I was working in dial up internet technical support :eek: and one of my geeky co-workers sent a department email linking to an equally geeky Threadspotting thread.
I was hooked immediately and spent the next year or more doing little more than waiting to get my next hit of… well, Dope. 
There was a book laying on the floor of the Future Mr. Wonderful bathroom and I must have looked at the cover for a good year* before actually thinking " What the hell is Straight Dope"?
I picked it up during one visit and the rest was history.
It was the MIA Bermuda that got me hooked on this weird world of something called Message Boards.
It’s all my husbands fault. Ironically, he has never read the book.
Ditto for me. I think it was only on page 3 or 4 when I first read it. I don’t recall how I came upon it; I imagine it must have been linked from some other site.
I believe someone emailed it to me at work as a forward forward type thing. I forwarded it on to you.
I wanted to know, seriously, what the “H” stood for in Jesus H. Christ. My coworker and I were always joking that it was “Howard.” So we Googled it and got a link to the Dope. I read Cecil’s article on the subject, then read another article, then another. The next day I started lurking on the boards and did so for about a week. I knew I was home so I joined.
A thread was linked from here on another messageboard, I remember the story was in the BBQ Pit and it was about a blimp or something like that and it was freakin’ funny. That was about a year and a half ago and I just kept reading after that because this wasn’t like any other messageboard that I’d read before really.
I mean theres nowhere else as far as I could see where you could ask a question knowing that there’d be someone who would have an answer within a day or at least try to answer it.
Also, sure, people go on about the amount of text speak on other boards but the amount of bland drivel that you can read anywhere, it gets boring.
I registered because I needed a question answering, I didn’t actually want to join because I was content just reading, now there are other things I remember that I’d like to ask or share.
Actually if I continue on like this my post should belong in the “paying for other peoples opinions” thread…
Another member of the then free SDMB pointed me to a link regarding hunting. I joined and replied… and I’ve never left. (ok, I left for a very little bit due to the board being blocked at work, and my not renewing… like I have time to surf this board at home… :D)
A friend loaned me the books back in '95. I read the column regularly when I lived in Chicago from '96-'99, then followed it online when I moved back to Seattle. Discovered the message board from there and lurked until last year. There ya go.
Some answers can be found here:
I googled some question, or other, and found a Straight Dope column with an answer. I recall being terribly confused about what the Chicago Reader was. I’ve never read it, or even seen an actual copy. I have probably never read a paper that would carry the Straight Dope. That’s okay, because I enjoy reading it here.
Early on, when there was no subscription fee, I posted a little. There was a “Finish the Sci-fi Story…” thread that I thought went pretty well.
For a long time I refused to pay a fee and settled in as a lurker. I love the wit and intellegence of so many of the members. But, I’m sure I don’t fit the Doper mold. Seems to me the general population is a little left of center. That’s not me.
Someone on another board posted a link to a game thread. Walking through doors?
It was pretty hilarious and I just kept lurking.
Read all his books (at least what were available in the 80’s). Got curious after I got online and actually typed: www dot straightdope dot com to see what would happen.
Imagine my delight. 
739 posts since August 2006, 5.90 posts a day. Thats not lurking.
I read Cecil Adams’ first book, oddly enough called The Straight Dope, at least thirty years ago, whenever the first paperback version came out. (Sorry, Cecil, but I’m still too cheap to buy hard cover books.) I was impressed with Cecil’s humor and his (or his minions’) vast knowledge, and when I was fooling around with a friend’s computer about nine or ten years ago I ran across Cecil in much the same way **pullin ** did. I didn’t join up until I got my own computer and could get online myself, but I lurked at every opportunity on my friend’s computer.
I’ve tried other message boards, but SD is consistently the most interesting and with the best contributors.
because of the airplane on a conveyor belt nonsense. Sorry to admit. This board was linked to by David Pogue in his blog entry about it.
Got the Straight Dope book from a second-hand bookstore (Straight Dope is not available in the local bookstores in the Philippines). Looked it up in the internet. Found the Straight Dope website. Read the archived portion and found “Threadspotting”. Got hooked.
The Albuquerque alternative paper ran the straight dope column and I knew about the column when it was on AOL but I never had an AOL account so when it moved to the normal internet I was happy to get my dope since I had moved to a city without a paper that carried the column. I found the boards with links from the main page.
As an inveterate trivia buff/knowledge junkie (in fact, that was my first choice for a screen name, but someone already had it), I discovered Cecil’s first volume on a book-shopping expedition. Needless to say, I was absolutely captivated and bought each successive book as it was released. Thirsting for more once the books ran out, I checked out the SD site for more questions. Noticing a header reading “Message Boards”, I clicked on it and discovered the SDMB. After lurking for a brief time, I was so thrilled to find a forum for intelligent, literate people who still prided themselves on a sense of humor/irony that I signed up. After close to two years, I can say that I am proud to be a member of this community.
Some people have complained that you have to pay to post on the SDMB. Considering the relatively low percentage of knuckle-draggers and their ilk in this community as compared to other so-called “forums” on the Internets, I consider it money well spent; the quantity (and quality) of intelligent discourse, the nostalgic remembrances of things from our pasts, the humor–this board is a freaking bargain !
I know I sound like I’m gushing, but I’ve wanted to say this for a long time and am grateful for the forum to say it in. Og bless the SDMB, the Dopers, and, of course, The Master himself, without whom we would not be here!
G’morning!
I’m an author and consequently require to engage in a great deal of research, and I happened upon a ‘Dear Cecil’ question, but I can’t remember where - it was circa couple of weeks ago.
Insatiably curious about all things good, I suscribed to the free ezine and subsequently to this forum. Now, if only I could figure out how to become a permanent paying member - and yes, I did read the rules. I can’t seem to find whatever ‘thingy’ uptop will do the trick. :smack: Any help would be greatly appreciated. TIA.
Shalom Aleikhem - Jesse.
Braaaaaiiiiiiiiins! I need braaaaaiiiiiiiiins!