I loved the books and read and reread them. Funny, I have never made a habit of reading the columns, though.
I joined and completely forgot that I joined until I gave some of the books to my son for Christmas. He told me about the mb and I took a look. I was hooked.
So, I didn’t start posting until two years after I joined. Guess I made up for lost time.
I find myself intimidated more by three things:
my lack of internet skills. I still cannot post a link here, despite help. This makes me intimidated in GD, because I fear the dreaded “Cite?”–you won’t get one from me…please don’t try to help me–people write things like, “do this but skip the spaces and change the brackets, but add this clever, pithy link word onto it(and I can never figure out how they have added that) and it’ll be fine.” It is never fine. I have link envy.
the vitriol in the Pit. I like the idea of a place where you can go and tell people to take a flying leap. But sometimes it is not needed. Sometimes it is waaaay over the top. I’m still waiting for a pit post to say(in response to a grieving OP), “you deserved to have your child/dog/spouse die because you’re an SOB on the mb.” It’s probably already happened…
and
the sometimes tortuous, tedious, picayune exactitude of GD. Someone makes a general point that is not even central to the main thrust of the debate. And someone else will come along and pick, pick, pick at that person’s post(usually ignoring the main thrust–not a full hijack, just a nuisance) and then that person until most of us are thinking, enough already! But it seems to be accepted behavior, but I find I lose patience with this approach to interesting topics,and I am not a mod. So, I don’t post there much.
I was very uncomfortable and intimidated and am marginally less so. My words of wisdom, such as they are:
Stay out of Great Debates unless you really like coming up with cites. (Fool that I am, I waded into GD too soon and unprepared. I still haven’t gone back, for the most part.)
If you value your sanity, don’t get too emotionally involved in either religious arguments or pro-Bush/anti-Bush slugfests. Nothing EVER gets resolved, and the constant sniping back and forth by zealots of both persuasions gets really, really old.
Try to resist the temptation to ever start a post with “I didn’t read the rest of the posts, but here I go anyway” before repeating something which (unbeknonst to you, of course) was already said on each and every one of the fifteen pages of posts which preceeded your own.
Read everything Sampiro writes about his mother. It’s worth the price of admission.
There’s a small group that really likes me, another small group that really dislikes me, and much, much larger groups that would either vaguely recognise my screen name, or wouldn’t even no I exist at all. I think that holds for most of the Dopers, and the sooner we accept it, the easier things are. Just watch your grammar and spelling to a certain extent, and don’t spew nonsense, but don’t obsess over these things, and you’ll be fine.
That said, I think there’s an element here that does enjoy getting a bit anal over the keeping of artificially high standards to the point where they forget about the fun, community side of the place, but that’s their problem, not yours.
I’ve been lurking since 1999 and registered since 2000.
I still get intimidated by some people here. After a couple of disastrous forays into Great Debates I learned to just read there.
And I write posts then decide not to post them on a daily basis. Sometimes a couple of times per thread.
Drinking then posting doesn’t work well for me; I’m a perfectionist typer and my typing tend to go downhill, and then I get frustrated trying to fix it. Drinking then reading can be tons of fun, though.
Fool that I am, with all these warnings about GD, I just know I’m going to wander in there now. I’ll be back for the appropriate "told ya so"s in a little while, to be sure.
I tend to spend a lot of time on Fark.com, and there are some reasonably intelligent conversations that take place in the threads there, but there’s always a contingent of folks who post merely to piss other folks off. I don’t see that here at all (granted, I’ve mainly stayed away from The Pit), and I appreciate that you all seem to respect each other regardless of any differing opinions. Feels like home.
My husband bought me a book on a lark for Christmas one year. I had never heard of Cecil Adams before that and I was hooked in the first 2 pages.
I lurked for several months just after the move from AOL as I was trying to come up with a clever username. Finally I found a thread that I had to participate in so I registered without a helluva lot of consideration to the name.
I had never even been on a mb before so I was intimidated for a while but lurked long enough to know most of the ropes. I still think that the majority of ya’all are the most intelligent, clever people I’ve ever known.
