why is mentioning other message boards forbidden here?

About This Message Board
1

Why can’t intelligent people dedicated to fighting ignorance tell other intelligent people about a message board that contains good info?
We are a general info site, but loads of message boards out there are specialists, that could be very helpful to somebody who wants more details than a GQ answer here

It’s logical to assume that most of us Dopers who post on other message boards don’t use the ones that discuss “the real truth about alien abductions”, or “guaranteed profits from day trading”, or “hot chicks sharing secrets” etc,etc.

It happens fairly often: someone posts here citing info from something she read on “another message board site” she frequents.
But we never learn the name of the mysterious site.

What harm will it do to the Chicago Reader, if somebody posts here the address of a message board site that’s devoted to, say, or home schooling?

2

I’ve made such posts in the past, and it’s about privacy. I may not be GorillaMan on other sites, and I may not want to shout about it. Such links may contain more personal information than I want to make widely-known here. Nobody gets to know everything I do in real life, and the same applies online.

3

I have wondered about this as well. I understand the idea of avoiding “Board Wars” and agree it is best for the quality of this board. My question is this: Is it discouraged or prohibited or just bad form to ask that the poster email the info to me to avoid this rule. Case in point; recent discussion of a board dedicated to the satire and ridicule of SDMB members. WTF is this about? But I can’t ask or go see for myself.
Any opinions or a Mod’s direction on this?

4

Wait, what? Since when is it not permitted to mention other message boards? Boards are linked here all the time. I just wasted two hours of my life because someone posted a link to a site listing pointless websites!

What’s not allowed is linking to a message board to start a board war. It’s not allowed to post “Oh, my god, those idiots over at iamanidiot.net are talking about creationism! Won’t someone go tear those jerks a new one?” Why? Because someONE won’t do it, some 90 pissed off Dopers tromp over there, create a scene, and then iamanidiot.net sends people here to shut us up, and it’s a whole big sticky mess (and not in a good way.)

Nic2004, those “special, not to be mentioned by name” anti-Dope boards are a unique situation. They’re essentially troll pits aimed directly at The Straight Dope Message Boards. Some people, some current Dopers, lots of banned former Dopers, some people who just like to stir shit up, post (mostly, but not entirely) anonymous shit about Dopers. There’s a lot of “Oh, here Nic2004 goes again, being a poo-poo head. He thinks he’s so great, and fat ass WhyNot’s such a know it all biotch!” (example made up…until someone steals it.) It’s sad, really. But it can cause a lot of hurt feelings, obviously, and it’s just best not to encourage active Dopers to feed the trolls over there. It’d be really hard, I expect, to go over there and see yourself getting flamed, and then not knowing (or knowing) that someone who said horrid things about you over there is being your bestest cyber-friend over here. It’s bound to devolve into name calling and paranoia. Best to leave that stuff there, IMHO. They’re not exactly secret, though. Google will lead you to them, if you really want to check them out. (I did check out two last week, because my curiousity got the better of me. My biggest problem with them was the simply gawdawful format and design of the pages. I couldn’t even follow a good snark without a dozen clicks and backpages!)

While I think that generally, people should be responsible for their own clicks, it’s understandable why the Powers That Be don’t want the snark boards linked to, or even mentioned by name. Occasionally, despite our masthead, ignorance is bliss.

5

Oh, and you can email anyone who seems like they know to ask them for the URLs. I didn’t save them, or I’d send 'em to you.

6

Who says there’s no linking to message boards with good info allowed?

Not the Powers That Be, from what I’ve read

7

I, for one, welcome our new robotic selves.

8

There’s no rule against linking to other boards, just against linking to the snarkboards, because that only causes trouble. People can always link to other boards when it’s relevant.

No. I didn’t have Internet access during the time when the snarkboards got really hot, and when I asked about them here several people emailed me the links. Shouldn’t be different today, and you won’t face any repurcussions for it; ignorance has to be fought somehow, after all. Just don’t talk about what you found there. Ask away. I no longer have the links but someone should be able to email you and explain it to you at the very least.

9

WhyNot and fetus- thanks. It has been a point of mild curiosity for some time now. When I first heard of this I’ll admit I was surprised that such a site would exist and had something of a morbid curiosity about it.
Thanks again for the insights.

10

Nic2004, someone else emailed me to ask for the URLs, so I looked them up again. Email me if you really want to know.

11

Just to chime in so there’s an official moderator comment: yeah, what they all said. There’s no rule about not linking to other boards. Obviously, if it’s relevant, feel free to link to any other board or website you choose.

There are only a few exceptions:
(1) There is a rule about not starting or getting involved in Boad Wars.

(2) There are some boards that are set up with the primary (sole?) purpose of gripping, complaining, and snipping at the SDMB – usually these boards are inhabited by people who couldn’t behave well enough to remain on the SDMB, so they have “gripe” boards, often called “snarkboards.” Linking to them is only going to lead to a Board War, so we do not permit links there. (Usually, when someone makes an oblique reference like what was described in the OP; “I read on another message board…” they mean a snarkboard.

(3) Links that are not “workplace safe.” This usually isn’t a problem with boards, so much as with general websites. The goal is that, if someone accidentally clicks on a link and their boss happens to walk by, they shouldn’t get in trouble for something they did inadvertently. Thus, we don’t even forbid links to porn sites as long as the first link (the one they might click accidentally) is “workplace safe.”

(4) Links to commercial sites that are primarily intended to sell something. We do make exceptions here if you seek advance permission; for instance, linking to a book description on amazon.com is acceptable.

Those are the only exceptions, i think, and the latter two are really more websites in general than message boards.

12

I think it’s funny as hell. After hearing about those places, I made a point of finding them, and I was quite pleased to see I’ve attracted a decent following of the dimwits. Obviously, I won’t dignify the trollboards with a post, but I figure as long as I’m annoying the assholes of the world, I’m on the right track. :smiley:

13

I don’t think it’s forbidden; I’ve talked about talk.origins, f’instance. What’s verboten is bringing disputes from other boards here, or otherwise going into matters that are impossible to follow without being a member of the other board.

14

I’ve mentioned my message board a few times in the past, but not in the context of promoting the site. A few message boards run by Dopers get mentioned far more often; the (former) Bad Astronomy Bulletin Board was a popular reference in GQ. Non-snarky, unofficial SDMB-spinoff boards founded by Dopers – Fathom, Unaboard, Skip’s Magic Board, G’Dope, and so on – have also been mentioned and linked in SDMB threads.

Some blog-like discussion sites, like Fark and Metafilter, get mentioned quite a bit on the Dope.

Really, it’s all about context.

15

They’re against us becoming Boad Warriors.

16

I don’t blame 'em.