I hate you all.
That’s all right, because we looooooove you! 
I live abroad and work like a dog. I don’t ya know get out much with 3 little ones in the house and a pretty heavy business trip schedule. This is where I pretty much keep current. There’s a lot of news I haven’t seen until a thread opens up in either grate debates or the pit.
I also shared some of my woes around my youngest daughter’s birth, time in the NICU etc in real time. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=293583&highlight=serena It was cathatic for me, and several dopers actually emailed via the SDMB offers of support and help from around the world. That’s pretty special.
I keep coming back here, even if only to read threads. Still cool to me after all these years. 
I have a speech impediment which makes it very hard for me to talk, but I can write. The Internet is a godsend, and I consider the SDMB the best o the Net.
Damn my 2000 join date!!!
Me? I’m hopelessly devoted. Where else on the net do you find a community of general-interest stuff that’s (mostly, I leave Dave out) populated by adults?
You just stop it, now. You’re so flustered you’ve forgotten how to code. Besides which, we can’t get married while our spouses are alive.
I’ve been to discussion fora from small ISP-run community boards to Usenet and I haven’t found any place to compare to this one.
[ul]
[li]The mods have a quick trigger for the trolls and jerks, an understanding empathy for the merely unpopular (december and Collounsbury hung on for a long time, too long for it simply to have been ‘gaming the system’: The mods must have seriously discussed their fates before any action was taken.), and a lack of high-handedness generally evident.[/li][li]The regulars are more concerned with creating an interesting environment than scoring points or defending the den. Or, to recast that, we score points through interesting and humorous comments and we have claimed the whole of the noösphere as our den.[/li][li]The newbies are usually capable of stringing two sentences together without violating the laws of grammar or spelling, and are willing to learn if they can’t. That may seem as damning with faint praise: Keep thinking that, and I hope you never spend significant time any place that would change your mind.[/li][li]The board culture is diverse, tolerant, and open. Regulars post from Panama, China, the Netherlands, Germany, and New Zealand, in addition to many others. We have straights, gays, bis, and shades in-between. We have black, white, brown, red, yellow, and taupe. WWII veterans talk to high schoolers, Ph.D.s talk to GEDs, and people make references and jokes that go over my head. It’s like San Francisco and New York exploded in here, in a good way.[/li][/ul]But perhaps the most important asset is this: If I’d just gone on and on about how shitty the SDMB is, people would have listened and I might actually have gotten something changed. It would only come at the end of a long discussion and I would have to prove every point I made to a lot of skeptical people, but if my points were valid and I was able to hold my own things would get done.
It’s scary to think just how unlike the UN this place is.
I appreciate the SDMB community enough that I will grudgingly put up with the google ads.
Everytime I hear abuse or cartography mispronouced I appreciate this place a little more.
On the serious side, I agree with what jackelope and Sal Ammoniac said. You can’t have this type of gathering and conversation in real life. I’ve learned an amazing amount in the two years I’ve been reading the board. I didn’t realize how much I wasn’t learning and growing before.
This is my first board too. I’ve stumble across other boards since I found this one and been horrified at the gibberish. The only exceptions I’ve found are boards that are run by members of this one…
It’s also wonderful being able to be silly with intelligent and articulate people. Where else would a poster’s momentary absence from his workstation result in a multi-page thread including haiku and limericks?
GT
Tons.
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Because people here are as smart and inquistive and helpful as the best people I run into in 'real" life.
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Because there’s a tolerance here as well as a healthy lack of tolerance. Yes that makes sense.
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Because I can play here naked.
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Some of you are brilliant, some of you (including me sometimes) are complete wack-job idiots, but everyone maes a community and this is a good one.
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Kitty pictures!!
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Anything at all I want to read about, ask about or learn about - some place here there’s a forum for it.
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Do you smell that?
After being blocked from the Dope for most of this last summer thanks to my company’s firewall? Really, really a lot. Other message boards suck.
Well, let me put it this way. I spent this weekend at a Mensa Regional Gathering in Cleveland, so there was no shortage of good, stimulating conversation, good hugs, and fascinating programs. The weekend included a catered dinner on Saturday night, and I had my pick of good company to choose from. Nevertheless, what did I do? I e-mailed a Doper I’ve long admired, tomndebb to be precise, and gave up my catered dinner to finally meet him in real life. I’ve also hauled the gentleman I’m crazy about to two Dopefests in Gettysburg.
My mother told me that polite young ladies never discuss politics, sex, and religion. Unfortunately, those are three of my favorite topics. Here, I can find a good conversation about any of those at any time, even at 5 in the morning when I’m the only one awake. It’s thanks to you folks that I got hooked on Terry Pratchett, and I rely on you for movie reviews more than I do the local paper (although I still say you should have warned me about Troy!). I have learned a tremendous amount here, especially about religion and, while I may never become an atheist, I have a much better understanding of why people are atheists. The things I’ve learned alone are worth a great deal, but there’s more to it than that.
I’ve had some lows during the past five years. You’ve seen me through the loss of a job I loved and the death of my grandmother. I suffer from clinical depression and there have been times when I’ve been dead lonely. You people have offered me support and comfort at those times and for that, I cannot thank you enough. You even encouraged me to start a way for other people to get help so that we know we’re not alone. It was the support you showed me nearly five years ago that made me realize this place is something special.
There is a man on this message board, Polycarp, who is truly like a brother to me, even though I was born 10 years later and a few thousand miles away. There’s also Ice Wolf who I consider one of the closest friends I’ve never met. There are other people far too numerous to mention, but you know who you are.
I’ve been through a lot of changes since I joined this board and you have been there for me through it all. You’ve made me laugh, cry, and think. You have shown me points of view I would never otherwise have encountered. This board is as large a part of my life as any circle I move in, be it Mensa, my church, or anything else. It’s a pleasure and an honor being one of you.
CJ