How did you find out about SD?

[ElwoodCuse]

How did you find this website and the boards?

I read one of Jan Harold Brunvand's books about ULs and he must have made dozens of references to either The Straight Dope or Snopes. I originally spent most of my time here just reading the archives but eventually got hooked on the message boards.

How about everyone else?

[bender]

From the www.jokeaday.com site (hope that's ok), Ray drops in an excert of Cecils collumn on his site (it's still on the JAD site, but with links/brand all over the place)

From there, I followed the link titled Straight Dope Message Boards, and was hooked

[Palve]

From another Doper I know IRL. His picture can be found here:

http://scheisse.i8.com/doper.gif

[Palve]

Please disregard the picture above. It is merely a test to see how many people click before they read the whole thread. :p

[Ironblayde]

A weekly newspaper in my area runs Cecil's columns, and I always thought they were interesting... so here I am!

[Mighty Maximino]

I started reading the SD in the Dallas Observer in 1985. When it went digital, I followed right along, originally on AOL, changed to this site, and then I signed up for the MB eventually.

I don't think I've missed a column in 16 years . . . and I'm only 22.

[Essured]

Was trying to disprove something and ended up at Snopes and here. I read a whole bundle of the archives, like the OP'er until I stumbled in here, then spent a while lurking, before signing up, and the rests history, they say... :D

[BoiToi]

Esprix.

[DPWhite]

I began reading the LA Reader in 1981, read the East Bay Express and now on the web.

[Shakes]

I too discovered it in the Dallas Observer then it went to the met. Then I was bored at work one day and I hadn't had a chance to read the column lately so I figured I'd try my pot luck and typed in http://www.straightdope.com on my computer and viola!

When I first started read the SDMB I gravitated towards the GQ section and I thought to myself "Why hte hell would I care what some faceless person would have to say about my questions?" Then after reading I realized that there are some smart people on this board. AS well as some cool ones too.:)

[Dave Stewart]

Theo Britton.

I know you're still here, Theo. I just haven't worked out who you are yet.

[Esprix]

Snopes - I was reading a thread about the Newlywed Game ("That'd be up the butt, Bob...") and someone referenced an ongoing thread here. I checked it out. I stayed. :)

I've also recruited four people here, including the above-referenced BoiToi.

Esprix

[Caiata]

I used to frequent another message board, and enjoyed getting into spirited but rational and non-insulting debates there, until a bunch of militant people showed up and started replying to everything they disagreed with with long strings of expletives. Their debate skills included such gems as, "that's my opinion and if you don't agree with it, you should be shot" or "I don't need cites I'm a cop and I'm just going to laugh when you liberals get clubbed in the back of the head with a 2 x 4."

They were very prolific posters, and you couldn't get into a debate without them showing up and derailing it into an insult-fest. Seriously, it was that bad. Halfway down the thread it would just degenerate into curse words and personal attacks. It drove me absolutely nuts, and the place lost a lot of its appeal to me. I made my good-bye post.

Around four days later I got an e-mail from someone on the boards who read my post and sympathised with my plight. He gave me a link to these message boards, saying that I should enjoy them because the Great Debates forum was all debate, no insults. I read it and I loved it.

I don't post in there very much though because everyone always seems to make my points before I get to! :)

[pennylane]

That's pretty funny, Caiata.

Me, I was trying to find out what happened to bullets fired in air. My search led me to this site. I decided to join so that I could also ask what causes bubbles in standing tap or mineral water.

[Amazing Tiki God]

Stumbled into work one night and a cow-orker said hey look at this cool website. That was way back in early October of last year. I read all the columns that were on-line then started reading the MB. After lurking for a bit I decided to join and the rest is history.

[HubZilla]

I'm old-school... well, for a 27 year old

I loved the books first. Got them all. I loved to read them over and over again, especially the way Cecil talked in his first book. Interestingly enough, I never knew there was a newspaper column.

Then, when the Internet came out, I typed in "straightdope.com" one day. Loved the message boards ever since. And had one impact: made me seriously rethink my position on religion (happily liberated!).

How did I find out about SD books? From a Readers Digest long ago. It had that quote "if ignorance was corn flakes, you'd be General Mills".

[Myrnalene]

I also came from Snopes. I was lurking on the message board and someone posted a link to this site, saying something like "Here is what Cecil has to say about this!" I though, "Who the hell is Cecil?". I clicked on the link and the scales fell from my eyes.

[elfkin477]

The column runs in the Portland Phoenix (ME, not OR) and after reading the paper for a couple of years, I decided to see if it had an archive of old letters on-line. It didn't, but I found this site, though I'm not sure how since the URL isn't in the paper or on the paper's website, at least I don't think it is. I had no idea until then that he was a national columnist!

[Mauvaise]

I started out reading the columns in the LA Reader back when I was 14 or 15. I then picked up the first book, then the second and third. Got on the web, found the website, started posting to AFCA, then drifted over here.

