My favorite posting area on AOL, called The Exchange (consisting of a couple dozen message boards) got abruptly cancelled, and shortly after that the Straight Dope was the Featured Thingie on the Welcome to AOL screen so I popped in and haven’t left since.
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I lurked for a few weeks reading the Cafe Society and Great Debates forums, and I couldn’t look away. I just found myself wishing that I had access to different people’s knowledge and opinions 20 years ago in high school. Started offering my $0.02 and got hooked.
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Because the message board is still great. Oh, it has its assholes, and some of the opinions defended on this board have been truly idiotic, but overall, once you learn to ignore the personality mutants, you still have all these wonderful ideas and debates and info.
It comes down to distinguishing between the people who come here to learn and have a good time from the people who come here because no one will put up with their bullshit in real life. They’re pretty easy to differentiate. If you don’t let the mutants get you down, you have a great time. Remember: It’s only a message board.
- No. First, I have a full time job and go to grad school at nights, so I don’t have time for another message board. Second, I like the board here better than anywhere else. You don’t have to spend a lot of time on, oh say, The Ann Coulter Message Board, to realize that there are worse places to hang out. The real creeps here don’t last very long, and even the worst posters are more annoying than scary. I’d rather just spend the time here than go wandering.
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I read all the books, and lurked for a bit. The place was full of very smart, very quick, very witty and very funny people.
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See #1.
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Nope. Why bother? My wife already accuses me of cheating on her with the Board.
It was interesting and intelligent. I hadn’t experienced any other boards, so I didn’t realize for a long time how high-level this board is for the internet world.
Entertainment, education, and the feeling of community. When I read older threads, I see so many familiar names that don’t come around any more, and I miss them. I also consider this board my internet interface - it helps me filter the wheat from the chaff out there.
I am a member in bad standing of Fathom, Canadope (which might not exist any more), and Unaboard. Oh, wait, those are all SDMB related. Okay, no.
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Lots of interesting people and loads of information.
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see #1
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Nope
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I had read Cecil’s columns since the mid 90s. I had heard him mention the online community a few times but never thought much about it till I had a question about the two Dennis the Menaces. I came, asked and stayed.
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Lots of smart and funny stuff. I especially like reading the debates on various Europe related things as well as the hard core science stuff.
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Not really. I do genealogy so I’m all over ther. I am on again off again at ToonZone though. Right now, and for the past roughly half year, I’m off.
Sorry, FF sweetie – I believe the correct plural is “Dennises the Menace.” 
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Don’t remember now how I got here – it was straight to the Boards, though, the columns are definitely secondary for me. (Though I still have a couple of yellowing paperbacks dating back to the mid '80s.)
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The sense of community (FF and I go back to the “a” thread, so he knows I’m teasing) – and the fact that at least once a week someone says something so totally funny or totally wise that I shake my head and say “that’s why I love the Dope.”
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Have joined a couple of the spin-off boards, but never post – they’re too slow for me. Belonged to Fametracker when I joined here, but stopped going there about 6 months after joining here, and they’re gone now, of course.
1.) Why did you think this would be a good place for you?
I stumbled into “Cecil’s Brain” on AOL and hung around for the information and insults.
2.) Why are you still here?
No one else will have me.
3.) Are you a member of any similar but non-SDMB related message boards?
Nope. I hang out at Fathom and I used to hang out on the SDMB related news groups, but haven’t read or posted in a while.
1.) Why did you think this would be a good place for you?
I loved the Straight Dope books, and when that one book mentioned his website, I just had to go over and check it out. It seemed like an interesting and informative place, so I joined.
2.) Why are you still here?
Inertia. Over the last few years, it seems like this board has become very quarrelsome and mean-spirited. Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m going to renew my subscription again.
3.) Are you a member of any similar but non-SDMB related message boards?
I’m signed up on a few game-related boards, but I haven’t posted anything in them in quite some time. Nothing like the SDMB.
1.) Why did you think this would be a good place for you?
I believe it was the third to last book that mentioned a messageboard. Not this one, that’s for sure. I remember I could not wait for my internet connection so that I could read what Bermuda999 had to say. I swear on a stack of family photographs that straightdope.com were the first words I ever typed into a browser.
