It seems to be the tradition to refer to one’s SO as Mr or Mrs Username (although I’m not sure how that works with same sex couples). But occasionally I notice someone referring to what seems to be their SO by what seems to be an unrelated username. SO I’m guessing there are a few couples with separate accounts on this board. Tell me about your experiences! You can also tell me about family members, friends, and exes (be nice!) who are on the board who you know in real life.
Did you meet here? Did you know each other long before you realized you were both on the same board? Did you go back and look at their posts when you found out? Does knowing them in real life affect how you interact on the board? Did you recruit them to the board? Tell me something interesting about your history, relationships in both spheres, and how they interact.
My first instinct was to put this in IMHO or MPSIMS but technically it’s about the board itself, and this forum could use some posts that aren’t complaints or technical questions. But move it where you like it mods.
Personally, I didn’t know anyone on this board until a NYC meet up. Ironically, the only person I stayed in touch with regularly is Illuminatiprimus, who hails from the UK. But, my night owl tendencies have ended up making us effectively share the same time zone.
If I see a post by him, I’ll mention it when we chat. And if I see a thread by him I’ll make a point of participating. OTOH I haven’t yet cyberstalked him. Although I think it might be fun to deliberately see what posts he’s making and comment on them, so far I’ve only commented on posts/threads I happened on by accident.
I’m a visually/experientially oriented person, so it’s kind of fun to have a sense of what he is like in real life. My brain just doesn’t want to create a mental ‘user profile’ for people whose posts are only identified by a user name. I kind of which we had avatars, so my brain could properly process identities and form some kind of evolving sense of the identities and personalities of frequent posters.
My wife is Doper Mama Zappa. We had read the Straight Dope columns for years, and the books. Then my bride followed a link to a story on the SDMB (might have been Why I Should Never Wax by Myself, or maybe The Horror of Blimps) and she’s been on the boards since. Ahe got me a membership a few years ago.
I was going to call myself Papa Zappa, but she wanted me to have a very distinct board handle, so I picked Typo Knig. I realized years later I could have kept the theme going by choosing Father of Invention as a board handle.
There’s only a handful of Milwaukee Dopers on the board, probably less the 10 and maybe 15 from Wisconsin altogether. I’ve had dinner with one of them, if I’ve met anyone else, I wasn’t aware of it.
As for being visually oriented, I do tend to refer to the gallery from time to time to put a face with a name.
Eustacia is my girlfriend. She signed up only because sometimes I would read out loud to her something good I found here, or mentioned some discussion I was in. She doesn’t hang out here, though. Post count of 5.
My husband set up an account as Fairychatdad in 2003, posted in a thread about neutering our then-cat, but immediately lost interest in the board. It’s just not his idea of a good time. Which is fine - this is my playhouse.
Crusoe and I got married in 2008 and we’re expecting our first baby in January. I joined the boards in 2003 (followed a link from bored.com), by which point Crusoe had already been here for a few years.
I don’t remember us having much contact online, but then in March 2004 I went to my first LonDope, saw him and…well, long story short we moved in 6 months later.
My late wife joined the board first in 99 ,showed it to me and I signed up shortly afterwards. We both chose nonrelated user ids and remained members to the present. Ayesha was the id of my wife till her passing in 2007.
Peace
LIONsob
I frequently refer to Mrs. Mercotan, but her first name is Cynthia. She doesn’t post much. I met her years ago when I was still young and full of myself…
I’m the lovely and talented Mrs. Airman Doors. We met here and in SDMB chat in the late summer of 2001 and met face-to-face at a Dope-a-Ween party hosted by Jonathan Chance. We got married the following May and now are the proud parents of the sprog, who is now nine. We count many MADs, current and former, as friends.
In terms of the SDMB, we do have some unspoken rules, especially since we’re both active posters. We tend not to post in each other’s threads and seldom respond to each other unless it’s necessary, because the board culture frowns on in-jokes and because it’s too much like finishing each other’s sentences IRL.
My partner isn’t remotely interested in posting, but for convenience I’ve assigned him a name. I’m Dr. Drake, the alliterative male duck with the doctorate*, so he’s Mr. Mallard, the alliterative male duck with a master’s. Hmmm. Master Mallard would make more sense…
*I signed up not long after finishing grad school—seems a bit pretentious now
I joined in 2000, my husband Tripler’s a 99’er I think. We met at an Atlanta Dopefest August 19, 2006, got married 364 days later. Our only rule is not to hash out our IRL stuff here, which I think is a Dope rule as well.
When we got serious I took a full day and read all his posts. It was interesting, to say the least; watching him go from a kid of 22-23 to nearly 30, going through mundane and life-changing events alike, posting all the while.
Pepper Mill and I were together long before I joined the Board. She was briefly a member (and contributed a piece to teemings), but isn’t any longer.
She took her name from one of those “Find Your Stripper Name” things, taking the name of her first dog with the name of the street she grew up on. It came out to be Pepper Mill, which works extraordinarily well. And it worked better as a Board name than “Mrs. Meacham”, or anything like that. *
And when we started referring to our daughter, I forged parts of our names into MilliCal, which seemed better than “Meachamette” or anything like that.
*Even in real life, Pepper Mill hasn’t taken my last name, although we’ve been married for 17 years. Not only is she used to her own name, she doesn;'t like the sound of her first name and my last name. If she had known me in grammar school, she’d have written her first and my last name on her pad, then crossed it out a zillion times.
Wow, Bomb Bay Doors is nine already? It seems like just, well, not yesterday, but maybe last year, that there was the whole big announcement thread for the first Doper baby.
And Qadgop, don’t you have a daughter who posts occasionally too? Elfbabe, IIRC?
My husband is Zeldar. We met on an online Bulletin Board System (much like a chat room) 26 years ago. We celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary on January 1. I found SD first. Generally we participate in different forums.
For a long time No Clue Boy was the only one who knew that we were a couple. Then when we became friends with other Nashville Dopers, the secret was out.
I never see him anymore because he is always on Straight Dope and I am left alone to watch movies and weep quietly. His hair has changed from black to gray. (I catch glimpses of him now and then when he goes to the refrigerator to get strawberry popcycles.) If you see him here, please tell him that we are out of cocoa and BBQ potato chips. Also, the oven still doesn’t work.
Seriously, he was the first person that I got to know well on my computer and I couldn’t have found a better match if I had gone through a hundred dating services.
