Years ago someone told me about the Straight Dope columns. I used to read Snopes and the urban legends pages at About.com; one of them must have lead me to Straight Dope. I recognized the name from the long-ago conversation, noticed there were message boards and signed right up! I think it’s interesting that I’ve still stuck with most of my early Internet experiences.
This for me, as well. I found it surfing bored.com during work at college one day (computer labs), browsed the articles, and lurked on the boards for a few months before finally registering.
I used to browse the trivia section of the bookstore as a kid, and I saw the first three Straight Dope books there. I read the heck out of them. Then, when I was a freshman in high school, the fifth book came out. . .and it mentioned there were AOL message boards.
So, you know, I went there, and, though I only maybe posted once or twice, I read them regularly until they disappeared. Once I found this place, I joined, and made an asinine post in a thread for which Scylla rightly called me out. And then I got scared and didn’t post for six months. 
I was a regular on a couple other message-board parts of AOL, in a large supercluster of message boards called “The Exchange”. (Does anyone else on this planet remember the Exchange??)
There were occasional featured links on the front page of AOL when you first signed in and the Dope (Cecil’s column, not the board) was occasionally selected for that. I wandered in and found the board. One thread title hit my political sensitivities button (about sex with a minor and whether or not it is rape) and I posted a reply.
Not too long afterwards, AOL announced it was nuking the entire Exchange. (Once they’d opted for flat-rate monthly connection fees, they had less & less reason to host interesting things on AOL per se to keep you online as long as possible). Spent more time on SDMB, created my first OP, etc.
I got into a debate with a co-worker as to which was bigger; St. Louis Forest Park (I said) or New York’s Central Park (he said). I knew I was right, so in order to prove it, I googled, “what is the largest city park in the u.s.”, which led me to a Cecil Adams column that I’m having trouble accessing right now (is the server down?), but it’s cached here.
It doesn’t mention Forest Park, but does say that Central Park is only 840 acres. Forest Park comes in at 1,293 acres, which, by using the information in Cecil’s column, puts it somewhere between the 7th and 11th largest city park in the country. He estimated that Central Park ranks 15th.
I loved Cecil’s biting wit in that article (“If the feebs in your class had bothered to check with the LA parks and recreation commission–which, for Chrissake, is a local call. . .”), so I started checking out other parts of the website and found the message boards. The rest, as they say, is history.
P.S. Though never one to question Cecil’s brilliance, the chart on this page puts Cecil’s #1 at #4, St. Louis Forest Park at #75 :eek: , and Central Park doesn’t even make the top 100!
I started reading the Dope in the Salt Lake City Weekly.
And occasionally Google would direct me to one of Cecil’s columns or a Staff Report. One in particular I remember looking up was why the antlers are backward on most deer crossing signs. (By the way, the official Dope simply says they’re not backward, citing a broken link to a photo supporting the claim. But I remember the Weekly Reader gave a much more satisfying answer when I was a kid; I just don’t remember what the answer was.)
A friend of mine who worked in a bookstore introduced me to the Straight Dope book. Later, unrelated, I joined AOL. One day I saw a notice that Straight Dope was going to have a site on AOL. I subscribed to that site almost immediately. And the rest is history.
Some science fiction fans moved into the area and, for some reason, there was an article on them. One mentioned that she knew the lyrics of “Louie Louie.” Later we met and I joked I was impressed; she told me that she got it from the Straight Dope book.
At some point in 1999, I found the site online. I stayed.
AOL.
Back in 1980 I was in college and picked up the LA Reader, a freebie newspaper (don’t ask what newspapers are) and found the SD, Life in Hell and David Lynch’s “The Angriest Dog In The World” and looked forward to them every week, along with the nutty personals. When I started doing the web in the late 90s I became aware there was a SD, and then about three years ago when I was recovering from surgery (or waiting for it, I don’t remember) I started hanging out.
I blame Tastes of Chocolate. She, as usual, will likely try to feign innocence.
The writers of The Conversatron used Cecil as an Askee.
I read a bunch of columns, probably in the early 2000s, finally noticed the forum and registered as a guest to comment on something or 'nother back when the site was still pay-to-post with short free trial period, never bothered to upgrade my account and in fact forgot I had one, then rediscovered the boards back in May of 2009 when I was looking for something to do during downtimes at work.
I’ve been reading SD since it was a keyword on AOL (remember that flashing picture?). It was one of the first things I ever discovered and started following on the net. I was delighted to see there were books by Cecil Adams and bought all of them. And here it is 12 years (?) later and I’m still following SD daily.
I came over after being a follower on AOL.
Enright3 - User 157
A couple years ago, there was a commercial for Ask.com in which they actors/characters were asking why some eggs were brown. Well, then I got curious and wanted to know why some eggs were brown, so I went to Ask.com (the commercial worked!) and typed that in. It brought me to a Straight Dope article, which I thought was wonderful. Then I started reading some of the archives, then the message board… one thing lead to another and here I am!
I found it either through Snopes or Smile and Act Nice back in 98 or 99.
ETA, I wish I knew what my original user name was.
That’s the first time I’ve heard of a commercial not only working, but leading to favorable results.
Wunderbar
Read the books when I was in high school and the column in the Columbus Guardian, back when it existed. I had AOL back when it went monthly, just like everyone else back in the day, and a blurb for the online SD forum popped up on my welcome page. I went there, started reading, asked a few questions, and got hooked.
I was 18 back then. I’m 32 now. Not much longer and I’ll have been on the Dope boards for half my life.
A friend was researching super chargers via google, and at some point or another he got linked here. He forwarded a link to me, and I stayed put. He moved on, and in fact probably didn’t even register an account.
My time here has ebbed and flowed, for sure.