Why do you post on the Straight Dope Message Board?

Because here my stifled wrath is vented, and even admired if it’s funny enough.

Sometimes it’s not funny enough, but I try.

Forget it, Jake. It’s Nerdtown.

Lately i post here just to display to the world how much i hate myself.

Living outside of the US for 29 years straight, this is one of my few connections to “home” as However, I don’t post as often as I did before. I don’t like the political environment in the States and lost interest in debating anyone about it.

Hey, I just like it, okay? I can quit anytime I want!

Its nice to post here because even if you don’t agree with somebody here, there is always things to learn.

I am generally the “smart guy” in my real life, which means people are always having me figure out things for them, or do their math, or answer their unsolicited questions about whatever rando crap pops into their head.

“Why does the car go rah-rah when I do this?”
“Why does the dog howl when he hears a siren?”
“Why is the sky blue?”

No lie, these are the questions my mother in law asked me YESTERDAY.

Its nice to be around people that are smarter than me, because I don’t really like to talk and there is a lot to listen to here. I interject sometimes on the board, but usually its not that I am smarter than whomever is posting around, its because I think I could clear up some bad assumptions I have experience with.

Its nice being the dumb one in the room sometimes.

Admittedly the folks who hang out here are usually a bit over my head and out of my league and in the real world I wouldn’t feel comfortable hanging out with this group. For me it is like the gold miner sifting through countless buckets of mud looking for that one nugget that will power him through countless more buckets of mud. Every once in a while I throw out a nugget and it motivates me to stick around for a while. I always enjoy the great conversations here.

You observe a security camera? :dubious:

Why do I post here?

Because it was an interesting place with sometimes intelligent, sometimes frivolous and fun interactions, with a wide variety of people and viewpoints. I read long before actually signing up to post. The old Straight Dope columns had the same sort of irreverent humor to them. Really interesting and humorous threads. Many views that did not demand expulsion of the poster for non-correct thought.

Now most of the interesting people with various viewpoints are gone except for a few token outliers who are tolerated. All that has been lost in time, like tears in the rain.

Time for a beer.

Before the internet was a thing, I was big into BBSes, and the SDMB retains much of the same model and structure. The people here are so much more layered and diverse than typical message forums. New topics pop up concerning subjects I’ve never encountered, and it’s enlightening to discover such remote viewpoints from my own small community. I can introduce a really obscure topic that only makes sense to me, and somebody here will prove to be even deeper into the madness than I could have imagined.

Even if the tech level isn’t as advanced as FB’s, I prefer doing a little extra work to add flourish. Flourish should *not *be easy to implement. Best of all, I don’t have to worry about being targeted with ads and spam every time I make a comment.

To crush my enemies, drive them before me, and to hear the lamentations of their women. Also, the one-liners.

Regards,
Shodan

Hey, I still feel like an outsider, even after 18 years.

Oh my, you are correct. The whole fall-back thing has my timing off.

This is my newspaper

I post here because I am an hysterical liberal SJW who desperately seeks to own the conservs by just asking questions that reveal devastating facts and logic.

I started posting here for one reason: to prove I was smarter than that small-brained Chicago weenie, Cecil Adams. And I won, didn’t I, you dumbass! You ran away like a dog with his tail on fire! You imperfect master of none! I crushed you like a bug!

Oh, and the hamsters. They’re delicious.

It is a place to turn to for information and discussion on a wondrous variety of subjects, from a wondrous variety of people—the near totality of whom are polite, well-spoken, learned, and not lunatics.

Seriously, compared to most other message boards I’ve ever seen, the amount of “drama” I normally encounter on the SDMB wouldn’t be enough to spread on a cracker.

Maybe things are red in tooth and claw in GD or the Pit right now, for all I know. But everyone seems to happily leave that all at the door when it comes to questions about what brand of spark plugs the Spruce Goose used, or where you can find the show bible of The Little Clowns of Happytown, or how to most gruesomely eliminate groundhogs.

Yikes!

I do it for the free submarine sandwiches.

That explains the smell of puppy pee wafting from your laptop.:slight_smile: