The title sort of says it all. Did you leave and come back? Why? I used to be religious about it. I don’t know. It was fun, there were so many great conversations going on. However, it was also harsh and wow, I got hammered at times for expressing a view that apparently was not the view I should’ve expressed. That was upsetting, right? I mean we all get to have opinions.
Anyway, I don’t know why, A little while back it crossed my mind, I hadn’t even thought about it, but I wondered what was going on, so here I am.
i faded in an out a couple of times over the past 25ish years … (I am pretty sure I joined around/before 2000) … with no particular reasons … just regular ebb and flow of interests.
but it remains my fav. go-to-place on the interwebs … switching over to tablet around 2010 made me more lazy to type, so I am more of a 90:10 (read vs. write) kind of member … and I never bounced back to writing as much as I did in the early years.
yet here we are …
I left for about 8 years or so cause I didn’t have my own PC and the board was going through a bunch of monetization shenanigans that I happily missed…I realized I miss reading cecils columns and came back around 2012
Me too, been here on&off for a few years and I agree with Al128’s “ebb & flow of interests” idea. And that this is a most excellent discussion and conversational forum, lot of wicked smart & funny peoples here! I especially dig the Cafe Society forum here, the classic rock music, Lord of the Rings and Jeopardy threads 
And I think the moderator’s have gotten better at spotting overly harsh responses and calling a check and/or banning those ones from the jerk factor brigade; EVERY forum website gets those fuckers & it’s best to not take it personally, you’re just a shiny avatar onna computer screen to them & their maladjusted social skills.
Hmm, didnt’ mean to turn that into a mini-rant but that’s another of the cool things about the Straight Dope: most of us here are respectful of everyone’s right to freely express themselves and that means I can say whatever the f*%k I want! 
Now I’m off 2my mini home entertainment complex to finally watch “Dune/Part Two” 
PS Welcome back 
I’ve been a member here since 2000, but particularly in the first few years after I joined, I was an irregular visitor (and poster). I can’t say for certain, but my recollection is that I had periods of months or longer when I just wasn’t here. (Probably off playing D&D or something…) I’d drift back in, engage for a few days or weeks, and drift off again.
But, for the last decade or more, I’ve been far more regular here, and it’s now unusual for me to vanish for more than a few days. 
I used to be all over it, now I feel like I’m lurking. That has such a negative connotation!
I stayed away for 2016-2020; quite irrationally I kinda blamed the Dope for my assumption that Hilary Clinton would win, so it got caught up in my personal (and of course quite ineffective) boycott of Things American during those years.
I joined in August of 2000, was very active for a while, then got a full-time job and had a lot less time for all things internet, then paid to subscribe, then forgot to renew it one year and lost the “Charter Member” tag (but I’m not bitter), and then rediscovered it after realizing just how toxic Twitter had become. So, yeah, I don’t think it’s unusual.
I’ve faded out a few times (I forget when exactly) but I always at least lurked.
Maybe that’s because some body put that negative connotation in your mind? Fear not, I “lurked” here for a long time before I began posting and taking part in the cool af Straight Dope community here and I think that is the nature, for want of a better word, of cruising the internet. We’re all looking for interesting places to temporarily and technically “be” somewhere else with other “people”, if you see what I mean. And for us quirky solitary types ( a fabulous phrase I actually learned here on SD!) it’s a hella lot easier and more fun than going out to bars or clubs and trying 2act normal! Just be who you are 
Don’t bet your last dollar your opinion on something will be accepted here.
One day it may be just fine.
Then the next you find you’re attacked by one person and then the shit flows down.
Even in the safe forums.
The more prolific you are posting or have an dissenting opinion because of your life experience the sooner it will happen.
The “jerk brigade” you speak of know exactly how far to push outside the pit. Then they carry on in the pit. If you’ve pushed back the more you’ll be vilified. The name calling and vicious hate filled bullying needs to go. IMO.
It’s always the same ones.
I, like you, have recently learned it’s a problem They have. Not a “me” problem.
I love this place. I found it fun and entertaining and interesting.
A bit of the glitter has fallen off, but I do love the Dopers and Cecil is my very favorite Doper.
I used to be active in many forums on many topics. As forums died off, I became less active in general. I’m on all the usual social media and the ones with “subs” that cover everything imaginable, but it’s just not the same. I will go through life phases where I am just less online outside of the necessities, but this place will remain my go-to general message board. I might leave for a long time but it will always occur to me to check back.
I’d say it’s just because the word “lurk” has negative connotations outside of forums, as in “what lurks in the shadows?”
I would love coming up with a more neutral term. To me, it’s more like being that guy in the friend group who doesn’t talk much, but listens.
I stopped posting in certain subforums for reasons 'm not sure the rules allow mentioning, then when the board switched to Discourse just dropped off entirely for a few years. I dislike it compared to the old-style forums for a number of reasons, such as the lack of pages. Just came back somewhat recently.
I’ve taken two deliberate sabbaticals, one about 3 years and one about 2 years. My 21st doperversary is next month.
I wasn’t angry at the place or the people, but I realized I’d become so addicted to it that it was crowding out my real life. My personality does “cold turkey” pretty well and “cutting back” not at all. So I just disappeared one day. Intending perhaps to return or perhaps not as the mood might appear later. Eventually the mood returned.
I cannot fathom lurking. YMMV of course, but anything worth reading is worth responding to. I now find I’m utterly spoiled when reading newspapers, magazines, websites, etc., and there isn’t an opportunity to converse and rebut. It feels so empty and half-assed. Kinda like watching TV with the sound off: something essential is missing.
Of course the few places that allow audience participation are mostly filled with the howling stupidity of the dregs of humanity, so that’s no good either.
This place really is special and if it dies before I do, I’m gonna miss it.
I left for 3 months soon after signing up after getting miffed at some grief a certain Doper gave me (I harbor him no ill-will now note but it did demonstrate how newbie-unfriendly the board was and remains).
I also mostly lurked for a couple of months after my lone warning in 2018 after flaming the then-current batch of mods out of frustration with their policies and attitudes-deserved, but I still stand by what I said. Almost left for good in fact a la Snowboarder_Bo after his lone warning around the same time, but slowly drifted back, esp. after all those mods retired after the switch to Discourse (where my warning apparently didn’t carry over).
As will I, both if you die before I do and if this place does! >snerk< [did I do those carat thingies right?]
And you sure are right about those other places. I can barely stand FaceBook long enough to keep in touch with those few dear college friends and scattered relatives I never get to see. I thank the gods that no one I care about is on Next Door-toxic ignorance squared.
I wish I’d found SDMB 15 years ago when it seems like my favorites of the rest of you’all did but I’m going to make hay while the sun shines. Better late than never could be my Dope avatar’s title phrase.
So well said, Beck!
It can for sure be newbie unfriendly, I learned that first hand very early on. I think what got me at first was I felt as though my entire character was being judged by a group of people on a forum that don’t know who I am. I began to get used to it, and there are so many lovely, funny, relatable people here.
I joined in 2000, but took a break from 2014 to sometime this past year. It wasn’t a deliberate decision, but around then I moved houses, and no longer had a computer or laptop that I used regularly and the vbulletin phone app (or was it Tapatalk?) was terrible. Add a newborn and full time job and it just fell off my radar.
I ended up more on Reddit, but when they killed the app I used I stopped going there regularly too, and eventually decided to check this place again in the hopes technology had improved. I much prefer Discourse over the 2014 experience and so I’m now often reading here.