+1
That’s exactly the reason why I don’t spend a lot of time there. Plus I can’t stand nested discussions. Who the hell has time to click through all that?
If god forbid the Dope ceases to exist it won’t surprise me. OTOH I do think it will hang on for awhile, if only because there is a good-sized population here of a certain demographic who remembers how the Dope came to be.
I think the fate of the Chicago Reader is the only thing that will kill the Straight Dope, and with it the SDMB. And most of us probably will abandon it at that time, and not go onto a new independent board; though some will give it a go I’m sure, it likely will transition onto Facebook or an equivalent.
And said fate of said Reader is not dependent on web trends, so who knows when and if that will occur.
(the death of Twitter is often talked about, but I think if it doubles down on its niche instead of trying to emulate the competition it will survive, because it serves a unique need) (while Facebook and YouTube will foreseeably survive a nuclear war)
I think I mostly come to the straight dope because of a few posters. Some of these posters seem to be posting less and less. I agree that Reddit has a superior format, I think the Straight Dope is a little more intimate though.
Are we really dying off? Well, as one of the older ones I am probably safe. Since it isn’t very different from five years ago or ten years ago, I don’t suppose it will be very different in five years or even ten.
Good. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Depends on what you’re here (or there) for.
The fact that reddit posts aren’t in chrono order is very disorienting when you’re trying to have a conversation. It might make some kind of sense if you were seeking the most popular opinions on something.
The major problem with an upvote system is that often the first thing to catch a few people’s eyes collects most of the early upvotes. Then later far better comments languish on page 37 where they’ll never be seen and hence will never be upvoted.
You can change the sorting order. “Best” seems to be the default sort.
Top/New/Controversial/Old/Q&A
That is why I cam here from Usenet lo these many moons ago. You can’t really have a discussion if there are 50 posts between your post and someone responding. Which I think is a plus for twitter, Reddit and general comment users. They prefer their boards to be write-only.
If the Dope shrinks it might be because it is hard for many people to have to defend their positions, as our drive-by poster contingent knows.
The one or two subreddits I visit benefit from throwaway user ids. And even there, where downvoting is not that much of an issue, I use the New tab to read, because otherwise some posts never show up at all.
The Straight Dope website, like all websites, will eventually become an online Viagra retailer. In a competitive market, it’s name will give it the edge.
I guess I’m just stuck in the past, because I just can’t fricking follow Reddit to save my life. That discussion format just annoys the crap out of me.
I’ve been here, Christ, 17 and a half years now. Nothing has really changed in that time, and I can’t imagine anything major will change in 5-10 years.
I agree, about Reddit. It’s just too confusing for text conversations. I only go to Reddit to look at images (yes, but not just porn; I also browse a couple of calligraphy and penmanship subreddits).
The Dope is small enough to have actual conversations, and to recognize and come to know - as much as is possible in a virtual space - other posters. With millions of Redditors, some with multiple accounts, that would be impossible. It’s like the difference seeing a band in a bar versus seeing a band in Yankee Stadium.
Bolding mine.
I think you hit on something real powerful there. Although I might extend it to much of Facebook users too. The main motivation of most users is to post, not to read. They believe they’re broadcasting their fascinating life to adoring multitudes of readers. Except for real world celebrities the reality is far more mundane. Yes, many people subscribe to their friends’ feeds. But they skim what comes across mostly seeking an opportunity to throw out their own pearls of thought.
Meanwhile the site/app vendor’s motivation is clear: provide eyeballs to advertisers and whether those eyeballs are reading or posting between seeing ads doesn’t matter in the slightest.
To be sure, those of us who post a lot here (such as myself) are also enjoying the feeling of broadcasting to the masses. For much smaller values of “masses”. But IMO there are a lot more lurkers here who read for entertainment, education, or information.
For darn sure, as Voyager and Slow Moving Vehicle just said, our fairly personal group bull sessions can’t scale from a couple dozen participants in any given thread to a couple hundred, much less a couple hundred thousand.
I’m surprised it’s still up and running at all now.
Between the collapse of the online ad market (which is just getting started) and the rise of the big social media sites, there’s really not a future for sites like this.
You can tell how desperate the PTB are with the really poor choices of ad vendors. And since many people protect themselves with ad blockers, things are very gloomy.
At some point an overseas malware distributor is going to offer the Reader/Sun-Times parent corp. a chunk of money to take the forum off their hands and that will be that.
Exactly. Can’t stand Reddit. The few times I’ve gone there, I mostly get frustrated and sometimes confused.
I’m another long-time doper and want it to stay basically the same for the indefinite future. I figure I’m good for another 30 years or more, so I hope it lasts that long. Not optimistic about that, though.