I bought my first Straight Dope book in 1989 at a bookstore in Honolulu. I no longer have it, but I suspect that if I were to obtain it, the publishing information might show it to have been first published in 1984.
Or thereabouts.
The Internet existed before 1984, but when AOL started it was not connected with the Internet, since the Internet was not available to the public. So AOL members logged into AOL using dialup on telephone lines.
And AOL and the Internet existed before any websites existed: the WWW started in 1991. Some of us can remember using the Internet without using the WWW or HTTP, though you young’uns may find that hard to believe.
Pretty much. Pre-1990 or so, when Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, HTML, and browsers became available, you signed on to a single service like AOL, Prodigy or Compuserve. Most non-academic customers had no way to connect to the Internet and there wouldn’t be much reason to do so.
I have lived through slightly more than two decades, and I have witnessed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks during my lifetime on TV, not just on a historical documentary about the event. Despite my physical age, I admit that sometimes I am emotionally immature, as if I am locked in adolescence. For my intellectual age, I cannot tell, since I have not taken an IQ test – I just hope that I am not mentally challenged! I am a visual learner and analytical thinker. Pictures, charts, graphs, flowcharts, and tables really help in analysis!
AOL, as American Online, only exists from 1991. I remember one of the predecessors to America Online (later AOL), called “QuantumLink,” which was dedicated to Commodore users. CompuServe and Prodigy were two other popular online services that existed in the mid-80s. And then, of course, there was the slew of more local BBSes.
That said, I don’t think Straight Dope’s pages go back anywhere near that far, although I could be mistaken.
I was using prodigy in, oh… 1993, I think.
Prodigy!!! Damn…
And many of us were reading the Dope in weeklies before there were collections in book form. We proudly wear our pants hiked up to our ribcage as we join in our battle cry: Hey kid, get out of my lawn! 
JRD
Hell, I still have a friend whose primary email address is @prodigy.net.
Who are you calling a bastion? Why, them’s fightin’ words! I’ll have you know I resemble that remark.
- Goes off to look up “bastion” in the dictionary. Ohh…
I’m 50 now, and as for wisdom? Well I used to think I was Charlie Brown, but now I’ve come to the bitter conclusion that I’m Eric Cartman.
I blame the Y1.999K bug for the discrepancy.
Yes, The Straight Dope: A Compendium of Human Knowledge was first published in 1984.
The best part is this: I’m also under 30. 
Some of us started young.
I bought mine at the much-beloved and missed Coliseum Books on W. 57th Street in NYC. Looking for something amusing to read, I picked it up and laughed until I had tears in my eyes. Then I bought it.
Lay in bed in the evenings, laughing and reading and laughing.
Ahhh, the good old days.
Heh heh… I’ve got clothes older than you, sonny boy! 
(And wouldn’t you know it, the damn things are back in style! :smack:)
Now, get out of my damn yard before I call the cops on you! Dag nab it! <grumble>
Didn’t realize I was part of the initial batch of posters here.
It seems that you and I, (along with many others) are what the ‘board’ refers to as “99’ers”.
You might want to take a look at this thread.
I put my age up so I could enlist here.