Gee whiz, guess what? I’m not a huge Rush fan. In fact, I consider them okay as second-tier prog-rock bands go. Which is why I answered the poll the way I did instead of, “Where’s the they suck button?”
Um, no.
It’s a poll about “when did you discover this band”. Makes no difference if the band in question is Floyd, or the latest boy-band sensation - the whole premise is that the people answering the poll have “discovered” the band.
There is no need for a “never heard of this band” option, since the default option for those who never heard of it is to not vote. See how simple that is?
Given that you have in fact heard of the band, you can then vote appropriately - again, very simple, see?
Has nothing to do with being “butthurt” or whatever you wish to imagine. Feel free to hate this band (or indeed any band) all you like. I’m merely saying that you are wrong in what you posted - there is, in point of fact, no need to modify the poll in the way you suggest, and it is strange to even suggest that the pressing needs of those with no interest in a topic must (for some reason) be accomodated.
Eh - as a Rush fan since '81 (got to meet them backstage in 2010!), I have no problem saying the lyrics to “The Trees” may be the dumbest lyrics in the history of rock. Doesn’t seem to me to be much room for debate on these particular lyrics - they’re pretty obviously Randian bullshit (using goddamn sentient trees to make their point).
“2112” is a great album to play at a party, especially when “A Passage to Bangkok” comes on and everyone who knows the song sings along. 
Can you tell I’ve done this?
BTW, they didn’t play it at any of the shows I saw.
p.s. I can’t believe it took 84 posts for this song to be mentioned.
I think a properly constructed poll about when you did something should leave an option for people who never did. For example, “when did you first vote in a Presidential election? 1980, 1984, 1988, … 2012…never.” I suppose the OP could have been written as “For people who enjoy the music of the band Rush, when did you first realize you liked their music?” That’s not what I read the OP to be asking, however. I thought the “never” option was appropriate (and not a negative thing, for all I know I would really like this band if I gave them a try.)
I heard Working Man from the first album on WHFS in 1974. I’ve never been a big fan, their stuff is just not my style. I’m glad they made it to the HoF.
I don’t know how to answer the poll because my introduction came when my friend Bob popped a tape of Moving Pictures into the cassette deck of my Oldsmobile Omega. That was in 1984. I worked backwards and forwards from there with the help of another friend who let me use his discount at Sam Goody.
I haven’t stayed current for all these years. My son found them independently about a year ago and reintroduced Rush to the front burner of my musical consciousness.
I’m sorry, but as a huge Rush fan as well, I submit that “The Trees” doesn’t even qualify as “dumbest lyrics in the history of Rush.” That honor, at least in my mind, goes to the deathless verse of “Virtuality,” from “Test for Echo.” And I quote:
*Net boy, net girl
Send your signal 'round the world
Let your fingers walk and talk
And set you free
Net boy, net girl
Send your impulse 'round the world
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the Cyber Sea*
Go on, tell me that “The Trees” is more inane than that! 
Oh, those are inane lyrics, all right, but they’re not hateful toward the little guy the way “The Trees” is (IMO). We should also mention that Neil Peart’s also written a number of quite good lyrics, as well.
Oh, for sure. I love most of Neil’s lyrics. Even the greatest talents drop clunkers now and then, and Neil’s good stuff-to-clunker ratio, as far as I’m concerned, is quite high. 
On the contrary, the poll was written for exactly this purpose - as evidenced by the fact that it does have a poll option for ‘never, but I’d like to give them a try’, which is exactly what you say it ought to have!
Read the last option on the poll, which says as follows:
Isn’t that a pretty exact paraphrase for 'never – for all I know I would really like this band if I gave them a try"?
Really, the only possible reason to take exception to this poll is because it lacks an option ‘I’ve never heard them and I don’t want to’ - that is, to paraphrase, ‘I have no interest in this topic’.
Again, the simple solution to this non-probem is … not to vote, as the poll isn’t for you.
