Thanks. … I think. 
I usually just click on the new posts tab to get to the threads, so about the only time I end up in great debates is by accident - like when a thread with some wacky title about something completely inane that you would not possibly think could be in great debates is in fact in Great Debates . . . and has run on to 3 pages already.
Lurk and read GQ and Cafe Society mostly
Register and continue lurking and reading
Post once or twice and get warmly welcomed 
Go back to lurking and reading, adding MPSIMS and some others
Put up a rare post now and then
Another one. Not sure what stage number. the area of things that happen when you’ve been on the board for a while.
Checking the Join Date someone posts something long and rambling about their girlfriend cheating, or no girlfriend, or cheating, etc. or something wacky about the lizard people. I automatically check the join date. It’s almost always an accurate predictor.
I didn’t pay any attention to forums until I got my ass reamed out a few times. I thought every forum was " my humble opinion" .
I also had no idea people actually knew what they were talking about here, I just stumbled across the board while surfing the web.
What stage is it when it really does seem like all you see is “the usual suspects” endlessly arguing the exact same topics, in the exact same ways, over and over and over again? Because that’s where I am. Fatigued with the sheer lunacy of doing that forever. I wanna tell 'em to shaddup already.
I’m somewhere around stage 11, in which much of my life is defined by things I’ve seen or learned about on the Dope. I was just thinking the other day that I primarily experienced 9/11 and election night 2008 through this message board. I occasionally get slightly bored or annoyed with the tone of the board, but in 15 years I’ve never made the decision to quit for even a day.
Not me! I doubt I’m unusual. It’s a curse, but …
xkcd: Duty Calls - Duty Calls
Not me, and I doubt I’m unusual. GQ is still my favorite. Learned a lot there! Posted a lot of mistakes there too!
My stages were:
1 - Jump in with both feet
2 - Learn not to call another poster an idiot (even when it’s self-inclusive, ironic, and possibly funny)
3 - Allow my ignorance to be fought
No doubt, achieving #3 fully will be a life-long struggle.
We missed out the,
‘I am not bothering to give my wisdom out yet again on this subject, its common sense to anyone with a brain - doesn’t anyone ever read previous threads on this subject, and anyway, I know I’m right’
stage
I didn’t lurk at all and I jumped in to all the forums equally. Now, I tend to be a Cafe hound, but don’t avoid the other forums. I do love a great Pit trainwreck, backfired or not.
Best strip evah! Although I have to learn when to walk away…
Yep, a lot of folks are like you. In on the first day. Brave souls, the lot of you! 
Me too. I love the Pit. Right now someone is avoiding me there - not that I have mad skillz or anything - but the Pit is made of awesome.
It’s not about what stage you are on, it’s about what soapbox.
Add to this “Referring to frequent posters by their Doper names in regular conversation, especially around non-Dopers.” It gets super confusing as they try to figure out that Unauthorized Cinnamon or whoever you’re referring to actually represents a real person. :smack:
I, for one, will somtimes say “I, for one…” in social situations or at work. I probably sound like an asshole, but I’m entertaining myself.
(I, for one, never used that phrase prior to becoming Dopified.)
I’ve read the Straight Dope column for years. I assumed everyone did. I’m surprised at how many of my contemporaries (in college from 1966-1970) have never heard of it.
My stages (roughly) were:
- Stumble in here probably due to a google search.
- Note how danged *smart *everyone is. On any and every subject.
- Post some stuff and get slammed/warned because I didn’t follow protocol, due to carelessness, but that was no excuse.
- Started a friendly, lighthearted thread about the Milk of Human Kindness or something and drew out all the bitter, cynical, misanthropists who normally hide under rocks during the day.
- Ran away sobbing and swore I’d never be back. Stayed away for months.
- Came back because no board is like this one. In any way.
- Accepted that some people will get it and some won’t. No prob.
- Cite the board multiple times per day in conversations with Normal People.
The next step is the Straight Dope Retirement Community… coming soon.
ThelmaLou I think I lived in fear of your Stage 5 for a looooong time. Hence my lurking. What if I am an idiot! Today in the Pit, I was informed that I am an idiot. I was able to truthfully reply that the poster’s opinion did not matter to me. 
I call that growth! 
Me, I never even go to the Pit. I know my limitations.
stage 6: realizing that much of Great Debates and IMHO consists of stupidity and bigotry masquerading as intellectual argument
stage 7 (I’m not there quite yet): avoiding above and participating in threads that are more enjoyable and less maddening
I followed a slightly different path.
- Find the sight. Join almost immediately.
- Make about 6-7 fairly mild posts.
- Forget I am a member and move on—for 11 years
- Run across the site again, realize I am a member and start posting.
Currently I am posting at a fairly good clip in most of the forums and haven’t stepped on my di…broken any rules that I have been informed of.
It helps that I can access this site from work and work right now is slow as molasses (except when molasses isn’t slow: Great Molasses Flood - Wikipedia )
- More of a generalist than a specialist, but hopeful of one day getting my post total to show 1 per day (given I registered in 2004, it’ll take awhile…I’m at 0.08 posts per day right now).