# 25th anniversary of SDMB! **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 3, 2024, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532 "2024-01-03T01:34:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/21 "2024-01-03T04:37:26Z")
March will be my 21st anniversary here, and I’m 68, so about 31% of my life as a member, and slightly less as a Charter Member (I paid my dues when that distinction was an option). And since retiring two years ago, I now spend at least 31% of my waking time here. > [@SuntanLotion](#): > > Maybe we can make a thread stating our favorite moment on the Dope? [Here’s](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-post-ever/403261/12) my answer to a similar suggestion back in 2007, calling back a post by @pravnik shortly after I joined in 2003. > [@Best. Damn. Post. Ever.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-damn-post-ever/403261/12): > > A week after I joined the SDMB four years ago, I read [this GQ thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=170706), which asked > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally posted by **Love Rhombus** > > > > Would Godzilla be an “Act of God?” > > > > I was watching an old Godzilla movie when the thought occurred to me: how would the insurance people pay for a giant monsters’ rampage, if at all? Would it be a natural disaster? What exactly is an “act of God” to them? > > I was particularly amused by [post #14](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=3151928&postcount=14) by **pravnik** , who, after writing a couple of authoritative paragraphs about the legal status of Gozilla, concluded: > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by **pravnik** > > > > **Disclaimer: I am a lawyer, but I am neither your lawyer nor Godzilla’s lawyer. I do not practice in a Godzilla related field, and am not competent to offer advice in the event of Godzilla attacks beyond _Run!!! It’s Godzilla!!!_** > > Four years later, it’s still my favorite SDMB line. > > As **SNenc** said a few posts earlier: > > > [@](#): > > > > It’s questions like this that make me love this place. A completely legitimate question about a completely absurd scenario that generates completely legitimate, informed and factual responses. > > > > Only on the SDMB, folks. Although it doesn’t seem as if there aren’t quite so many completely legitimate questions about completely absurd scenarios now as there were back then ([Randall Munroe](https://www.amazon.com/stores/Randall-Munroe/author/B004H66444) seems to have cornered that market), there are still plenty of well-informed and highly readable posters who make it worth spending hours here every day. And a few total dipsticks. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/22 "2024-01-03T05:02:07Z")
Joined Jan 25, 2007. 17 years (almost). I actually found the SDMB in 2000 or 2001 but foolishly did not join and to this day I wish I had been around when we went pay-to-post so I could’ve snagged that coveted Charter Member designation. I paid for a membership for several years, even giving the extra bit to be a “friend of Cecil.” I let my membership lapse right before we swiched from to Discourse, something I regret doing since it’s clear that’s now a relic of the past. I mostly lurk and post to MPSIMS. There are some popular posters that I can’t stand and some unpopular posters who I really enjoy. This place has changed, mostly for the better, although I feel that, with our declining membership it’s just a matter of time before someone turns off the lights and locks the door for good. I’ve spent 40% of my life here. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/23 "2024-01-03T05:30:32Z")
Quit making me feel old. Yes, I’m in that fragile age where I only sometimes feel old. Either way, thanks to you guys for making this my favorite place to slack for at least two decades of it’s 25 years! ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/24 "2024-01-03T05:41:36Z")
I discovered the SDMB in 1999, though it wouldn’t be until later in 2000 that I actually joined up. So, 23 years for me. A couple of years longer than a third of my life. I remember a lot from back then. “All your base etc.,” and “Miracle Mexican Fat Burners,” and “Hi, Opal!” getting started, and “Penis ensues,” among others. And some of the posters! **JDT** , **WallyM7** , **Wildest Bill** , and **Oldscratch** , whom **Una Persson** (as **Anthracite** ) famously took down in a tipping thread. And a poster who ended all posts with, “Yer pal, **Satan**.” Oh, and we cannot forget **manhattan** , who is “the fucking hall monitor!” It was a bit of a wild west atmosphere in the beginning, but eventually, things got to where we are now. Not G-rated entertainment, but edgy enough for me. Anyway, I still like this place, and plan to stick around. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/25 "2024-01-03T05:44:01Z")
As for the Straight Dope Column itself I first read it in Chicago. The first one that hooked me was the one “Do male pigs have corkscrew shaped penises?” I still remember Cecil commenting about how he wanted to shake up the postal inspectors. I joined in December of 1999. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/26 "2024-01-03T05:46:16Z")
I joined 12 years ago. The years are flying by! ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/27 "2024-01-03T05:53:02Z")
‘99er here. I don’t think any of the other sites I frequented back then are still in existence. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/28 "2024-01-03T07:00:49Z")
I’m a March-of-99-er. Funny to think about _anything_ on the internet lasting 25 years. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/29 "2024-01-03T09:02:20Z")
I was here by 2001, but not with this handle, and then there were the pay-to-post absences etc. Pretty much half my life, in total. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/30 "2024-01-03T17:00:10Z")
18.5 years for me. During this period I have discovered that time passes. Two days out of three of those years, I have at least visited here. I am surprised to find that I have only read on the Dope for about 1,000 hours total during that time (I don’t know if that is an accurate statistic for the whole period, or if system transitions affected it. It certainly seems like more.) In contrast to many of the ways I pass my time, I count my time here as nearly always valuable. I learn from nearly everyone, the ones who make me steam as well as the ones who make me smile, or the ones who take me down paths I have not known in my “real” life. I am glad we are here, and I hope we may continue to assemble here indefinitely. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/31 "2024-01-03T18:05:52Z")
