Inspired by the thousand and one dating threads, I’m moved to ask: do you talk about the SDMB on a first date? Like, suppose your date wants to know more about you and how you spend your time – do you tell him/her about your vivid parallel life on the Dope? Or is it a dirty secret that you keep hidden as long as possible, and even beyond?
I have no strong opinion myself, since I’m decades removed from the dating scene. But I imagine that if I did find myself on a date, the SDMB is the last thing I’d bring up.
(This is all theoretical, since I’ve been in a relationship since I started on the boards)
Most likely it would be with someone who shared my interest in things geeky, so I could see the boards coming up. I doubt that I would just bring it up out of nowhere. Someone that would have a bad reaction to my online life (MMORPG’s, other RPG’s, the board etc) wouldn’t be someone I would want to date anyway.
It’d be slid in there covertly. As the relationship progresses, more details would form.
I’m bringing my girlfriend to another Dopefest this weekend and we’ve been going out since the fall, so I’ve thrown her into the Dope-fire. Then again, she’s a dork too, so she doesn’t have room to talk.
My marriage predates the SDMB by some years, so this hasn’t actually come up.
I do mention the board, though, when I meet new people, if something which makes mentioning it appropriate comes up in conversation. I can’t imagine avoiding the topic on a first date.
The last time that I had a first date was many years before I heard about the Straight Dope – in fact about when the Straight Dope started, in the 1970s – so the answer is “I don’t know.”
It depends. I’ve said enough things on here I wouldn’t want to tell a gal on the first date, but would have no problem sharing by the third. It wouldn’t be at all difficult for somebody who knows me to figure out what poster I am (given that just about everybody knows I play rugby for the Santos, and live in Santa Fe). If something comes up in conversation, I usually refer to us as, “this message board I’m on”. My buddies affectionately refer to it as my “blog site”, although I don’t think they know the url. I do have one friend, however, who has a few of Ciecel’s books, and knows I’m on the site. Whenever we have a disagreement about something, he always jabs, “Oh, yeah? Is that what Cecil would say?”
In short, I’d probably mention it in passing on the first date, but I wouldn’t let her know about the squid and goats.
Oh, hell no. I post under my own name and I would not want to give a comparative stranger the means to search for my, ah, let’s go with “unvarnished”, opinions. Translation: Sometimes I’m a bitch around here and I’d rather not have that be the impression left with someone who’s relationship material. At least not right off the bat.
First date? Only if it was someone I’d met through the Dope. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure I have far more interesting things to use as appropriately light and fluffy discussion topics during a first date - like movies I recently enjoyed, stupid but entertaining things my boss/friends/family did, and Seinfeld-like observations on life.
Eventually, the topic of online communities might come up, but that would probably come sometime after 2-3 more getting-to-know-you dates (right around the same time I’d admit that I crochet in my spare time).
This is all theoretical, of course… I had my last first date over 3 years ago.
I would wait until after we had sex. And I would tell her in the context of “here is a list of message boards where I will be telling people we had sex”.
As opposed to “this is the message board where I asked how long I should wait before calling once I had your phone number,” “this is the message board where I asked where I should take you for a great second date,” and "this is the message board where I asked ‘she says she likes me, but what does that really mean?’ " ?
