Why is the SDMB membership declining, and what's the best way to add younger members?

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

I agree with many points in your post, but this part keeps getting mentioned over and over by various people. I don’t agree with it.

@Spice_Weasel

The Straight Dope is dying because message boards are dying. They can’t provide the insta-dopamine hits of social media. It requires a lot of reading. And nuanced thinking. All ideas that are antithetical to the culture of social media.

From another Doper today (@Do_Not_Taunt ) in a Pit thread;

One of my favorite subreddits is AskHistorians - randos like me can ask questions to the academic historian community, and if you get an answer, it’s pretty-much guaranteed to be on-point, well-thought-through, etc. But it’s aggressively moderated. Don’t even try to leave a top-level comment unless you can really claim expertise in the subject matter AND are willing to write a relatively deep and well-sourced response. Consequently, many questions are unanswered. I see the best case of a new SD being like that, but across more fields and with less expertise (but still researched.) I’d love to see that. I’d pay for it.

There’s thoughtful, nuanced, well sourced discussion in lots of places on Reddit (and probably other places). I don’t buy the idea that message boards are declining because there’s a distaste for in-depth discussion elsewhere.

My personal opinion is that message boards implode because of infighting like what’s happening now. Message boards are more of a community than places like Reddit where they value information over community because they’ve all seen what happens with communities. Can there be communities that don’t turn to infighting? I don’t know, but I haven’t seen one.

This is a common sentiment on Reddit:

I like following subjects more than people.

and

I like the fact that I don’t know any of you

@Spice_Weasel

It isn’t just about supporting progressive ideas, either. It’s just a general restriction of discourse that makes it harder for people to engage on any meaningful level. One major reason I spend a lot of time in the Pit is because there aren’t so many damned rules.

But you were a mod, so you know all the “damned rules”, and they haven’t changed much. You didn’t have a difficult time before. There must be more to this than just the rules.