There are many people, whether I have had some sort of communication with them or not, whom I have taken a liking to. Many of them have already been mentioned here, so I’ll say something about someone who hasn’t.
Whenever I see a post by Meatros I always take notice. He always has something great to offer, whether it is a serious, intelligent response, or a witty, but non-condescending, remark. And we seem to have a lot of the same interests, which automatically makes someone cool in my books. 
Ok, time to add some of my favorite posters.
Sam Stone: Your economic and political analysis is solid and reasonable. It’s a pleasure to see your thought processes in printed (electronic?) form. You articulate your reasoning in a way which explains my own opinions better than I can. Always enlightening.
Truth Seeker: Like your name implies you have a gift for ferreting out the practical, the common sense, the core of a given issue and bringing attention to it. A post by you is one devoured with relish.
Dewey Cheatham und Howe: Your attention to detail, logical presentation, and thorough reasoning are among the best. Even though you’re a lawyer I like you anyway ;). Also, you recommend great books.
Miller: You possess the best one-liner generating mind in existence. Short and funny!
xenophon41: You are one of my all time favorite liberal posters on this board. As a conservative I may not always agree with your analysis and conclusions, but you in particular, do the liberal label credit and I place more weight on your words than practically any other liberal poster here.
Tars Tarkas is highly intelligent.
Thank you to all who mentioned me…I am not worthy of your notice, but I appreciate your good thoughts about me.
I have so many people to say nice things about here that I would stress the server if I named them all. So I will just say that I have found so many friends here, and I love them all. Because they are wonderful. Supportive, bright, intelligent, funny, giving, loving and …the BEST people! I am so blest to have you all in my life.
Dopers are the best. Most of them, anyway.
I would just like to say that CuriousCanuck is the nicest guy in the entire world.
He paid me to say that. Easiest 10 bucks I ever made!
I met Gundy one time for about an hour or so in Chicago and I’ve liked her since. Glad she then came to Spffld. She’s thoughtful and a good listener.
-T
Manda J.O. has pretty eyes and a caring heart
Gobear is a stand up guy and a demon accessorizer
Shirley Ujest’s swaying little happy dance when she’s enjoying a little moment is just charming
CrankyAsAnOldMan is gorgeous when she is concentrating madly on a problem and is lost in the vortex of her thought
Giraffe is far more witty and erudite than I, but he provides a guidepost to navigate by
Esprix does so much for so many he’s going to turn into glowing ball of benevolent energy someday just like an Organian
Aesiron kindly checked up on me when I was feeling looooooow.
Wow! Thanks. That made my day!
Oh, boy, these threads are such a problem for me. There are too many dopers I know and like and I’ll inevitably end up forgetting someone, so I will just thank Eve for mentioning me and leave it at that.
I have learned far too much from far too many people here, and I know that’s a huge copout but it must do.
I’ve avoided answering this, not because I don’t have an answer, but because I have (at last count) 385 separate and distinct answers – people who have gone out of their way at some self-sacrifice to help me in very practical ways when I needed it. And if I got started, I’d need to acknowledge the wonderfulness of each and every one of them – and still be omitting the folks who stayed anonymous.
But I just cannot let the thread go without naming a few from that list – and I hope that the rest of you will understand my not monopolizing about three pages of this thread to say what I feel about each and every one of you!
Scotticher is without a doubt the person who lives out her faith most fully on this board. She spent what has to be a literal solid four 24-hour days of time spread over a six week period coordinating help for me – at the busiest time of year for her, and spent hours on the phone just pulling me out of the emotional funk I was in at the time. And I know for a fact (through being aware of stuff she cannot post on open board) that she’s doing that for several other Dopers as well, including one person to whom every single one of us here owes deep gratitude for this board’s very existence. If any of you have a little discretionary income and feel so moved by my comment here as to send her a donation for any of the collections she’s starting – and in particular that one latter special person – or even just an acknowledgement of what a really special person she is for all of us, I know that would be a gift beyond price.
RT Firefly has come through for me in a wide range of ways, including overnight hosting of me when I’m on the road. And his warm and woolly support in the ongoing debates we both get involved in is something of great value to me.
Libertarian and Edlyn have been two people that have gone vastly out of their way to show me in practice how they live out their ideals. And the same thing goes for Joe Cool and Jersey Diamond – whose argumentative, in-your-face stance in many threads in Great Debates and the Pit belies the warm and wonderful people that they actually are.
