I’m glad you said you found it through bored.com, because otherwise I would have been ashamed to admit that that’s how I found it, too. 
I’m surprised that not as many found it off of bored.com. I would’ve thought that there would’ve been alot more people saying that that’s how they found SD. In any case, I remember the first column I ever read was the one about “What would happen if a billion Chinese jumped at once off of chairs”. Cecil’s smartass answer still continues to tickle me to this day.
I’m surprised that not as many found it off of bored.com. I would’ve thought that there would’ve been alot more people saying that that’s how they found SD. In any case, I remember the first column I ever read was the one about “What would happen if a billion Chinese jumped at once off of chairs”. Cecil’s smartass answer still continues to tickle me to this day.
It was pointed out to me by an acquiantance on another MB. He’s known around these parts as Lightnin’. I haven’t been to that other MB in months, but this one I’m sticking with.
Because of the nature of the link, I found the SDMB first, and only discovered the larger SD later.
Lurker here waves
I’m a member of several boards, and was linked to here from one of them. For the last several months I have thoroughly enjoyed intruding on your personal lives.
http://www.mystrealm.com/user/Tom_Haynes/Lurking.gif
:rolleyes: Yeah I feel a little like Dorothy of something after she lands in Oz
finger to cheek dimple Golly gee you are all so…interesting
The story i was linked to? Why it was The Horror of Blimps, of course.
begins bowing and grovelling to the great Scylla
:smack: can’t get my cute lil smileys to work for nuthin’
sigh
oh well, click it, I 'spose
delurks
I was linked to the “If LotR had been written by someone else” thread way back in January. I moved to the rest of the board and realised how large a range of topics there was.
Since then, I’ve been lurking on and off.
Another guy here that bounded over here via Fark.com
I look in at a science fiction/fantasy forum,and someone mentioned a thread about The Lord of the Rings that was reaching epic proportions, and gave a link. So I had a look, lurked for a while and then registered.
V
I used to read The Straight Dope in the L.A. Reader. After they changed ownership and became the L.A. New Times in the mid-nineties, they dropped it.
Fast forward a few years: I was thinking about The Straight Dope one day, so I did a search, and voila! I only read the archives for a few months before checking out the message boards. I mostly lurk, but occasional participate.
Has anyone had this idea?..
Once this thread has turned up say, 10 commonly given answers to the OP (subject) question a Moderator start a Poll. a Proper poll (like the ones we get for voting for a new smiley)
so instead of posting and saying ‘bored.com’ you click and vote, and we get a nice bar chart.
And the mods/admins get to look at the bar chart and decide who to throw petrol bo…er… thank.
My father emailed me a link to a column about cats eating their owners after they die (one of the family cats acts like it wants to kill him, so I guess he thought it was appropriate). Like so many others, I started exploring the archives and reading the daily columns. Eventually, a Threadspotting caught my eye, so I decided to check it out. From there, I made it to the rest of the boards where I lurked for some time before registering. This place is addictive!
I’m a fan of my local talk radio station, and a mod on a fan site dedicated to the station. We had a poster who apparently disagreed with our banning him so much, he came here and tried to incite SDMBers to come flame us. :rolleyes:
Yeah, that didn’t work, but an admin there posted the link and we all dutifully trooped over here to watch a professional flaming happen. I liked it here, so I stayed.
Whoooo I think this is the first original answer I’ve ever gotten to post here!
I found a link to some of Cecil’s old articles through www.bored.com maybe three years ago, read almost all of them, but I never knew about the message board.
Then a couple years ago, Mudshark and I became good friends, and he brought up the SDMB a lot in conversation and I eventually wound up checking it out for myself. Registered shortly after.
I found the original SD book while in college. Read it cover to cover, and a few things stayed with me.
Fast forward 15 (!) years. While having a few (ahem) beverages with a friend, I mention one of Cecil’s columns about being able to hypnotize a chicken with just your finger. My SD book is somewhere in a box, and I can’t find the column. I figure “Hey - that’s what the internet is for!”. I type in straightdope.com and end up at the main page. I was ecstatic at finding exactly what I was looking for, and quickly convert said friend into a believer.
It took me about four months to realize that there even was a message board, and after lurking for a few months I finally registered.
Back on Memorial Day Weekend in 2000, I found Cecil’s columns, and the message board. By the next morning, I had read the entire General Questions forum. I read all the other forums regularly until December 2000 when I stopped going online for a while.
Then in July 2001, I decided to caoe back and registered at the message board.
I heard something about this Cecil guy (at the time…he was just some Cecil guy to me), so I searched his name and found Straight Dope. I believe it was just before or just after it went from AOL only to it’s own Website. I think I found it using an AOL internal search just as a website was being established because they couldn’t work out anything with AOL anymore.
I was reading some Great Debates after finding the message boards and someone was going back and forth about the OJ trial/verdict. Man, the guys were citing stuff, and backing up their arguements…people were conceding…and I thought, “Holy Crap! - ADULTS!” So I signed up and posted to the OJ thread and started one of my own that got several pages long.
Now, I loathe Great Debates, wish for more conservatives on the boards and I am showing my age of 36 by wishing their were less yutes (youths) on the boards. I ain’t saying I’m totally rational, but I do feel this way time to time.
I am proudest of an answer I gave in GQ about some girl who wanted to know why some people wandered around Yellowstone National Park yelling something or the other. I actually found an answer w/in minutes and backed it up and still don’t know how I did it. Neither does she. It was so obscure and regional I had no business being able to help her. Thats the kind of stuff that keeps me around.
Also, since their is an internation flavor to the boards, I take an interest in all views from all over the world - Fascinating.
I went looking specifically for message boards by searching some random engine. I scrolled down the list that came up and saw “Straight Dope.”
I had never heard of it. Never knew there was a column. Never heard of Cecil Adams. Etc, etc, etc.
I honestly thought it was probably some website about the legalization of pot (which is really funny now). So I clicked on it.
I was getting bored with all the finger pointing and name calling at a different board, and asked another poster if he knew of any other message boards. He kindly steered me here.
I was flipping channels in a hotel room while on vacation in VA Beach, when I discovered the straight dope. Who was that bald guy anyway? He was a hottie.
Back at home in NY, I watched it religiously until it was cancelled. Purchased the books, placed them in the bathroom next to my beloved Calvin and Hobbes books and read them and re-read them 400 times.
I’m not quite sure how I found the cite, I think I just typed “straightdope” in my browser and I was on my way.