Talk:Trap Door Spiders

Current status?

The most recent date mentioned in this article is 1976. Does this group still exist? Pimlottc 21:44, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

I've no idea. Searched the web and didn't find any definite later references, though I did find some additional information for the article, which I've added. However, since Asimov was writing Black Widowers stories pretty much up until the end of his productive writing career and never mentioned anything about the model group being defunct, I think we can presume it was at least active through the 1980s. BPK 22:52, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Per Isaac Asimov's posthumous memoir, It's Been a Good Life, edited by his wife Janet Jeppson Asimov, the group's members attended a party for him in January, 1990. So it was active through at least that date. I have now noted this in the article. BPK 07:12, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Lanning

Caleb Barrett Laning, a Trap Door Spider member not used in Asimov's fiction, has appeared in the works of other science fiction writers. In Arthur C. Clarke's Robot stories he is cited Dr. Lanning, inventor of the robots, while in Robert A. Heinlein's story "Blowups Happen," about the first nuclear power plant disaster, he appears as a different Dr. Lanning.

That would be Isaac Asimov's Robot stories, yesno? --Paul A 06:26, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Frederik Pohl

According to Pohl's blog, http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2011/06/the-trapdoor-spiders/, he was never a member -- and in fact the reference given doesn't attest that he was, only that he lived in Red Bank, NJ. Goldfarbdj (talk) 06:07, 23 June 2011 (UTC)goldfarbdj

Arguing society

What is an "arguing society" I can find nothing as to what this phrase means. -Wikipedia Reader — Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.216.83.1 (talk) 15:56, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

"Debating" or "discussion" society might be a better term, though in no instance would it constitute such a group in the formal sense. Basically, I think, the objective was good conversation, not excluding controversy, and not necessarily sparing of feelings. In any case, the meaning should be reasonably clear in the context of the article. BPK (talk) 18:01, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Did you mean "reclusive" instead of "exclusive"?

Did you mean "reclusive" instead of "exclusive"? The word "reclusive" would better describe the society, considering how secretive this society has been, to this day. No one is sure if it still meets, or when it met for the final time! --- Recommend wording the sentence as: …The name is a reference to the reclusive habits of the trapdoor spider, which when it enters its burrow pulls the hatch shut behind it… --- Instead of: …The name is a reference to the exclusive habits of the trapdoor spider, which when it enters its burrow pulls the hatch shut behind it… 68.35.173.107 (talk) 15:41, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

I did mean "exclusive," though the other works as well, and since the former applies more to the club than the creature, I've made the change in the article. Thanks. BPK (talk) 18:11, 22 June 2015 (UTC)