# How did you find the SDMB?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 3, 2014, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213 "2014-04-03T01:11:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/1 "2014-04-03T01:11:33Z")
Over here, **Loach** said:
> [@](#):
>
> A lot of us came here because of the books and the newspaper column.
I said I thought the number of SDMB folks who joined because of the books is a fraction of those who discovered it the old-fashioned way: via the Internet.
Let’s see who’s right!
ETA: Lest anyone is wondering, I found it via [Bored.com](http://Bored.com) when I was working for what turned out to be a Lou Perlman scam.
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### Author:  [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/2 "2014-04-03T01:15:40Z")
I found it from a link in the old AOL days, years before actually becoming a member.
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### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/3 "2014-04-03T01:20:02Z")
I read the newspaper column first, and had at least one of the books. But I don’t recall any more how I first got here. It could have been through a link elsewhere, or through a search engine. Not Google, though. I first heard about Google here.
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### Author:  [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/4 "2014-04-03T01:20:26Z")
One of those “interesting time wasters” lists online.
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/5 "2014-04-03T01:20:37Z")
Depends on what you mean by “finding” the message board. I enjoyed the books when I was 17, in 1987, then enjoyed the column when I lived in Chicago for the subsequent four years, and sporadically thereafter. I discovered the web version of the column around 1999 or 2000, discovered the message board around 2003 or 2004, lurked for a year or so, then joined up.
So, I chose “books,” because I think that’s what you’re getting at – but your question would literally be answered with something like “realized at some point what a message board was, and noticed the web column linked to one.”
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/6 "2014-04-03T01:22:00Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#):
>
> I read the newspaper column first, and had at least one of the books. But I don’t recall any more how I first got here. It could have been through a link elsewhere, or through a search engine. Not Google, though. I first heard about Google here.
Alta Vista it ain’t! 😉
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/7 "2014-04-03T01:22:48Z")
Since I’d been reading the Dope in the D.C. City Paper when I could get it, but didn’t go into the inner 'burbs enough to get the City Paper as often as I’d like, I did a search for it in April of 1999. Can’t remember which search engine I used; it wasn’t Google because I hadn’t heard of it yet.
Once I located the Straight Dope online, I saw the link to the SDMB, clicked, joined.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/8 "2014-04-03T01:24:51Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> Depends on what you mean by “finding” the message board. I enjoyed the books when I was 17, in 1987, then enjoyed the column when I lived in Chicago for the subsequent four years, and sporadically thereafter. I discovered the web version of the column around 1999 or 2000, discovered the message board around 2003 or 2004, lurked for a year or so, then joined up.
>
> So, I chose “books,” because I think that’s what you’re getting at – but your question would literally be answered with something like “realized at some point what a message board was, and noticed the web column linked to one.”
Good point. I guess it would be whatever brought you to the web version of the column.
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### Author:  [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/9 "2014-04-03T01:44:49Z")
I found this place totally by mistake.
I was searching for another board that I had remembered visiting and was trying to find THAT one. This was one of the first ones I clicked on thinking it was that one (because it had the same layout/color scheme/etc).
It wasn’t.
I did eventually find the right boards.
([It was this one](http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/))
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### Author:  [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/10 "2014-04-03T02:04:47Z")
I answered, “Some other way”. I’ve been here for almost 11 years, and can’t remember exactly how I ended up here. I have a very vague recollection of being pointed here by a fellow member of some e-mail discussion list I was part of in 2003.
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### Author:  [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/11 "2014-04-03T02:11:49Z")
I voted google but upon further probing of the recesses of my brain I have a vague memory of a library book involving… brain teasers? Where a kid keeps trying to stump his grandpa or vice versa? One of the teasers was something about a WWI medal and how it wouldn’t be printed as WWI if it was authentic.
I do remember reading the main online column for about 5 years or so before dipping my toes into the message boards and even then there was a couple years of lurking before joining. Jeeze all of this was at least a decade ago when the internet was in its infancy so the book sounds more and more plausible…
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/12 "2014-04-03T02:13:59Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> ETA: Lest anyone is wondering, I found it via [Bored.com](http://Bored.com) when I was working for what turned out to be a Lou Perlman scam.
Same. Minus the working for a scam part.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/13 "2014-04-03T02:25:42Z")
I first learned of the Straight Dope through the books: A buddy of mine in high school had one of them. I discovered the site through random-surfing links on generic personal web pages, and spent some time reading through old columns. I discovered the boards when I went to comment on a Mailbag column about poison ivy. And I realized that this was the sort of place where I could feel at home when I found the thread about [Galileo, a hammer, and a feather](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=2787).
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/14 "2014-04-03T02:28:42Z")
Like many of my fellow 99ers, it was on AOL.
When you logged on, a home page would pop up with various, well, stuff, kinda like the front page of [Yahoo.com](http://Yahoo.com). The daily (weekly?) SD column had a spot on that page and [this](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/235/can-you-die-from-picking-your-nose) article caught my attention. Been here ever since.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/15 "2014-04-03T02:33:20Z")
Yup! Count me in the [Bored.com](http://Bored.com) group!
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/16 "2014-04-03T02:51:22Z")
I was another member on the AOL Straight Dope forum. I was familiar with the Straight Dope before that from the books.
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/17 "2014-04-03T02:55:15Z")
Avid reader of the books as a kid (whole house was), then found the column.
Vaguely recall being frustrated that I couldn’t find it online or something, or could find a static page or something be couldn’t access much on it. I had Internet access in the 90s through college, so no AOL subscription. Anyone remember what the page looked like before the SDMB launched? Was there a basic public page or something that linked to AOL? Anyone remember how it worked?
I found alt.cecil somethingorother briefly, but was never a fan of Usenet. (Whoa, what’s going on?! I just looked at [Redirecting to Google Groups](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alt.fan.cecil-adams) _an it looks active_!)
I found the Boards shortly after they launched in 99, lurked for several months and then finally joined to ask a question.
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### Author:  [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/18 "2014-04-03T02:56:30Z")
Google for me. It was a post by Dio discussing the bible. I’m still here. I miss him.
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### Author:  [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/19 "2014-04-03T03:40:06Z")
I’m going with “Some other way”. I had never heard of the newspaper column until I moved to the Albuquerque area in 1999. The local alternative newspaper, the Alibi, carried the column. I read it every week and soon became a fan of Cecil (and of course Slug, with his wonderful illustrations).
Around the same time, I started to really get into the music of Bela Fleck & The Flecktones. I found their website and then their messageboard. I signed up (that’s where I got my user name- Bumbershoot is a Flecktones tune) and really enjoyed interacting with like-minded people.
I also found [snopes.com](http://snopes.com) while researching (I believe the modern term is googling) various subjects. Eventually I noticed the link to their messageboard. I hung out there for a while and one day I decided to see if The Straight Dope had a website and a messageboard.
It turns out there was indeed a Straight Dope Message Board. I was hooked in no time. I lurked for a while before signing up. Now I’m here every day and I don’t know what I would do without my SDMB fix. Somewhat convoluted, but that’s how I ended up here.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2014, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-find-the-sdmb/685213/20 "2014-04-03T03:49:11Z")
Turn left at Greenland.
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