Long time lurker here. I found the Dope shortly after it left AOL but didn’t want to get involved because I thought it would be too big a time sink. Boy, was I right. I joined in the fall of 2001 after someone posted a question about lactose intolerance, my specialty, that I couldn’t resist. You won’t find it. My first 100 posts or so were all wiped out in the winter of missed content. (What a great phrase, whoever coined it.) Officially, I’m just about to celebrate my 22nd anniversary, which ain’t true. The takeaway is perfect Dope: never trust any one source for information; double-check everything. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/32 "2024-01-03T18:42:43Z")
By the way, my favorite change to the way things are is no longer having the join date and post count right up by posters’ names. It felt like that was too much of a “badge of honor” or even a weapon for some, and a scarlet letter for noobs or people who didn’t post much. I’ll admit that it, unwittingly, would sometimes taint my views on posters occasionally. Glad the old way of displaying join dates and post counts is gone. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/33 "2024-01-03T18:59:48Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > It **looks** like I’ve been here since August 2000, but I took a lengthy sabbatical in there. I had no idea it was so new when i joined! I’m a little bit different. I followed on AOL, and moved to the early version of the board using an email address that no longer exists. When the board really got going, it was too busy for me, and I took a long sabbatical here while posting at snopes. Good times. Good people. Came back here, had to create a new ID. Mentioned that, and my ID got deleted for being a sock. (mods - I didn’t know the password and couldn’t change the password on the old old account because the password change went to the non-existent email. Please don’t delete this account! I promise it’s the only one in existence.) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/34 "2024-01-03T19:11:26Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > I’m a March-of-99-er. > > Funny to think about _anything_ on the internet lasting 25 years. I was talking with my 31-year-old son about scams, and remoniced about the MMFHOH (Make-Money-Fast Hall of Humiliation). Did a search on it. I think MMFHOH . org has been taken over by scammers. (edited so that the address wasn’t clickable, just in case it has been taken over) > [@Baker](#): > > As for the Straight Dope Column itself I first read it in Chicago. The first one that hooked me was the one “Do male pigs have corkscrew shaped penises?” “I feel sorry for a clockwise Porky in a world of counter-clockwise Petunias.” I used to read the Reader at work. Immagine sitting in cube-land, trying to stiffle your laugh while reading about penile fractures, and coming to the line “I realize the target is small and the lighting is bad, _but we’re talking point blank range here!_” ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/35 "2024-01-03T19:18:45Z")
Or when Cecil complained about not being able to find a picture of the boar’s amazing Roto-Rooter, and how textbooks preferred to have lavish spreads of their anuses. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/36 "2024-01-03T19:24:19Z")
Originally joined after lurking for a year or so in 2002, left for a while and came back in 2005. I never read any of Cecil’s columns or books – I followed a link from a post on the Snopes message board. I was a fan and regular reader of the very similar feature in the San Diego Reader, [Straight From The Hip](https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/straight-hip/) ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/37 "2024-01-03T21:21:44Z")
My first encounter with Cecil’s work was in 1984 when his [poem about Schrodinger’s Cat was republished in Physics Today](https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article-abstract/37/5/9/403601/The-straight-dope). I was hopelessly smitten… I also arrived at this board through alt.fan.cecil-adams. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/38 "2024-01-03T21:32:38Z")
Wow, that was incredible. 😍 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/39 "2024-01-04T00:07:26Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > I mostly lurk and post to MPSIMS. There are some popular posters that I can’t stand and some unpopular posters who I really enjoy. This place has changed, mostly for the better, although I feel that, with our declining membership it’s just a matter of time before someone turns off the lights and locks the door for good. In the excellent TV series _Station Eleven_ (based on the excellent book by the same name), the main characters at one point stay holed up in an apartment building talking on the internet to the remaining few people who have survived the global pandemic. Then, one day, no more internet. I imagine it will feel like that. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532/40 "2024-01-04T00:24:08Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > **Oldscratch** , whom **Una Persson** (as **Anthracite** ) famously took down in a tipping thread. And a poster who ended all posts with, “Yer pal, **Satan**.” That was a fascinating thread to read, a blast from over 23 years ago. I turned it up here: [https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-tip-tip-you-motherfucking-yuppie-cheapskate-bastards-tip](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tip-tip-tip-you-motherfucking-yuppie-cheapskate-bastards-tip). Poor ol’ Oldscratch, he didn’t come off too well in the end, but man, most everybody in that thread sounds about 23 years younger than they do now, and almost nobody was aware that most bartenders and wait staff make the vast bulk of their income from tips. (Also, you have to have an income of at least $18/hour to afford a one bedroom apartment in San Francisco! Who knew the place was so expensive.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/25th-anniversary-of-sdmb/995532.md?page=3)