CJ Howorth is like water in the desert – my twin sister born at a different time to different parents. She’s Scotti with a British accent and a wicked, dry sense of humor.
And without going into detail – Biggirl, JeffB, Bosda di {Goofyname}, Coldfire, Triskadecamus, weirddave and Ginger, reprise, Jester, Freyr, iampunha, Tygr** and Jkayla (and the Tygr Cub, who is adorable), aenea, Tranquilis, Meatros, bdgr, gobear, techchick, yosemitebabe, GOM, Mars Horizon, Jonathan Chance… and that’s just a sampling of the people who have enrichened my life both by their friendship and in very practical ways. I could quite literally go on for several pages identifying particular people and their kindnesses.
Polycarp, I appreciate your kind words more than I can tell you. I just want to say that I know that almost anyone else here would have done what I was priviledged to do for you. Because we love you. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, and happily.
And thank you so much for your kind mention of my other endeavors…it so happens that right at this point, contributions WOULD be very welcome for someone who needs our help. If anyone is interested, I would be very happy to send details if you will email me.
Thank you!
i have been here all day and have not gotten flamed yet for my pedestrian posts-the whole 14 of them!!!. a heartfelt thanks to all for letting a newbie get their feet on the ground.
i found this m.b. via a pay one that i read only, hence the name…
Four unsolicted comments were said about me. FOUR. Nice Things.
::::::::::::faint:::::::::::
:::::raising glass from the floor:::::
To all dopers, past ( We still miss you Wally) Present and to a long, fun future of fighting ignorance!
Hey, who let that Alabaman/Alabamwoman :::snicker::: in here?
How’s that for a mini-flame, a zippo, if you will?
Shayna, who before that Spiney person took her away used to play with us a lot on the board, and did a lot of work on the People Pages
Green Bean, remember the ‘Hags of the Straight Dope’
Eve who is the epic of class
aha, the original comic
CanadianSue who is in a class of her own
Many, many others that I can’t bring to mind right now but who are always around, mostly in the background
Wow, I never get mentioned in this sort of thread. I’m all misty! And it’s not just my eyedrops! This may be the first time I’ve turned up something both surprising and pleasant doing a vanity search.
I usually don’t do these kinds of posts because I am so bad at remembering people’s names if I don’t have a face to put them to, and there are so many great posters here I could never list them all. But here’s a few:
Esprix was my very first favorite poster and shall always have a special place in my heart. I was an avid “Ask the Gay Guy” reader before I’d even registered on the SDMB.
andygirl doesn’t seem to be around much anymore, but I’ve always admired her. I remember taking note of her early on because we are in the same year in college, but she has done so much more for so many people than you’d expect from her being as young as I am!
Guinastasia is a kind, friendly presence in so many forums, and always helpful and considerate. And she has good taste in fashion, and likes vintage clothing.
Eve is another lady with great taste, not to mention great class, sophistication, wit, courage, and intelligence! I doff my top hat to you, and heartily recommend your fine biography of Theda Bara to everyone.
Anahita is a lovely, warm-hearted woman, and I feel privledged to have met her in person. She’s a lot of fun to go girly shopping with.
Biggirl is just plain cool. I always enjoy her posts.
When and if I grow up, I hope I can be half as smart and sensible as wring and CrankyAsAnOldMan.
I seem to disagree with erislover on virtually every GD issue, but he laughed at a horrible dirty joke I made about the categorical imperative so he’s all right in my book. (That, and he’s a thoroughly decent guy.)
tomndebb often writes the posts I could only write in my dreams. Always worth reading.
yosemitebabe is another poster who always struck me as especially kind and considerate. And she’s a great artist.
And…uh…uh…well, heck, almost everyone else here deserves to have something nice said about them. Unless they’re some kind of jerk or something.
I haven’t paid you yet… Thus far I have only reserved the room…
ShibbOleth and Troy McClure both had opportunities to torch me, but didn’t. They backed off when they realized I had seen the error of my ways. That doesn’t happen alot. (The backing off part, I mean. I usually can see the error of my ways in hindsight.)
ShibbOleth here and Troy McClure here .
ShibbOleth was also, I believe, the first one to welcome me aboard.
I just wanted to say that I think Broken Doll is amazing and gorgeous and talented and smart and funny and charming and rules the planet… and perhaps a little biased…
Well, if no one else says it…