOTE]

Masturbation has an “ick” factor? News to me.

42

[QUOTE=silenus]
Jane Austen, Prince Charles and Barack Obama walk into a bar. The bartender asks Charles if his ears are like that because Camilla holds onto them during sex. Jane takes exception to such obscene talk, but Barack defends the question on First Amendment grounds. If a tree falls in the forest, will the Cubs still choke in the end? Discuss with your cats.
[/QUOTE]

Jane wouldn’t have taken exception to such obscene language. She would have sat silently and then written letters at home to her niece making fun of you. :smiley:

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[QUOTE=Leaffan]
Masturbation has an “ick” factor? News to me.
[/QUOTE]
That was pretty much the conclusion of that particular thread (the question mark, that is).

I love the Dope because it’s a treasure trove of information, a great place to come and debate and currently keeping me sane in a dull dull job.

44

My main reason for being here comes down to connectivity. I’m not talking about a general concept of knowing that other people are out there (although that’s cool too), but of the fact that in this messageboard, you have thousands of people with thousands of viewpoints, specialties, strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, and experiences.

This is good on soooooo many levels. I’ve recently gotten back into database programming, and if I ever have a question, I know I could just head into General Questions and help get it solved, probably within a couple of hours.

That movie I saw 20 years ago and remembered maybe 20 seconds worth of one scene? Go into Cafe Society, and before the week’s out, I’m renting it from the video store.

I’ve had a lifetime’s worth of interesting jobs, which is cool, but it has resulted in an almost total lack of knowledge of Realpolitik in mundane workplaces. I’ve asked for advice a couple of times about work situations, and I’ve gotten really, really good feedback.

And I can participate too. I’ve answered a couple of “ID the movie” threads. Posting in Great Debates has clarified some of my attitudes toward politics and life. Also, I’m the veteran of a couple of pretty awful relationships, so when I see some kid ask questions about a guy or girl, and I notice that he’s about the same age I was when I had to go through that, I can step in and give my perspective–for all the good it does.

Or maybe I’ve been bitched out at work for something that wasn’t my fault, and I come home in a funk. Noooooo problem! I come home, get on the Dope, and head to the Pit. There, I look around for the biggest fuckhead I can find spouting off, and just go to town. I am seriously surprised at how effective this is at calming me down. Not only can I vent on a guy whom I’ll never meet, but just listening to some basement-dwelling Drooly McFuckwit follow the advice of the voices in his head when they tell him to pull random shit out of his ass and post it on the net makes me glad I’m me.

Hell, I just wish I had this board 25 years ago. I could have avoided a lot of stupid shit and idiocy. Then again, realistically speaking, if I were on this board 25 years ago, I probably would have been banned within the first month.

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[QUOTE=FairyChatMom]
1 - entertainment

2 - enlightenment

3 - exposure to things I might not otherwise experience

4 - escape
[/QUOTE]

What she said.

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[QUOTE=Oredigger77]
Also reading thread here and being forced to think about what I’m writing has cause a noticeable improvement in my e-mails and other written communication for work. I still have no skills at spelling or grammar but at least I think about it now or reread what I write.
[/QUOTE]

Man, that is so true for me. If you went back and looked at my earliest posts, you would see a big difference, but it is far bigger in Emails.

I now actually get people commenting on the quality of my Emails at work.

Thank you Dopers!

47

Because you poor people have to read the terrible, indefensible things that I post here.

In all seriousness, to write. There’s no other component of my life where I still have to write, really. I’m not an exceptionally prolific poster, but I don’t know where or how else I’d continue to do that activity.

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That’s so good. I actually feel like we’re providing a service, I mean even us who don’t know anything of any use to anyone, like me.

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The Straight Dope is a little like Alice’s Restaurant. You can get anything you want.

51

I can get to talk about books,science,international politics and Geeky things also.

I dont fit the Geeky stereotype,I am muscular, drink lots of beer and have even had GFs but I have a Geek mind plus I enjoy fine art and classical music.

I have virtually nobody that I can discuss such subjects with in every day life,not mates or colleagues so SDMB is a real life saver for me.

If it wasn’t for SDMB I’d have to make anonymus calls to strangers and tell them my opinions about the latest Ian M Banks book or the what was wrong with the Star Wars movies and other such topics.

So this MB is keeping me from becoming a criminal!

52

These days, I’m off doing much more IRL stuff than I was when I first timidly started posting here back in '01. Then, this was a cool place to interact with people in a different way, learn new stuff, and be entertained by some of the best minds on the planet. Today, I don’t need the Dope to be a mainstay of social interaction anymore, but it’s still a cool place to visit. Like a hometown from years ago, returning now and then to see how some things change, while other things stay the same.

I still turn to the Dope to read other folks’ opinion on movies, trends, and international news when I have a chance to. And I still learn new stuff from here. The best parts of the Dope experience really haven’t changed.