How did you find the SDMB?

[pancakes3]

@Rhythmdvl

By the way, does anyone else want to drag every one-off poster whose only post is a “boo hoo, here’s my incredibly tragic, Jerry Springer story that I need advice on” OP and make them answer the question?

Not as much I want to interview the crackpots that think they’ve invalidated Einstein and the like.

[Enright3]

AOL Baby! User # 157.

[Loach]

First read the books. Then read the column in D.C’s City Paper. Then saw the AOL page and thought “I remember that!” Then it disappeared from AOL. Sometime later for some reason I decided to search to see if it moved to a different website. Some time after that I started to look at the message board.

[Loach]

@Crotalus

I voted “some other way” because it happened like this. I started reading the column in the Baltimore City Paper in the late 70s. I bought the first book when it came out, and bought at least one more. I continued reading the column in the paper. In late 2000, I moved from Baltimore to Chillicothe, OH and started a new job in Columbus. After a few months, I did a web search in the hope of finding a local newspaper that carried the column. I found the web site, which eliminated my need for a print version.

I noticed the Threadspotting link, clicked on it, and became a dedicated lurker in early 2001. It took me until June of 2005 to join.

I don’t know the mind of the OP but I would think that counts as choice #2. The newspaper column may not have been the last link in the chain before you got here but it is the reason why you know about the Dope. That’s why I chose #1 even though I didn’t go directly from the books to the internet (which didn’t exist).

[Tinkertoy]

Followed a link on the Library Underground to a thread, and have been here since.

[DrumBum]

I was wandering through City Lights book store and found "More of the Straight Dope"on a shelf. The title of the book caught my eye - this was SF after all - and I opened it up. The first question was if dinosaurs had their brain in their butt. The lengthy answer provided by Cecil was humorous and enlightening, the artwork by Sig was a bit twisted, and who wouldn’t want to buy a booked edited by someone with a last name like “Ed Zotti” ?

Given my assignments to countries with iffy internet abilities it was some time before I was able to find the online community.

[Missy2U]

I voted some other way because I can’t remember.

[KneadToKnow]

The books led me to the main website, which led me here. I voted books.

[Dr_Doom]

I Googled Online Dating Advice in 2010, found the thread in IMHO, lurked around the SDMB for a year before starting an account.

[StrangerThanFiction]

I ran a message board on my band’s website back in 2004. On a whim, I started making interesting-fact-of-the-week type posts. While trying various search terms to try to calculate equivalent gas mileage of the Titanic, I stumbled upon a thread here discussing ships. I came back the next week, and the next after that. I lurked for 4 more years before my first post.

[RealityChuck]

Someone with science fiction connections moved into the area and was interviewed in the newspaper; one fact that came out was that she knew the real lyrics to “Louie, Louie.”

When we got together a few weeks later, I complimented her on her knowledge and she told me she got it from the Straight Dope.

I found the first book and loved it. A few years later, I searched for the Straight Dope on the Internet and found (and immediately joined) the site.

[AHunter3]

It was one of the featured/spotlighted items one day when I logged onto AOL, so i checked it out. Got addicted. Followed the board here when it moved.

[Fear_the_Turtle]

@Crotalus

I voted “some other way” because it happened like this. I started reading the column in the Baltimore City Paper in the late 70s. I bought the first book when it came out, and bought at least one more. I continued reading the column in the paper. In late 2000, I moved from Baltimore to Chillicothe, OH and started a new job in Columbus. After a few months, I did a web search in the hope of finding a local newspaper that carried the column. I found the web site, which eliminated my need for a print version.

I noticed the Threadspotting link, clicked on it, and became a dedicated lurker in early 2001. It took me until June of 2005 to join.

@Loach

I don’t know the mind of the OP but I would think that counts as choice #2. The newspaper column may not have been the last link in the chain before you got here but it is the reason why you know about the Dope. That’s why I chose #1 even though I didn’t go directly from the books to the internet (which didn’t exist).

This basically what happened with me and I voted #2. Searching for something I remembered reading in the weekly column and finding this site.

[Skammer]

@Poysyn

The TV Show. Yes, I am that old.

Me too. I wonder what Mike Lucas is up to these days?

[Tamerlane]

Started with the column in the old East Bay Express, graduated to the books, then found the SDMB one day through a search ( I wonder if…? ) while idly poking around the web, probably not long after this place had migrated from AOL. Lurked for awhile ( through Melingate among other things ), before signing up in 2000. This was only the second forum I ever posted at - I tended ( and still do tend ) to be a long-time lurker on most forums I read.

[Poysyn]

@Skammer

Me too. I wonder what Mike Lucas is up to these days?

I had such a crush on him.

[Octarine]

I voted through Google. First I found the online archive - the “It’s taking longer than we thought” motto made me smile, and I browsed there a while. Then, seperate from that, another random Google search (I think it had something to do with me trying to find a good cat food for my cat) by chance led me to DigitalC’s thread about coworkers stealing his lunch. That set off an SDMB binge, and a year or two later I joined up.

[ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness]

Originally encountered the Straight Dope column in the early 1980s in the now-defunct LA Reader. Found the message board via Threadspotting in 1999 when searching on-line for the infamous “gerbil-stuffing” column from 1985, which I had originally cut out and posted on my dorm room door, and had lost sometime during the ensuing years. Lurked for 2 years before signing up.

[watergallop]

It was linked on a website called bored.com in 2000. That URL still exists but it’s not the same site I used to visit in high school.

[vix]

I voted book, which is half true. A friend gave me The Straight Dope for my birthday in '99 and told me there was a message board. I started reading soon after and joined in '00.