2.) Why are you still here?
Because I like it.
3.) Are you a member of any similar but non-SDMB related message boards?
Yeup. Romance book related. But I do not post anywhere near as often.
Curse that phantom menace!
**1.) Why did you think this would be a good place for you?
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Why not? Been reading the alleged Cecil since the 80s, finally stopped lurking.
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2.) Why are you still here?
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I actually let my subscription lapse after the Incident Which Will Not Be Named that involved an Administrator Who Shall Not Be Named in protest. Came back because I was drugged up on migrane meds and out of my silly brain with bordem one evening and needed to smack some people around. Now I’m just killing time till these headaches are really gone or I just get disgusted with it all and get my self banned or something. Everytime I see an old thread with someone I “like” in it listed as a guest, I remember how things just aren’t the way they were and I should stop wallowing in a past that could not be as bright as my drugged brain claims it to have been though it was much brighter than it is today.
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3.) Are you a member of any similar but non-SDMB related message boards?
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Well, the internet.
**1.) Why did you think this would be a good place for you?
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Why not? Been reading the alleged Cecil since the 80s, finally stopped lurking.
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2.) Why are you still here?
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I actually let my subscription lapse after the Incident Which Will Not Be Named that involved an Administrator Who Shall Not Be Named in protest. Came back because I was drugged up on migrane meds and out of my silly brain with bordem one evening and needed to smack some people around. Now I’m just killing time till these headaches are really gone or I just get disgusted with it all and get my self banned or something. Everytime I see an old thread with someone I “like” in it listed as a guest, I remember how things just aren’t the way they were and I should stop wallowing in a past that could not be as bright as my drugged brain claims it to have been though it was much brighter than it is today.
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3.) Are you a member of any similar but non-SDMB related message boards?
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Well, the internet.
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I read the column in college, which was published in Ithsmus, Madison, WI’s weekly free paper. I can’t remember how or when I found the website, but it was a year or two before I registered.
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I stay because of the collective intelligence of the place, and to answer the question I think you are asking - I pay zero attention to the drama queens and the personal sniping between posters. I’ve seen a number of posts that say the SDMB has gone downhill lately - I see just the opposite - it was best when I first joined, then got worse quickly in '03 and '04, and is now getting better again. The people whose contributions were better suited to an AOL chatroom have left, and the signal to noise ratio is increasing again. Sure, we have lost some good people, but we always did.
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No.
I do have to second this point. I’ve felt like this, too, over the last few months it’s been worse.
1.) Why did you think this would be a good place for you?
I had been reading the Straight Dope for several years when I found the AOL board in about 1996. I immediately saw the difference in the general tone of the posts. There were some very smart, very clever people posting there. And a few total dipsticks, no doubt about it. But still, when the board moved to the web a few years later I came along, for very much the same reasons.
2.) Why are you still here?
Similar reasons. Very few boards have the signal-to-noise ratio you see here. Granted, the noise goes up and down a little, but this is still a top-notch board.
3.) Are you a member of any similar but non-SDMB related message boards?
A couple. Randi’s board over at randi.org (I just lurk there, I think I may have two posts in two years) is the only other web board. But I still read and occasionally post to a few Usenet groups like alt.folklore.urban, alt.fan.cecil-adams, and sci.skeptic.
People have said that so many times in the five (!) years I’ve been coming here, and I have never felt that to be true. Maybe I’m just missing it, but there always seems to be a few people who jump other people’s shit too quickly for little or no reason, but it never seems to be the majority or all the time. Maybe I’m just like Lamar, and don’t pay much attention to it.
Acrimony has been flying here ever since I joined five years ago. There have been many, many Incidents Whose Names Cannot Be Spoken. At least one mass leaving in a snit a year and two major snot fight in which many posters take sides.
The Teeming Million are an unruly bunch. Always have been.
- I’m smart, I have a good memory and good research skills, and I can write well.
- It’s addictive. And #1 is still true.
- Yes, film-related message boards.
AOHell boards by accident… in 96
Cause I’m stubborn… I like Lynn and Tuiba …
None of your business…