Let us not forget the Dark Days of BBB. :shudder:
Esprix
I’ve got nothing new to add (apart from perhaps the TMI thread…I’m not going hunting for the link because then I’ll read the whole thing again), but wanted to say that I’m one of the ones who stayed from the mutual SDMB-LBMB invasions. I like this place better - I never go there anymore.
I’m going pretty much on memory here, but Perky~Dan (aka “The Tilded One”, so called for his over use of tildes in pretty much all of his posts) was a fairly rabid fundamentalist who absolutely could not be argued with, no matter how hard you tried. His posts were often unreadable and made little to no sense, even if you had the stomach for them. For a while he would go away, but must have been lurking because as soon as someone mentioned his name he would pop back up for a spell … kind of like Bloody Mary in the mirror. Thus it was a pretty serious thing that he was called “he who shall not be named.”
We lost the use of html when an idiot named xxXxxxx* hacked the board back in UBB days.
*[sup]I decided against naming the cretin[/sup]
Guy Stuff anyone?
And poor, dear departed Whammo (remember his original username?), who did himself in, had a good one with Funny things said during sex, which I can’t seem to dig up right now.
Thanks, Tiburon! I’ve had this idea in my head for awhile, and only now did I get around to posting it.
The WTC plane crash thread is one I still read from time to time. It provides a lot of perspective on the whole event.
One of my favorites, and I’ve never tried hard to find it, was a thread of “things you saw that made you go ‘huh?’” The centerpiece of this thread was a story someone told about being in a movie theatre when a foil-wrapped half potato with three holes in it rolled in front of them. Then some kid ran up, yelled, “that’s not my potato!” and ran off. It had all of us in hysterics! 
Any info on when the first board started on AOL? Also, I’m curious about real-world events caused by the boards: First dopefest, first relationship, first marriage. Things like that really show the power of this place.
Oh, sorry Ringo! I see you’ve already posted on the origins of the DopeFests. My apologies.
A favorite of mine is the time a poster mentioned that Satan and Drain Bead were dating, and Satan blew a gasket because he wanted to be the one to make the big announcement. Lots of good reading for this lurker.
Who was the guy who had a special secret army keyboard that could only do caps? He claimed to post from his car IIRC.
[url=“http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=97977”]Here’s a thread started by London_Calling and researched heavily by thinksnow that has many links to many great threads including JDT bumperpack Christmas edition.
FORMERAGENT and his pal Finder
I’ve got some links upthread a ways for the Dynamic Duo.
Fenris
Euty: Thanks! This has been bugging me for months!
TA-DAAAA
I found it!
I’ve been meaning to look up a thread for weeks and this thead gave me the needed push to do it…
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dopers of all ages,
I present the thread where the greatest Doper mystery of ALL was revealed!
The veil was lifted! The secret shroud torn away!
I present the thread where the mystery of how Gaudere’s name is pronounced was revealed!
Fenris
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=97977
That link I was trying to make on page one.
How about me losing Dr. Boyfriend because of the SDMB? That’s a keeper… 
Esprix
These links are from Teemings Extras, the original threads were in MPSIMS, and were probably posted spring 2001, IIRC.
Thanks anya marie ! Do you know the story as to their untimely death (I think it invovled the Pit?). 
Yikes, sorry Exprix. Yeah, I guess break-ups caused by the SDMB certainly qualify for this little project, too.
Bummer, man.
The Satan banning sticks out as well as the creation of Cafe Society.
I believe that I qualify as the ultimate lurker. Why? Well I sometimes lurked the AOL board, and I eventually registered when the board rolled over to the web. I remember whammo when he was b_line12 and Eve when she was Flora McFlimsy (i believe…). I believe persephone had a name that was something like Christi (thereabouts).
Have we all forgotten Michael Masterson/Silo? I believe his invasion was possibly the most irritating event in the history of the SDMB. He posted roughly 20 different threads each about his penis size. Eventually he semi-settled down as Silo, who posted about his penis size at regular intervals.
Of course Wally cannot/should not be forgotten ever. Truly an amazing person.
Melingate was notable aside from the incident itself was the loss of PurpleCrackWhore, Storytyler, et al.
What about The Straight Dope Bar Fight?
Oh yes, I think an important event was the rollover to a now-long forgotten board that had post counts. Before that there were no post counts. That was an event for the novelty of at the time.
Sorry for not bolding the names of posters in the above message. I forgot to check until after I posted.