You don’t even need to be a member to read the news on the Giraffe Boards and it will certainly be discussed there. You are welcome to make a sock if you want to comment. It’s a very low volume board with loose rules. Given that it’s a spin off we generally disallow someone from grabbing a username of a regular poster here unless they are that same poster so if you see a familiar name it is the same person.
I wouldn’t mind the Giraffe Boards, personally, but it seems like some folks (on both sides) might…? I don’t know the whole history there. I remember the split, but I didn’t keep tabs on any of the drama that happened afterward. Did it cause some bad blood?
Discussing the specifics here is discouraged but I assure you that these days the Admins at the GB have no issues with the Dope and a few of the Dope moderators participate there
Fair enough. Thanks for the clarification.
I have access to all my PM’s going back to 2011, which is when I first began posting in earnest.
Evidently my recollection was wrong. Thanks for setting the record straight.
I will clarify further that I am personally on at least reasonably good terms with all of the moderators here and in many cases very good terms. Over the years there have been a very small handful of cases where we had to resolve a problem together that involved real life implications of a poster. I have been an Admin/Mod on dozens of fora and groups since the late 90s. Sometimes, rarely, what goes on behind the scenes is insane and a lot of what people assume is flat out wrong.
I’m stunned I’m the only one in this thread to mention Ed Zotti. Isn’t the SDMB essentially his creation, his fiefdom, and his property? Isn’t it still? How can anyone be talking about continuing the Dope without his input?
I’ve never talked to Ed and I have no idea of his thoughts except for the few terse - and usually annoyed - comments here since the change to Discourse. Maybe he’d love to get rid of the aging responsibility. Maybe he wants to see it live forever. Maybe he doesn’t care either way. But talking about a future and leaving him on the outside is indecent.
The mods must have some way of contacting him. Maybe he already has some plans in his barn.
I imagine it was just part of annual budgeting. Jerry gets paid $X/hr, Jerry spends Y number of hours supporting the SDMB per year. Therefore in a given year the board costs hosting/server fees + (X x Y) dollars. On the one hand it exaggerates the cost of maintaining a site like this, but from an organizational labor-tracking POV it makes sense. Especially if Jerry (like many IT guys at not-huge companies) is understaffed/overworked and is having to back-burner other pressing projects to support the SDMB, requiring a bit of overtime.
Yep.
@Ed_Zotti. He certainly has reason to be circumspect in this thread, but if he chooses to offer any words, the rest of us will benefit by reading & heeding.
Ed doesn’t give a fuck about us one way or the other, especially since the well went dry.
That’s not fair, he is keeping this place alive and really is getting nothing out of it to speak of.
He doesn’t own the SDMB or the Straight Dope. He’s mostly hands off just lightly supervising the Mod Staff.
He stepped up when the SDMB lost TubaDiva or we would probably already be gone.
Thank you, @What_Exit. That needed to be said.
What was it you said earlier, @hajario?
I stand by my opinion that he doesn’t give a shit about us. I agree that he does help out a little.
I only recognize that name from the old Cecil articles, back when the actual SD was still a thing.
I didn’t know that he was active on the forum, either as an admin or a poster. I guess I just haven’t seen his posts?
But if he’d like to chime in here, of course his thoughts would be very much welcome, and hopefully illuminating.
As would anyone else’s who is associated with the Sun-Times or who has any firsthand or secondhand or thirdhand knowledge of our likely fate.
I have had private conversations with a few former moderators and one long time employee and they are all remarkably consistent on this.
Generally, if there is a big “declaration” it’s from him, like major rules updates. His last activity was in announcing @ParallelLines as a new moderator (back in April).
Otherwise he doesn’t spend much time here.
I’ll just mention that the message board I used to participate in before I came to the SDMB, which as I said before was quite large and active, had a single admin who was also the owner and tech support. He was also a fairly frequent poster, not just on admin matters but just general chat. Yet as I mentioned before, the site was abruptly shut down a few months ago without even the courtesy of an explanation.
I’m sure that Ed would treat us with greater consideration. The point is, whether or not an admin is an active poster is not an indicator of anything except that maybe they’re busy with stuff in the real world. You could not ask for a more passionately dedicated admin than the late TubaDiva, who among many other things advocated for us with TPTB, gave us avatars, and migrated us to Discourse, but IIRC she wasn’t a frequent poster, either.
Well, then, he shouldn’t have any objections. That’s in no way a reason to not have the courtesy to ask.
Since it was brought up, I want to mention even if he doesn’t post here frequently, when I was going through the invitation and interview, Ed Zotti spent a considerable amount of time contacting me (it originally went to my legacy email which I don’t check daily), listening to my concerns about being a good mod, and reviewing my answers and general fit.
I think he does care, but may not have the time or energy to participate - something many senior posters probably can relate with, having taken longer/shorter sabbaticals from the site when it, or IRL, or both were just too much.