Everybody here seems to be in their late teens or early 20s at the youngest. What I want to know is, who are the youngest posters we have at the Dope? Sidequestion: was anybody exceptionally young when they first began lurking here?
I first discovered the SDMB in 9th or 10th grade. I remember that I was in study hall, playing around online (they let us use the computers for leisure). One of my regular sites was bored.com. The site basically just gave links to entertaining web sites. One day, they linked to the Dope’s home page. I spent the rest of the period reading Cecil’s articles in the archives. My favorite was the piss-shiver one, as I’ve always wondered about that myself. Anyway, I eventually found my way to the message boards. I’ve been a lurker ever since, and just recently I bought myself a subscription. That makes me a user since the age of 14 or 15.
I was under the impression that the demography here was substantially older. Not everyone shouts about it (and hey, I’m at a delicate stage where ‘early 20s’ isn’t a tactful thing to say )
The minimum age is 13 IIRC and I know that we have had members around that age in the almost 6 years I have been here. There have been many posters in the 15 - 16 year old range although I can’t recall many names. There is a poster called START that I believe is 15 or 16 and he has been around for a while.
I am younger than most SDMB members but am likely not among the very youngest members. I started lurking 5 years ago when I was 18 and joined as a member just after turning 19. I found out about the SDMB through my mother who isn’t a member any more but still lurks regularly.
However, I was only about 12 when I started reading Cecil’s columns in the first of his books The Straight Dope which my father had bought back in the 1980s. I was instantly enthralled by Cecil responses because they are hilarious yet informative. Over a decade after first reading it, I still find this one to be among the most amusing.
I’m pretty sure that the youngest Doper ever to post is Bomb Bay Doors (son of Airman Doors and MsRobyn) who made that post when only a few days old, after being personally welcomed by the Perfect Master in this thread. Rather an exceptional case, however.
)