[Joyfulgirl]

I used to watch the TV show on A&E before it was cancelled. Cool, some faceless guy who knows why manhole covers are round! I didn't know Cecil had a column until I picked up a copy of SLC Weekly one day and saw the words "Straight Dope". I read that for months before I was finally bored enough to type in http://www.straightdope.com. From there it was only a short threadspotting click away from the boards.

To this day, when I think of Cecil I think of a mysterious voice who knows everything and talks to bald guys with glasses.

[bordelond]

My experience with the Straigt Dope was initially similar to Hubzilla's. As an avid reader of trivia and urban-legend books (i.e. William Poundstone's Big Secrets series), I ran across both The Straight Dope and More of the Straight Dope in my college's bookstore about ten years ago. I picked both up, and read them both cover-to-cover within a few days.

I was hooked. I was aware or Cecil's weekly column, but unfortunately, New Orleans' alternative weekly paper Gambit did not carry the weekly Straight Dope (still doesn't AFAIK). Therefore, I wore out Cecil's first two books over the next three years. Heck, I even had to buy a replacement copy of The Straight Dope, I had worn it out so bad!

So when Return of the Straight Dope came out in 1994, I was thrilled. In that book were the first references to the Straight Dope's web presence. Incidentally, Cecil's references to "the Internet" (within his famous answer to "Just what IS a merkin?") in Return were the first times I had ever heard of the medium.

It took a couple of years before I got a chance to go online myself and check out straightdope.com, but I got around to it eventually. Now I could get a weekly fix! I started just reading the columns and archived questions about two years ago, but stumbled into the forums shortly after. After registering, I went for about a year without posting or participating much (actually, the vBB format was confusing to me as a Net newbie!), but I've enjoyed this forum fully since getting back into it again at the beginning of this year.

[KillerFig]

My Dad has always been a big fan. Growing up, there was a copy of Cecil's first book that Dad kept in the bathroom (am we alone in the assertion that Cecil's books make the best bathroom reading?). Found out about the website later.
-KillerFig

[Violet]

Around the end of Sept. This year. Through another Net site, but can't recall which one. It was love at first sight. I don't know how I could have posted so much in such a short time. Now the thrill is not exactly gone, but I find I post much less & sometimes feel a little down when no topics interest me. I still think this is the best message board.

[Lao Tsu]

I stumbled across Cecil's first book in a bookstore. I've been addicted ever since. The Staight Dope does make excellent bathroom reading material. I've also had to buy the first Straight Dope book three times. Loaned out to people, and they never came back.

[Ferrous]

I used to read the SD in the Washington, DC "City Paper" back in the mid-to-late '80's. After I moved out west in 1990, I never saw it in print. It wasn't in any of the newspapers, and I sorta forgot about it.
A few months ago, my company went on the net, so I started spending my down-time surfing instead of playing Free Cell and Minesweeper. One day I had the random thought, "I wonder if the Straight Dope" is still around?". I did a search, and here I am!

[rjung]

First picked up the SD in the L.A. Reader, and followed it religiously. Got rather disappointed when the Reader folded/spindled/mutilated itself and lost the SD, but with the Internet, I got back on the wagon and picked up the boards as a new addiction. :)

[Gatopescado]

discovered cecil in the early 80's in these things they used to call "the papers". i think they were made with stone and chisel, anyway, read the colums for years, then got heavy into these thick things called "books". they are great. after you read them, you can use them for pressing flowers or proping open the chicken coop door.

my wife brought home this little black box full of pixies, sprites and demons. its called "web tv". after months of porno sites where i saw stuff i hadn't even thought of doing with farm animals, i eventually got around to searching for my long lost uncle cecil, and here i am.

i am a computer neantrathal, and don't know how to do all the fancy stuff the rest of you guys do, so my posts are usually pretty lame

[dono]

I read my first SD in an alternative paper in Denver in the early Eighties. From then on, I'd always be sure to pick up the alternative papers whereever I traveled to see if they carried it. A few years later, I noticed the local library had both SD books in the trivia/interesting facts section. I discovered the website through Yahoo shortly after I got online, and it quickly became part of my weekly, then daily, routine.

I didn't pay any attention to the boards until "Threadspotting" came along. Gradually I became more interested, and eventually was wishing I could come up with something useful or intelligent to contribute so I could de-lurk. But since that never happened, I went ahead and de-lunked anyway on Ham Pancakes: Cowboys love 'Em! (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=95911).

[DougC]

- - - I found the books first, in order, and saw the AOL site mentioned in one of them. - MC

[bernse]

I used to watch the TV show whenever I happened to catch it while flipping through the channels. One day while surfing I remembered it and typed in "The Straight Dope" in a search engine and Voila! Here I am.

[HelloKitty]

Back in our shoplifting days, when I was 14 or 15, my sister and I picked up a few paperbacks from the used book store downtown. One of those books happened to be the first Straight Dope book...we were hooked!!! Could never find the column in any of our papers, so we just read the book over and over. Decided to actually invest some money in the others that came down the pike, and have bought several for friends, too.

