A Doper moment that really stands out for me is firing up the Dope on September 11th, 2001, and reading a description of what was happening minute by minute in New York, written by people living it, not talking heads on television telling me what they think I should hear.
I have never been as well-informed about world events as I am since I started Doping. It almost scares me a little bit sometimes, that I have a passing knowledge of almost every damned thing that other people talk about. I would say I am probably the best-informed person I know thanks to this place.
Plus there’s all that other stuff.
(And we still need a Straight Dope members t-shirt! My vote would be for a very large, simple “CITE?” )
It’s funny how my love affair with the Dope started so innocently. My co-worker and I were debating what the “H” stood for in Jesus H. Christ and a Google search took us to this place. I had never heard of it, prior. We read Cecil’s column on the topic. Satisfied with the answer my co-worker moved on and I became curious and whiled away an entire day reading Cecil’s columns. The next day I discovered the message boards and read the threads feverishly. I was in heaven! I found intelligent and decent people all in one place! I just had to join!
And I did. All of my friends know I belong here yet none of them have joined.
They must just experience it, vicariously, through me. Whenever we have a question we need answered, and our own searches fail, they ask me, “So, are you gonna Straight Dope it?” (I love that we are a verb)
I feel I am a much more well rounded person because of this place. I have learned the answers to questions I would have never thought to ask.
Put simply, I* love * it here.
And I agree with the idea that our member shirt should just be “CITE?”
Um, so I’m really excited that my 2003rd post was a post about my joining the Dope in 2003.
I’ve been having trouble the last few years with reading and concentrating on books, and I’m a person who has always needed to read like I need to breathe.
So I get my entertainment and information here. I read the boards every day, but there’s so much to keep up with that I never get bored. I feel like I know a great many of you. My life would be poorer without your contributions.
My husband and kids always ask “So what do the Dopers have to say today?”
No, seriously. I’ve spent enough time grading and/or peer-reviewing papers for people that I am fed up with translating things from the original chatroom Martian. I’m sure there are other intelligent lifeforms on the Internet, but a lot of them are apparently incapable of using capital letters, commas, or paragraph breaks.
A lot of it is also habit and nostalgia. I think I’ve been lurking for a decade, or pretty close. I actually remember when they announced the upcoming AOL Straight Dope area – I probably shouldn’t publicly admit that I used to hang out on AOL, but I was maybe eleven when I got it, and this predated AOL for Windows, so hopefully it doesn’t count. :smack: It was a pretty good place to go as a teenager, because there were all kinds of things to learn there, and I didn’t get an IM asking “a/s/l?” every five minutes from the other people in the area. It’s still one of the better Internet “places” to hang out if you want intelligent company.
Besides which, you guys are also generally weird. Remember that bit in Muppets From Space when Gonzo was contacted by his alien family via his breakfast cereal? Yeah. Kinda like that.
Edited because apparently I can’t type straight today. Whoops.
I’ve been a Doper for so long I don’t think I could quit now. Now that I’m thinking about it, I feel so old - I was nineteen when I first stumbled across the SDMB back on AOL and now I’m twenty-eight. Shit. Anyway. The SDMB is pretty much my internet home. I know the inside jokes, I know the rules, I know how it works. It’s like a comfy virtual couch. My group of friends back in Chicago exists thanks to the Dope (although most of them aren’t active posters anymore) and right now I miss them tremendously. I’ve been invited to four weddings of people I know through the Dope. I mean, a lot of y’all are my real friends; I had my last dinner in the US with GingerOfThe North and WeirdDave and their adorable offspring.
Thanks to the Pit and MPSIMS I feel really well-informed about what’s going on in the world, especially now that I am in a country where my language skills are middling at best.
And, of course, the generosity of the Dopers never fails to amaze me. When I asked people to send me postcards, I was absolutely overwhelmed with the response. And not just postcards, I got coloring books from Canada, a calendar from Australia, guide books from California, and more. Dopers have sent me flashcards, markers, stickers, books, just loads of wonderful stuff. I am immensely grateful. Thanks to the Dopers, at least one English classroom in Bulgaria has no shortage of educational materials. Thank you.
Thats a great post Kyla, I feel much the same way, and that is the very reason I started this thread. For some, it could be a means to see what these boards are really about, for others it can be a nice welcome mat.
