Sorry, my memory sucks. I got the wild poodles book and also Know It All at about the same time and got them confused.
I ran across Cecil’s columns searching for info occasionally, registered to ask Cecil a question, only began reading threads consistently and posting out of boredom during an illness.
I was reading Shakesville, and someone recommended the thread on urethra stuffing in particular, and the board in general as a good laugh.
I don’t bother with Shakesville anymore 
I took a left turn at Greenland.
I’d been reading the columns for years in Folio Weekly in Jacksonville. One day at work in a fit of boredom, I googled the Straight Dope and came across the message board. I’d never seen such a thing before (when you have dial-up and limited minutes per month, your surfing options are limited) and I was instantly hooked. I officially joined in August of 2000.
I don’t remember what first brought me here anymore. I lurked for years before becoming a paying member.
I’ve just done my 10 years on the Dope
I found it via Terry Pratchett’s Discworld… in particular the L-Space website which had a couple of references to Cecil Adams and The Straight Dope books.
… I…don’t…know…
(said in the same tone of voice an amnesia sufferer would use).
…it was the…nineties…that’s all I can remember…
Considering how many hours I’ve spent on here, you’d think I could zero in on That Moment It All Started.
But I could tell you stories from Back In The Day…
My SO enjoys books of the weird-question-and-answer format, such as the Imponderables or the Cecil Adams collections. I understand that’s how she stumbled on the forums here; she posts very rarely as Phoebestar.
She introduced me to the boards, although I’m indifferent to the question/answer thing and don’t read Cecil Adams’s column except rarely. Nevertheless I ended up posting quite a lot more than she (although I’m not exactly prolific). I think GameHat hits the nail on the had as to why I’ve stayed — as I matured the average level of maturity on the internet did not follow. This is one of the few discussion boards at which I can be sure that the overwhelming majority of posts will be coherent and constructed from mostly sensible English.
Some portions of reddit are still okay, at least … ah, the days when the teenaged me would just strike up a conversation with anybody online. I suspect doing that now would make me want to shoot myself.
I came here for the waters.
There are no waters! We’re in the desert!
I had about half a dozen of the books. Didn’t have any access to the columns. Started coming to the web site to read the columns, but took me quite a while to notice that there was a message board.
I read the books, found the site, and then I thought WallyM7 was funny so I registered at the message board.
Look where that got me.
I was watching a show on TV about capital punishment, and they mentioned a criminal who was guillotined and blinked something like 17 times (he said beforehand that he would blink as many times as possible). I was a little dubious about this claim, so I looked it up online and this led me to one of Cecil’s columns. I was hooked on Cecil’s columns immediately, but it took me a long time to warm up to the message boards. Eventually though I did join the message board. It doesn’t seem like that long ago, but I guess it has been ten years. Time flies and all of that.
A mod moved me here, of course.
Actually, I was in talk.origins and there was a thread where someone said that people here were doing a good job with a creationist, so I decided to check it out. I moved because the Dope had a high level of discussion, was easier to get to than usenet where the newsreader in my company was a bit unreliable, and had a volume that was tolerable. I was getting overwhelmed by the volume of alt.atheism and talk.origins, not to mention anything else I wanted to read.
I read the books, and one day searched for the column online. That’s where I found the board.
my uncle mentioned a discussion in an email four or five years ago. I came back after he passed away to see what had him so captivated.
Bored at work and surfing for information on something, I found one of Cecil’s columns. I read all of them over the course of several days, then discovered the message board. The first thread I read was one of those that just goes off the tracks immediately and was very funny. It had to do with the buttons one pushes that don’t do what they seem to say they do, as I recall, i.e., the “resume” button on your cruise control does not produce a list of your past jobs.
I took that left turn at Albuquerque.
Actually I don’t recall. I know I found the articles on-line first; I bet I made it to the SDMB via one of the “Threadspotting” links. Someone must have come up with a catchy title.
Beats the hell out of me, I don’t remember. I think it had something to do with an interest in News Of The Weird, and there was a link.
I was doing a job for a friend on the computer at the time, and I got board so I started searching the net. I was told that after decapitation, the head of someone can remain conscious for a few minutes the night before, so I did a search on it. That’s how I found the Dope.
Then I started reading about how their’s no Channel 1 on TV, or how People say ‘Jesus H. Christ’, and all these other questions I never thought to ask myself.
Then when I checked out the message boards, I found that it was full of intellectuals who were asking, pondering, or debating things that I wanted to have a firm grasp on. I’m not at all the smartest person here, but I liked that I was learning things from a message board where people are really just looking for the honest truth…
For instance; I could read a post by someone who’s against the death penalty, and THEN another post on why the logic of last poster was flawed by someone else who’s still against the death penalty, but just has a better argument or is just playing devil’s advocate.
Even though the conversations or the debating often reaches a point that’s either too much for me to read, or goes way over my head, I feel more complete in the opinions I hold. This really is a place to fight ignorance.
I’ve also been very candid about my personal life on these boards, because people will give me a straight answer about what they really think without bias.
I’m so happy I found this place! And grateful to the people who contribute.