Or possibly that, in contrary to what you’ve said, you read the poll’s ‘discover’ in scare quotes as meaning “like” - in short, “For people who enjoy the music of the band Rush, when did you first realize you liked their music?” - and you wish to answer ‘I don’t enjoy their music and so none of the options are appropriate - give me another option’.
Again, there’s a simple answer to this “problem” …
If the title of the poll were the same as the title of the thread, well, I guess it would be with “Rush” in 1974, and that is how I voted. But it is not. There was a bit of bait and switch and the poll became “When did you ‘discover’ the magical world of RUSH.” In my case, as well as for others, the answer is neither “I haven’t but now they’re in the HOF I’m gonna check them out!” nor is it “I’ve never heard them and I don’t want to.” In my case it’s “I’ve given them forty years to sweep me off my feet, and while I don’t change the station when a Rush song comes on, I’ve never bought one of their albums, either.” Not hatred. Not even indifference. I like them okay. But if you are going to title a poll on the SDMB “When did you ‘discover’ the magical world of RUSH” you should expect some kickback. A better poll, and one that would smack less of fanboi-ism, would simply ask “Which was the first Rush album you heard?” with a request for elaboration in the comments.
And this may be surprising for Canadians and even Brits, but Rush never got much airplay in the US, and today they get so little that I can tell I’m listening to WLUP when a Rush song comes on because that is the only station in the entire Chicago market that plays them regularly. Or has at any time in the past forty years. Album rock usually doesn’t get any play on stations that are more pop-oriented, and Chicago’s premier album rock station has always been FAR too cool to play Rush, so its fans needed to pass the fandom from friend to friend and brother to brother, as noted in this thread. The band has done phenomenally well, considering all that, and had Jann Wenner not been, well, Jann Wenner (He’s in there but Lester Bangs is not? :mad: ) and had not the band, looking at previous inductees, suffered from Acute Canadian Syndrome (Wha’d’ya mean The Guess Who isn’t in it? :mad: ) Rush might deserve to be in the HOF. On the other hand, the HOF only got around to Randy Newman and Quincy Jones this year, too.
Finally, you’ve been here long enough to know “If you don’t recognize a choice as one that fits you then don’t vote” is an alien concept here, causing Dopers to scratch their heads wondering what it could mean, give up, and either vote or gripe about how their special exception is not listed. Or both.
You could choose not to decide, you know.
Then you would still have made a choice.
And I’ve never decided on anything in my life. No choices made; things just happen, like words being typed on my keyboard without any thought. Never had an opinion, either. I just state what’s true. You may disagree with the truth, but that doesn’t make you right. 
I was taking my first guitar lessons at Russel School of Music in South Jersey. Since I’d shown an interest in power rock, hard rock, metal, my guitar teacher taped side 1 of Moving Pictures, showed me some power chords…
And the Canadian musical worsip happily began. Saw them 8 times so far.
What YouTube needs is power chord version of that beginning music class classic, “Lightly Row.” Where’s my daughter’s Strat?
I thought “The Trees” was a song about U.S./Canada rivalry, with the Oaks being US and the Maples being Canada.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!
Okay, I’ll tell my strangest story WRT Rush. I was working at the grocery store around 2000 when the pharmacy got Internet access, and one evening, it was slow and I was looking at a Rush website, not really having thought much about them for a few years. And I found out why we hadn’t heard anything new from them in a while; for those of you who don’t know, in 1997, Neil Peart’s (then) only child died in a car accident at the age of 19, followed by his wife, her mother, 11 months later. 
And this must have been the exact expression on my face, because one of my more colorful customers stopped by to pick something up and said, “You’re outta here in 20 minutes! It can’t be that bad!”
No, I didn’t tell her what I had been doing or what I had just found out.
Thread Winner!
And Rush fans are not cool. The last time I was at a Rush show I thought D&D game was going to break out.