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.
Here’s my answer to a similar suggestion back in 2007, calling back a post by @pravnik shortly after I joined in 2003.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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)
“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!”
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.
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
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.
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. 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.)
