I found this site around 98-99 through bored.com. From about 2002-2006 I had no internet and pretty much forgot about this site.
I typed some random question into Google around 2006 and this was the first link to come up. It reminded me why I like this community. Been here ever since. 
Sorrry mods, I’ve never sent a $ to support this site. 
I never joined back then, but I’d been reading the boards for nearly four years until it became free to join.
I was around before pay to post, heck, I was around since the late 90’s but lurked for a while before signing up. I always read more than I wrote, so just following along during the pay to post era wasn’t much of a difference. I was really glad to be able to post the occasional tidbit once the free posting came back though.
I lurked during pay-to-post. Just wasn’t worth it, and I was much more productive at work then…
Lurked all through highschool, though didn’t bother signing up - didn’t want just a month!
Signed up once pay-to-post was done away with 
Lurked since 2002. Was certain I had to pony up the $ to login/post, so I never did. Wish my join date weren’t so late, but oh well.
I feel like I’m finally giving back after taking for so long.
That’s me; I’ve been lurking for years. I always preferred reading over posting anyway, so definitely wasn’t interested in pay-to-post.
I heard of the boards from the whole rewrite LotR thread, but forgot about it after that. Then I started hanging around at Snopes a lot, slowly drifted over here, lurked a little longer and then signed up. I just let my Charter Membership lapse, I’m not notable enough to really need it. It took me 6 years to reach 1000 posts! 