It all depends on how you look at it. Most of the other forums have 2-3 million posts. Straight Dope Chicago has ~5500 posts. Over its 33 month lifetime, that is ~2000 posts per year. Which means that at the current rate of posting, it would take a thousand years to catch up to the other forums’ current post levels.
Of course, the poor Barn House only gets ~375 posts per year, so it would take over five thousand years to reach the same level.
Makes that ten year head start not seem so bad. 
nm
Who’s asking that it mean anything? I repeat, if it’s there, may as well make use of it.
There are two lists, separated by a pretty prominent marker. You are shortening one and expanding the other, making it (slightly) easier for people to navigate.
(addressed to all, not quoted poster)
A tiny problem that can be fixed with a tiny solution is still a win. Nobody would want this fixed if there were a lot of effort involved. I’m pretty sure the effort involved is minimal. If it is not, I’d be happy for someone to correct me, rather than dismiss this out of hand.
I wanted to make these points, but was unaware of the age of the forums. Thanks for making them for me.
How about this: Replace the “Straight Dope Chicago” position on the main board with a category called “Local Dopes” or something like that. Under that category, have any number of local boards, including Chicago and any other localities that the board sachems think might take off. Or that local denizens request. I’m not an expert, but I don’t think it costs anything to create beacoup sub-boards once you have a message board set up. And they might even attract lots of local ad revenues. You never know!
PS - I check SD Chicago first thing every day, as I live there. Perhaps residents of other, lesser burgs might do the same.
What about “Boo!” Let’s bring that one back, and keep it locked, of course. The more forums cluttering up the “Main” category, the better, I say. Move Barn House back too but split it up into several different forums dedicated to home repair: plumbing, electrical work, drywall repair, cleaning tips, etc.
I’m still holding out for a dedicated Rape Forum. Maybe it could be merged with The Marketplace?
Hey, they listened!
It’s sort of a message board rule that the number of forums is always increased, never decreased, no matter how moribund a forum is.
Apparently there is a touching belief by administration that advertisers will not notice the lack of traffic but instead will think “Wow, lots of forums, must be lots of visitors!!!”
Ask again in February.
If it were up to me, there wouldn’t be a Barn House or Side Converstions. The Barn House was created because Ed Zotti wrote a book called The Barn House about rebuilding/refurbishing an old barn into a house. He then created a forum on the Straight Dope webside about his book, because he owned the site. So it’s not a matter of people being interested enough in that topic to make it a separate forum (like The Game Room or Elections), but rather the board owner sticking unrelated crap on his website because he could, to try to publicize his project.
The Barn House gets the (in)attention it gets because it isn’t really part of The Straight Dope, and nobody goes there. So moving SD topics there is not sensible, IMHO. But I’m not a moderator here, so they can do what they like.
Side Conversations is stuff that is not The Straight Dope. Marketplace and SD Chicago are The Straight Dope.
Of course, we could always move everything but Comments and maybe General Questions to Side Conversations. That would make use of the category, and make just as much sense.
Originally, the goal was to see if local Dope pages would take off, and if so, then add forums for those local Dope topics. Chicago was the test case, because SD resides in Chicago and Cecil is a Chicagoan. It never really garnered the interest to make it worth pursuing the rest of the plan. Those conversations are typically just carried out in the regular forums.
Riiiight. Just as much sense.
The only direct notice from The Mighty Cecil was in Straight Dope Chicago, & if that were deleted for some reason…
Can it be called “Asking For It”?
With respect, no; you have never read the book. Ed’s house house was never a barn, one of his kids said it sort of looked like a barn. It’s in the book.
And I’ve personally been in his house - it was never a barn.
With respect, no I have never read the book. So what you’re saying is my statement is essentially correct except the part where I said “old barn into a house” I should have said “old house that looked like a barn”. I’m sure that’s an important detail for someone, but I don’t think it matters to this discussion.
They don’t want The Barn House to get an inferiority complex…
The house is not a barn and has never been a barn. Your insults denigrate the image we’re trying to promote of a forum of educated and mature posters pontificating on life’s great questions.
More than fifty percent of SMDB posters live in houses and they have a lot of personal feelings tied up in them. Some may be offended by your immature and cavalier innuendos about domicile abuse.
I propose that we have a moratorium on all snark going forward.
I’ve always respected your intelligent and well-written posts. But it seems here like you’re being overly dismissive.
No, it’s not important. It doesn’t change the message you were making. But it was also in error and being the Straight Dope and an error on a subject which is a pet peeve of mine, I posted to correct it.
So I guess it doesn’t matter but it was just a nagging little thing which irked me. Like when people make mistakes about coal.
Fair enough, perhaps I took the comment too harshly.