Found the original message board on AOL and have been around ever since.

[Playdeaux]

This is pretty bizarre, actually. When I was in New Orleans one time, I picked up a bottle of roll-on Absorbine JrÔ. I let a friend of mine use it not long ago for a sore back. Later, she also came down with a sore elbow and wanted to buy some, but couldn't find any here locally. So, she started searching the net for places to buy it online.

In one of her searches, she came up with a link to the Straight Dope archive with information about the history of Absorbine Jr.Ô, and forwarded it to me. I thought it looked like a really interesting site, so I clicked on the other links, browsed around a bit, and eventually found the message board.

[whatmove]

My SD enlightenment also started at a local paper (comes out every seven days) that carried the column. Last year my roommate tried to get me hooked, but I didn't enjoy sitting in front of the computer for copious amounts of time. Then in the spring I had a desk job with a lot of down time, so he suggested that I check out the archives again. I got hooked and read the site all summer until a threadspotting brought me along to the boards. Now I can't get away.

[Mudshark]

I found it from reading one of Cecil's columns about the Beatles. I found the website, and I joined after a year and a half on lurking.

[Searching For Truth]

I don't believe I'd ever even HEARD of Cecil Adams before I joined. Catalyst had passed on some posts to me for amusement. I was interested, and quickly joined. I didn't even realize the magnitude of the scope the SD possessed courtesy of Cecil Adams until months after I began my SDMB enlightenment.

[jkusters]

Like so many things in live, I blame Esprix.

:D

JOhn.

[LorieSmurf]

I followed a link from Snopes. I got to Snopes from following a link on a Lois and Clark message board. I can't remember where i found that particular link, I've been going to that board for so long....

Lois and Clark forever! ;)
SuperLorie

[Infectious Lass]

I did a search on Google for Elmer Mccurdy, who was an Oklahoma outlaw who got mummified and ended up as a fairground exhibit and other various posthumous (did I spell that right?)adventures. I did this after I watched a BBC documentary about him and I was very intrigued.

Google directed me to Straightdope.com which had one of Cecil Adams' columns about it (and I spent about 2 days reading through them all!) and from there it was only a click to the message boards!

And wow, I got kinda addicted and I never stopped looking! And I managed to recruit someone to post here! but he only posted 8 times, he says that the board is too big and he can't be bothered to keep up with it. I don't have a problem with this myself, as I have no life whatsoever. Yay! :D

[illuminati]

I came in through http://www.bored.com

and I've never been bored since

[Cougarfang]

Originally posted by illuminati
I came in through http://www.bored.com

and I've never been bored since

me too, on both counts :D and i found the board after about two or three months of reading the archives. then, when i got to near the bottom of the page, i found threadspotting, and Fenris's soul-selling thread led me to the SDMB. [sappy mode]i owe it all to Fenris![/sappy mode] :D

[widdershins]

I first saw the TV show, and got a real kick out of it. "Hey, `Beakman's World' for adults!" I said. A few months after the show went off the air (damn you A&E!) I moved to DC and started reading the column in the City Paper. I moved from DC to a horrible place where none of the area papers carried the SD, but I always remembered it. When I finally got online, one of the first searches I did was for the SD website, and my faith in civilization was restored.

[Justin]

When the Dope was still on AOL, me and some of my "gear head" (mechanic/car enthusiasts) buddies used the ALWAYS EMPTY chat room as our own. Eventualy i explored the site, read the columns, and started reading the boads. I joined in 99, and still have less than 100 posts. (lazy? nah, just a lot of stuff that doesnt concern me....I read the boards every day though)
I have seen a lot of dopers come and go, and I have also noticed, that the dopers who frequent the General Questions boards are not the same ones that Go to MPSIMS and IN MY HUMBLE OPINION boards. Aparently the SD lives two lives- a place for people to aid cecil in the quest for knoledge, and a place for the general chatter and great thoughts we have throughout the day.
In the beginning, i ONLY went to the BBQ pit, and could flame with the best of them (so much for the newbies always get burned....never underestimate a redneck) but it seems like either ive lost my edge, or the people in the pit are getting smarter.....anyways, i rarely post there anymore.


Im Going to ad my SIG to this...first time ive used it in 2-3 years!........

[owlstretchingtime]

To settle a pub arguement as to whether elephants can jump. I put "can elephants jump" into a search engine, and viola! there it was.

Been an everpresent ever since, although only recently unlurked.

[Bedrosian Bixby]

I saw the TV show a few years back and really found it cool. So one day I was surfing on the net and decided to check if the show had a fan site. And rest is history.

[Agent0069]

::First, I had to tie him up, and then tease him with a whip and a striptease, until.....oh wait, that was something else. My bad! Actually I was told about this site by a friend of mine :)

[CandyBoi]

A little site known as http://www.bored.com ...nothing better then this place when relearning how to type for the 10000th time