# Did You Come Here Because of Straight Dope **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 20, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657 "2011-07-20T01:48:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/41 "2011-07-20T17:59:54Z")
Came here from the column and the books, of which I’m in one. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/42 "2011-07-20T19:38:31Z")
No. I’d read a couple of the books, but I came here from a link on some evolution topic or other, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/43 "2011-07-20T19:45:31Z")
I first ran across the column in a (long-defunct) alt weekly in Atlanta in the mid-80s. That’s right, folks, the mid-80s. Got the first few books as they came out. Lost track of the column as no papers carried it where I lived. Reconnected with the column through the wonder of the WWW. Lurked on the board a long time before joining. Still a semi-lurker. ---
**Author:** ![DirkGntly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/44 "2011-07-20T19:49:23Z")
Nope. I came to the Straight Dope website through the _ **TV SHOW** _. Yes, there was a brief flirtation with cable video in the late 90’s by the Straight Dope, hosted by some bald guy. I then found the SDMB through a link on the Straight Dope website. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/45 "2011-07-20T20:05:34Z")
I think I went from alt.folklore.urban to alt.fan.cecil-adams and/or the Straight Dope columns on this web site. Then years later, I created an account to make a comment of some kind on the message board. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/46 "2011-07-20T20:12:46Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I think I went from alt.folklore.urban to alt.fan.cecil-adams and/or the Straight Dope columns on this web site. Then years later, I created an account to make a comment of some kind on the message board. Same here. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/47 "2011-07-20T20:31:42Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > Same here. A quick check reveals that my last (only?) post on alt.fan.cecil-adams was in Feb 2000. So apparently I had nothing to say for 9 years. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/48 "2011-07-20T22:49:22Z")
I found the old AOL boards back in the day (96 or 97ish?) when AOL posted Cecil’s column about the existence of Dracula on their front page. Mostly lurked the incarnations of the SDMB even since – only started posting in the past year, really. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/49 "2011-07-21T00:10:33Z")
I read the column first. I don’t know how I came across the forums. It was either through clicking around on the SD web site or from an independent web search. I’m thinking the second may be more likely. ---
**Author:** ![RoeCocoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@RoeCocoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RoeCocoa)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/50 "2011-07-21T00:18:25Z")
I found the online column on somebody’s page of interesting links (back when such a thing warranted an entire page or an entire website rather than a sidebar on a blog) and started following the column a bit more than a decade ago. A short time later, I decided to look into this Threadspotting thing, and I’ve been lurking ever since. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/51 "2011-07-21T00:28:40Z")
> [@Sigmundex](#): > > I just checked my ‘join’ date - 12/31/99. I guess I followed you over here, kunilou. I have NO IDEA why I wasn’t doing something a little more exciting on New Year’s Eve 1999, but I’m glad I’ve been a part of the SDMB all this time, for sure. No doubt you signed up just before the stroke of midnight so you could post in a primitive version of the Celebrity Death Pool.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/52 "2011-07-21T01:46:58Z")
Of all the places, I read a quick article in a MacWorld magazine that mentioned cool and interesting websites. The blurb piqued my interest, and here I am… 10 years later… ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/53 "2011-07-21T02:20:50Z")
I had never heard of The Straight Dope or Cecil until about six months ago. :hangs head in shame: I stumbled onto this place when I was monitoring a customer’s account for possible fraud and a strange charge hit her account. I Googled the name and the first hit was a thread on this website. I read the thread, then kept reading… and kept reading… and kept reading. (The charge was legit, BTW) I lurked here for a while then decided to join up. Sometimes reading here is what gets me through a day at work. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/54 "2011-07-21T15:27:00Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > I had never heard of The Straight Dope or Cecil until about six months ago. :hangs head in shame: I stumbled onto this place when I was monitoring a customer’s account for possible fraud and a strange charge hit her account. I Googled the name and the first hit was a thread on this website. I read the thread, then kept reading… and kept reading… and kept reading. (The charge was legit, BTW) I lurked here for a while then decided to join up. Sometimes reading here is what gets me through a day at work. So you think you might have been monitoring a Doper? Cool! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/55 "2011-07-21T15:36:01Z")
Read a Reader’s Digest condensation of the Scientific America article on Cecil. I saved it and bought the first book, then came here when I got Interent access. I still have the article stored in a first edition of the first book I bought used. ---
**Author:** ![scruffycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scruffycat/32/200_2.png) [@scruffycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scruffycat)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/56 "2011-07-21T16:09:28Z")
I’d not heard of the SD before I came here. Another poster on here mentioned it on another forum I frequent so I thought I would check it out. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/57 "2011-07-21T16:14:00Z")
Sort of. I’ve never read the books, but I came to the site following a link to a Spotted thread, started poking around the Answers list, and there was one on deaf people that I found very interesting and forwarded to a friend who’d recently mentioned a deaf-from-birth nephew. [This](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2486/in-what-language-do-deaf-people-think) is the answer, which she told me she’d found very informative as it explained a lot of the difficulties her nephew experienced. After reading the whole archive, I jumped to the boards. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/58 "2011-07-21T17:35:39Z")
Nope, I had never heard of the column/book before joining here. I was actually searching for another board that I had come across years before (and was trying to find again). It had been a movie forum, so I googled something like “movies” and “forums”. I found this place through the results and originally thought that this was the place I was looking for. It wasn’t, but by the time I figured it out, I had already read a ton of threads here and enjoyed them. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/59 "2011-07-21T18:27:05Z")
Yes. There are three columns I would read religiously in the Chicago Reader and before I read anything else: The Straight Dope, Savage Love, and News of the Weird. Apparently, judging by my join date, it wasn’t until 2000 I discovered there was a message board connected to the Straight Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Kalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df705f/32.png) [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657/60 "2011-07-21T18:43:46Z")
The column was in my college newspaper, and one day, not long after I got on the web for the first time there was a link to the site. This would have been between 1992 and 1998, so I guess these boards weren’t here then, but I regularly visited the site. At some point after that I must have clicked on the link to the boards, and I lurked for a few years before I ever signed up to post. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-come-here-because-of-straight-dope/589657.md?page=4)