I’m still very new. I joined after having read Threadspotting for a year or so, and did so (still) feeling very much as you do.
To work my way in, I tried to emulate the things that I enjoyed in Threadspotting: an irreverent quest for knowledge of the profound and the trivial. My first attempt at Doperdom was this post. I was excited when it made Threadspotting, but still don’t quite consider myself a Doper, but more so by Green Bean’s calling me a Doper in the making.
I like QuickSilver’s list, and I believe I’m on step five. Although I’ve picked up on many of the quirks and customs here, I have yet to grok the semi-frequent “bring pie” references. (I almost once posted a two-item list, with item 3 being “Hi Opal” but thought it would be dishonest of me).
Listen to Harborwolf. Although I wouldn’t say GD is easy, I do find it a shame so many appear intimidated. Some of the really good debates I’ve lurked on appear to distill to two or three battling amongst themselves, badly in need of new perspectives others could provide.
In the end, trust yourself, trust your voice. We’re all in good hands here, each others. Post lots. The worst that can happen is you’ll be ignored - just post another day. Who knows, if you’re lucky maybe someone will pit you
Actually, even in the Pit people don’t post to piss other folks off. That sounds like trolling, which is strictly verboten. The Pit is where GDs go to die in a burst of flame. I don’t post there a lot, but it’s my favorite forum. All the really fun stuff goes down over there.
I’ve been on the Straight Dope since I was nineteen. I’m turning 27 in a couple days. So…yeah. Now I feel old. I’d say it took me a couple months before I stopped being afraid that some of the brilliant writers were going to flame me for merely existing.
Many people feel that the “new” perspectives offered are no different than the perspectives offered in the 13 dozen previous threads on the same subject. That’s why I really meant what I said about the best debates being in the Pit.
Sure, I’ll still go to GD every now and then. But not like I did when I first signed up here. Out of all the forums hit by pay to post, GD suffered the most.
MY SD moment was when I bought one of the books (the paperback with the blue cover) and found myself quoted under my AOL screen name in a discussion regarding the biological sex of Jamie Lee Curtis. (I was strongly on the side of “woman.”)
Depends on what you mean by “Straight Dope material”. Do you mean supersmart, educated, well read and can hold my own in ANY subject matter no matter what? (specially math related?). If so, then I’ll probably never be straight dope material. I’m not disciplined enough to desire to cram my head full of facts, pure facts and nearly nothing BUT pure facts (but I DO admire like hell those that can ).
If you mean a big fan of the concept, message board, other dopers and am reasonably well educated and can hold my own on my personal strong points? Then I guess back when I bought my first SD book in around 1980something or another.
I’ve always loved chatting and even debating with people. The “Dope” just takes some of my favorite things, among them socializing , reading and talking, and combines them.
I just jumped right in here, though I had already had a lot of experience on message boards; when you’re debating issues with Jerry Pournelle and Dafydd ab Hugh (at least, back then, when Dafydd was still relentlessly logical about his position), you learn how to stand up for your point of view and not to state things unless you can back them up.
To address the OP, I was a confident doper long before I ever found the dope. Amazing as it may sound, I was on a usenet group that had the same basic attitude, though it has since been overrun by trolls.
This may (or may not) be your lucky day. Since it took me over a year to figure out how to use superscript and subscript, I concluded that the help resources are atrocious. So I made my own “help thread” in ATMB last Christmas. It was my present to the board, just for people like I was and you are.
Of note is my last tip, which was the old way. The new and improved way, which the following link uses, is explained by rowrrbazzle in [post=5650293]post #10 of that thread[/post].
And thanks, Ellis --you are not the first to help, but I will try again soon.
I never really thought, “gee, what could I contribute to X”–I have those thoughts all the time re: specific threads, but I started reading a thread all about a prom dress and found I couldn’t not post my opinion. So, my first post was in the Pit. I just jumped in–I didn’t even know I should have gone to MPSIMS and introduce myself. Most folks were very warm and welcoming.
