Inspired by this thread, I was curious how everyone found their way to these boards, or the Dope, in general.
My story:
Last year I was in JFK’s International Terminal, and I had to use the Gents’. Standing at the urinal, I noticed there was a picture of a fly, slightly off-center, glazed right into the porcelain. “How curious,” thought I, and did a Google search when next I was able. That lead me to this pearl of wisdom from The Master, and the rest is history. I got to the boards via Threadspotting; viz the Missing Cow-Orker thread (I’ve forgotten the actual title).
Next!
over a year ago, i googled something (can’t for the life of me remember what it was) and there was a link to one of the master’s columns. followed that, followed a few more, bookmarked the site and pretty much forgot about it.
until recently. in the last few weeks of my job (i was made redundant by outsourcing IT) i didn’t have anything to do, so i was going through my bookmarks to see what i should keep and came across the boards again.
i decided to join after reading an archived “threadspotting” by and about the people here who didn’t think they were particularly smart or clever and how they felt intimidated by some of the other people on the board. i just felt a sense of belonging. i can’t really explain it any clearer than that. sorry.
I was working for a small company who’s owners were never there and the employees were all in the lab/planning room downstairs. I was the receptionist and had a total of 4 lines to cover. All I did was take appointments and do the billing. Which took about 2 hours total of an 8 hour day.
I had internet access and chatted all day with a friend on MSN. One day she wasn’t on, so I was searching for Message Boards. The first one I came across was the SDMB. I stopped looking after that
I got a secondhand copy of The Straight Dope. I remember saying, “Straight Dope, huh? We’ll see about that.” After finishing it, I needed more, of course. I figured if this guy was still around, he’d probably be online. A quick search and here I was.
When I was a university student in Chicago, I used to read Cecil’s column in the free paper every week. Years later I was at work and missing those columns and thought “hmm, well he must be online somewhere”. VOILA!
I thought it was inspired by this thread? :dubious:
Well, anyway, I read the Dope in my local paper, for a long time, then began to lurk on the related message board once internet access came down in price. I lurked on and off for a really long time. I coulda’ been a charter member :smack: , but no topic ever brought out a need to reply, till recently.
I was banned from another board where I had been a moderator. One of the other mods there recommended that I try the SDMB. I joined up immediately. I loved reading the posts here, but I lurked for a very long time before daring to post anything.
A friend of mine suggested bored.com as a website. The Straight Dope was one of their links. I started reading the columns and eventually found the board. Now, I’m up to over 1000 posts!
Read The Straight Dope column faithfully in the local weekly paper. When I went to school in the UK, I searched for it online and find the board shortly thereafter.
A while back, Fox aired its Moon Hoax “documentary.” I knew most of it was BS on my own, and was looking around the Web for supplementary evidence and counter-arguments for the stuff I couldn’t figure out on my own. I found Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy, which linked to a bunch of other urban legend and conspiracy debunking sites… including this one. Been here ever since.
A link on bored.com brought me here, though I’d heard of the place vaguely before. I spent some time reading Cecil’s columns and old Threadspotting threads, then finally had the courage to take the plunge. I’m glad I did. This place is nifty.
Been reading the columns and books since I can remember (somewhere I have a baby picture of the Grand Master, I swear). One day I decided to enter it into the search bar, and voila. There it was. That was in… Probably October '04. Guest membership in November '04, and then recently I got a Visa Buxx card (it’s like a debit card for teens… I like it) and was able to buy my own membership.
My dear husband bought me one of the SD books for Christmas. I was immediately hooked and I never looked back. The book referred to the AOL board and by the time I tried to find it, they had just moved here. I lurked for a couple of years before registering. My husband had no idea he had started what would become my obsession!
I’m afraid of chat rooms. Too instant and too judgmental for my sensibilities. But I wanted to connect in some way with an online community. Other message boards I had run across seemed way too specialized in one area or the other. So one day…
I entered “message boards” into, geez, Yahoo Search, I think? I had to click on “next” to see another page.
Then there she was. “The Straight Dope”. I lurked and lurked and lurked for a couple years before ever gathering up the courage to sign up and post.
I found the site the first week I had AOL, back when the board was an AOL board.
When was that? Back in '99 maybe? I waited a while to register because I felt like I wasn’t clever enough. Don’t know what exactly convinced me otherwise!
