what are their qualifications in writing? Are they writers off the boards or just picked from Straight Dope members?
Both. Some Staff Writers are regular board members, some have only posted a very few times, and still others have never posted even once and may or may not even know the board exists. Qualifications are generally some extensive knowledge of a particular subject or subjects, or perhaps just very good researching abilities combined with the ability to write clear, publishable articles which require a minimum of editing. Some Staff Writers do write for a living and have material published elsewhere, others (like me) have only written Staff Reports for the Straight Dope. We’re a fairly diverse group, actually.
Yeah, what Q.E.D. said. There are some other (possibly mystic) criteria that Ed Zotti uses in the selection process. We also have “guest contributors” from time to time.
If your question was an indirect way of asking how to volunteer, the answer is to send me an email (CKDextHavn@aol.com) offering your services and some sort of bio, listing some topics that you might be interested in doing. (I do the admin stuff for the Staff Reports.) And then we’ll see where it goes from there.
“Possibly mystic”? Mystic?!?
Ed, Ed, Ed. I didn’t think you were so incredibly lame. I am dissappointed in you. Why can’t you be more like Cecil?
Well, there goes all my brown-nosing points.
Don’t panic, Ponder. Ed has a little cottage in Mystic, Connecticutt. He goes there when he has big decisions to make. 
They’re a troupe of monkeys sitting at keyboards — with luck like you wouldn’t believe.
Ook?
Ack ack.
There is something that worries me, seeing this post three posts after one by Ponder Stibbons.
… and what? That’s it? Who are the Staff writers and here’s a million dollars? Who are the Staff writers and here’s your own spaceship?
:::sniff::::
…wipes tear from his eye…
Someone out there has actually noticed that there are staff writers here.
[sub]Og, it wasn’t in vain…[/sub]
slips a banana to bibliophage so he can check out a book
Preferably a book with nine or more pages, or one with seven or less.
Not all of us. For Staff Reports, I use a quill pen.
And here, all these years, I thought it was done with chisel and hammer. Nice to know that you updated, but hopefully you are using acid-free paper. 
Paper? I thought we were supposed to submit our Reports on clay tablets. I’ve always done them on clay tablets! Sheesh, paper, for Og’s sake. Next they’ll want us to use some fancy-schmancy electronical thingamabob or something. Well, I won’t have it. They can have my clay tablets when they pry them from my cold, dead hands! Y’hear me, Ed?
Has anyone ever tried to create a page listing all the staff writers and linking to the reports they’ve written?
Coming from Colibri, I just have to ask: What species?
Hummingbird, of course! I write really small.
Not to my knowledge. If you’d like to volunteer, I’d be delighted to ensure that your work is enshrined.
You’d have the problem that sometimes Staffers change their names, frinstance Hawk and Hawkeye are the same person (he takes off his glasses when he’s Hawk.)
I studied this long and hard, and even printed it out and held it up against a mirror, but still I couldn’t find the wickedly amusing comment. Gis a clue, Dewey!