Yeah. I probably ought to avoid polls altogether.
(Come on, runnerpat:), you know you wanna say it! ;))
Maybe tell someone who knows how to do it to post 'em for me. 
Q
I started reading the Straight Dope books and the message board was mentioned in them. Spent some time lurking, then got an account.
Actually, I was a lurker before the board moved to this venue, and my dad started posting on this board and eventually I took over his account when he decided not to post anymore (he has since given up posting anywhere and contents himself with just sending me occasional emails with weird stuff in them). We originally shared the account when it went to a pay venue (I had a different account when it was free), but were informed by the Mods that this was a no-no so I took over exclusive use of it and have kept it up since then, since I was the one paying.
-XT
That’s because it floats.
Ontopic: I used to read the SD in the Honolulu Weekly… or at least I think that’s what it was called. Then I checked it out on the internets. I didn’t even post for years after I made my account, but my wife is here so I eventually came around.
Her identity is a secret, since I’m combative here I’d hate to color how she’s perceived.
I was a long time fan of the books, and originally did a search for the website just to read the archived columns. From there I idly clickd on the message board one day and realized that a number of people were wrong on the internet, so I had to register in order to correct them.
I have a coworker who is deeply insightful, highly educated. and very very funny… he posts here so I followed along.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
I was a long time fan of the books, and originally did a search for the website just to read the archived columns. From there I idly clickd on the message board one day and realized that a number of people were wrong on the internet, so I had to register in order to correct them.
[/QUOTE]
That’s how I originally twigged to it as well, though I wasn’t comfortable posting until after they moved the board here. I think my dad started off posting here because of an article Cecil did about the Iraq war and because I had given him one of the books as a Christmas present.
-XT
Got your misspellings and that one change covered, Bill.
As for me? I was an old AOL person, came on board the first day it was on the web (I think). My user number is in the low 200s.
I got here through a link on badastronomy.com, in an article about debunking the Apollo “hoax.”
I moderated at a forum with a strict “no linkdropping” rule, which included gratuitous mention of other forums, and a newbie started a thread there that mentioned the Straight Dope three times plus had a link to a column. In the course of investigating what the link was I found the forum and started lurking, a year later I registered. Oh, I deleted the thread at the other forum.
What he said.
AOL had a “Roulette Wheel” where it’d just land you at some random page. The rest is history.
I found a link while on the Library Underground it was to a raging debate started I think by Scylla about a Fisher Price Little People video being racist. I laughed until I cried and realized these where my kind of folks, been here ever since.
Better record the facts in writing now I can still remember them (that is retrieve them from my browsing history): on a dreary Monday morning (or a sunny one as the case may be) I googled the expression ‘sob-artist’, which is, in fact, not an expression. Google brought me here, specifically to a page with a hairy SOB artist-type person talking about himself which in in wider context was about the debatable sickness of judging the potential for attractiveness of eight graders. That of course gave a wonderful first impression, you perverts, and thus I was hooked.
I found Cecil’s columns although I don’t remember where; I spent a long time reading one after another of those columns and eventually found myself here. I originally registered under a different user name until I discovered a new age website where one of the people had the same user name I had used. I was allowed to change user names and the rest is history. Or at least a minor footnote. I love this place and don’t know what I’d do without it. I’ve never been a member of any other message board and wouldn’t know hot to look for one even if I had an interest. For an old guy with damn little to do, this place fills my needs exactly.
I was a fan of Cecil since…when did that column start, again?..in the Chicago Reader, also the LA Reader. As the Internet grew, it was natural to see the column there, and the message board was right along side it. I joined, then couldn’t figure out how to post and didn’t want make a fool of myself, so I didn’t do much for a long time. It was probably a good idea to wait and get acclimated.
Books, schmooks, man, the damnfool newspaper column, dude! (Baltimore/Washington City Paper, 1980s) Then from there to the books, to alt.fan.cecil-adams, and finally to straightdope.com when it moved away from AOL.
Who else answered, “Stumbled On It Looking For Drugs”?
Come on, fess up!
Anytime I have the Dope up at work, coworkers will come in, see the site’s masthead, and assume I must be some huge pothead. They assume wrong… I’m not that huge of a pothead! 
But seriously, I was reading MacWorld Magazine back in 2001, an article on “cool websites” briefly mentioned this site as a great MB for asking general questions. I jumped on, and was immediately hooked.
If I recall right, back around 1999 I ran across an older edition of “The Straight Dope” in the half-price bookstore near my apartment.
This started me on a buying spree to get the rest, and one had the link to the weekly online column, and sometime after that, I clicked on the link to the forums, and the rest is history.