Same same. Although I joined around 2001, I was lurking for a few years prior to that.
Some posted a link to a SDMB thread (about a haunted chandelier IIRC) on another board, I read that thread, then started looking around the rest of the board and signed up.
I was searching for the meaning of “lorum ipsum” (I was just curious) and came across this article
I lurked around for about a year before joining.
I was looking for some info about birds nests (forget what) and the SDMB cropped up.
It was all downhill from there 
Back in the mid-late 80s I was at the University of Maryland, taking up space and wasting my parent’s money. I would pick up DC’s City Paper for local concert info and I found the Dope. I vaguely remembered someone showing me the first book in high school. Probably one of the sex questions. Later I looked it up on AOL so I could read the articles again. I think I may have posted a couple of times then but I didn’t get into the whole message board thing. After the Dope left AOL I forgot about it for a couple of years then found it again.
This is pretty much my story too. I’ve been around since the AOL days.
Let’s see, AskNott is user # 45 (I think?)… I don’t think I’m anywhere that low. Let’s see…
Yeah, I didn’t think so… I’m #157. I wonder how many members there are that are still active that registered before me. There was a thread about that somewhere.
Hooked on the column in the Baltimore City Paper late 80’s. Forgot all about The Straight Dope til late 90’s when someone asked a question or stated a fact that I thought I had read in one of Cecil’s columns long ago. Did a web search and viola! Lurked for a long while before registering (might still be lurking but I wanted to search for something once…)
I think my mom bought me one of the books. I don’t know how she ran across it though, probably in The Pacific Sun (how TSD is not carried in either of San Francisco’s weeklies is still a mystery to me). From there, I bought more books and found them on AOL & A&E, and follwed them here.
Pray tell how does one go about obtaining this information? I MUST know my user number!
I first saw Cecil’s column in the Baltimore City Paper in the late 70s. I bought the books as they came out and read the column in print whenever I could. I moved to Ohio in 2000, and decided to look for a web presence for Cecil. I stcuk to reading the columns online until Threadspotting led me to SDMB. I lurked here from 2002 until June 2005, when I joined.
I picked up The Straight Dope at a Stars and Stripes bookstore in Seoul in 1987. I read it through, then read it again. Started buying the other books as soon as they came out. I searched for the Straight Dope online in the early 90’s, and started lurking after it left AOL. I finally joined in Sept of 01. Almost five years of membership, and less than 400 posts. Yeah, I’m a bit of a lurker.
I remember watching the TV show in the late 90s, then I looked it up one day. It’s been pretty much my only board, though I do post at a couple others.
Got an email from my dad with a particularly amusing column linked. Don’t remember what the subject was, but within a few weeks I’d read the whole archive. Lurked on the boards for years before finally registering, then lurked again post-registration and only recently started actively participating.
I read The Other Paper throughout grad school at Ohio State. I eventually found the website and have been a steadfast lurker ever since. (Yes, I did not lose any posts to the Winter of our Missed Content.)
Does Cecil have a centralized listing of papers that carry the Straight Dope?
Go to your profile; it’s the number at the end of the URL- you’re 17408.
-Troy McClure SF, User 239. 
Yes.
Same here, a decade later.
#39 checking in. Opal is lower. Everybody with a March 1999 register date probably came over in the Great AOL Vowel Shift.
Found it on AOL AFTER seeing the Straight Dope cable TV show. If someone could put a date on that (Fall time of year) I could get real specific.
If I don’t remember, should I post a reply?