A friend and I were having a debate about the merits of the Arts and Crafts movement and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture. When I got back to my desk after lunch, I had an e-mail from him with a link to this thread.
I couldn’t help myself - I started reading other threads, and registered that night. I can’t keep my opinions to myself, so felt compelled to register so I could start posting my 2 cents.
Blame him.
I homeschool my two youngest kids, who occasionally join me for a half day at my part time job. The kids asked a coworker what the dangling thing in the back of their throats was and he sent me a link to one of the posts concerning the uvula. Thanks Jim!
After lurking for a long time, I finally signed up in order to ask a question Still don’t post much, but read every day.
Hey there Venoma, now I can’t be original! My story is similar to yours…ah well.
I went searching on the Internet for an answer to some question for my physics class, back in 1he 2000/2001 school year. I can’t remember what it was, but it might have had something to do with why the sky is blue. Something astronomical, at any rate, because one of the links was to Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy web site. Fascinated by his interesting columns, I tried the message board and was soon hooked! Lurked a lot before I started to post.
Anyhow, folks talked about SFN and SDMB there, but I was too lazy to check the other boards out until the Piper debacle. Someone linked a thread of his from here, rejoicing in the thorough trouncing he was getting from the Dopers. You did what we couldn’t, I guess, and beat the shit out of him. Y’all come highly recommended from anyone who was around BABB during those days! This was before the Bad Astronomer could ban folks, so I got my first introduction to what trolling was all about. I even started a website for people ticked off by good ol’ Pipes. I think JDT here (whose archived threads I’ve read) was about the only person I’ve seen who had quite the train-wreck attraction of Piper.
Anyway, I bookmarked the Piper/Seethruart SDMB thread, but didn’t join in here for ages. Last summer BadAstronomy went down for a few days (because the trolls were getting to everyone and the BA wanted us to all calm down for a while) so I started checking out other places to see if I could feed my addiction. Finally, last August I see, I got interested enough in some topic to want to post, so I registered. Was most interested to see that Esprix and Venoma posted to both boards, as well as a few of the other respected Bad readers. I’ve been lucky in my associations, I guess.
The column has run in a weekly here for eons it seems. Last january my ex-grilfriend and I were watching the Sports and a reference to the Toronto Maple Leafs came on. She asked why it isn’t the Leaves? I said, beats me-I’ll ask Cecil.
So I emailed the question in, sure it would be answered. Someone responded nicely saying I should ask ‘the teeming millions’ instead. So I did, and it was answered. But I forgot about it until last June, after we broke up and I had a lot of time on my hands. Then I had a question about mowing the lawn in fancy designs, so I joined up again, because I forgot my username and password and here I am.
Toad the Wet Sprocket was my first favourite band (still way up there) and when they split in '97, Glen Phillips, their lead singer, headed off on a solo career.
On his webpage, under various links including a webpage devoted to various midwifes across the state of California, he had a link to this site.
Needless to say, I showed up at one of his shows wearing the SD t-shirt one time. And then the board came naturally.
Back when I was on AOL, it was around easter of some year or another, and AOL had a little contest where various areas had easter eggs hidden on them. If you could find them and click on them, you could win something.
One of those areas was The Straight Dope. I don’t know if I ever found the easter egg. I plowed through the archives and eventually posted a question in GQ.
I went to the present-day SDMB soon after the switch to the WWW. I do remember that Great Debates had only recently been added and I think it was very soon after Wally’s death, because I remember the commemorative banner. After about 20 posts I got preoccupied by other things and didn’t return for another 6 months, which I came up with the current screen name because I couldn’t remember my password for the old one. My post average ebbs and flows, but my new work schedule and a DSL line at home have allowed me to post with increasing regularity.
There was The Great Message Board War in the winter of 1999-2000, which, unfortunately, was sparked by some of our crowd, who liked to go over there and argue, recruiting a few members to come help them. This resulted in a counterattack by several LBMB members, who were hopelessly outgunned, but nevertheless great ruckus was caused on both boards.
Anybody who feels that is inaccurate or inadequate feel free to post your own thoughts.
