Lessee,
Found the Straight Dope around 2001, spent a year just reading the archives. I did peep into the message boards a couple of times but I never would have signed up. I was way too shy at that time. I think I first signed up when I started talking about the Straight Dope with a kid in my physics class. In fact the first threads of mine were all about random questions we wanted to answer.
And now look at me.
My eyes! The goggles do nothing!
Alcohol.
I remember my direct route, more or less. It was a roudabout route through Skeptic.com and Snopes to the Straight Dope. I read a few columns and then went on to join. I was curious about something and wanted to post a new thread so I joined.
I am convinced that we are all lucky to have found each other. I feel as if I have a great resource to a lot of knowledge that could be a real advantage in life.
I’ve lurked here for years. I had always wanted to join, but I could never seem to find a place to just “jump in”. Though I may not always sound it, and I have mentioned this before: I am painfully shy in reality, until I am comfortable (then, Og help you…)
So, I read with great interest almost every day, until one day, last September or October, I think… I found a spot to jump in. What made me jump in?
Nik Kershaw. :smack:
came across the site while working for Gateway. First only just to browse through the old staff reports and such. Once I became good at the job and no longer needed to pay attention to 90% of what people said on the phone, I had more free time, so I joined the board. The rest is history.
Looking for any excuse to skive off lectures I went online to check a few websites mentioned in a PC magazine. This one seemed like good fun and after lurking for only a short while I joined up.
I found the SD looking for an answer to run vs walk in the rain. I almost immediately found the boards and lurked for a while until someone asked for advice on giving up smoking.
Another board I used to post on made a link to this board during a political debate and after looking around I liked the board so I stayed.
There must have been some mixup with a Google search and an Internet Oracle question, and I ended up at the SD by accident. IIRC threadspotting had a bunch of people sticking wedding rings in their nostrils 
Read the archive for ages, and lurked. Just liked the tone of (most) threads, lots of people talking sense (I mostly stay(ed) out of the GD and the pit).
It was the “are scalar weapons for real?” thread that made me join up. It had me laughing out loud for no (other) reason for days if not weeks. It still makes me smile. I can’t say I contributed a great deal to that thread, but I did get the 1000th posting to it.
I am impressed by the knowledge here, both deep and wide. Yeah, I know ‘everybody says that’ but this is an important reason to stick around a board that may have otherwise been an afternoon diversion. I was sick of MB participants who post wild speculation, opinions, and downright lies as fact and get away with it unchallenged. I love that there’s no wiggle room for BS’ers at the Dope. Some blowhard posts a WAG about the mating habits of mosquitoes in Madagascar, and feels puffed up in the safe assumption that no one knows any better, but two posts down comes from a bug guy whose thesis focused on this very topic, and that’s just priceless.
Wouldn’t it be great if things happened this way in real life?
I’ve been reading cecil for years, noticed the boards and thought it would be fun to hang around with a bunch of people way smarter and more literate than myself.
Um, and the occasional moron. (present company excepted of course 
So far, I am not disappointed on either count.
I was brought here a few months ago by another SD member who suggested I’d like this place. And my membership was in fact a gift, for which I’m very grateful. I have yet to read anything SD related that is not forum posts. :o
I’d run across a link to Scylla’s Blimp thread somewhere - probably on an EQ message board, did some exploring, , signed up that night and been here ever since.
I’m intrigued by all the answers (except Cynical Gabe’s 
). I hope more people answer.
Tracy Lord, I also love the phoenix thread.
Short version…Only members can ‘search’.
To comment on a column.
A similar story to some others. I stumbled on the column while searching for an answer to some question. I had only been involved in a parenting board before, and was getting pretty disgusted with some of the poorly moderated infighting and witnessing of various sorts. I read the board for a while and was really struck by how lively and interesting it was and by the range of ages and viewpoints. I started posting as soon as I felt I could make a contribution. I read a few other boards, but generally haven’t bothered to register because they are too slow to bother with, too poorly moderated, or populated solely by 20-somethings. I like 20-somethings just fine, but don’t have too much in common with their lifestyles anymore.
I remember reading the 'Dope for years in the Reader, and being impressed with Cecil’s answer style. I found out there was a messae board, and went ot check it out, suspecting that it would be a crappy adjunct to the column.
Boy was I wrong. After a few years of lurking (and I have LURKED!), I gradually became impressed with the fact that no-one gets away with anything in re: factual statements. I love the journalistic feel to the board (cite!).
Another thing that speaks in favor of the board’s structure is the compartmentalization (mental note…run spellcheck on that) of the forums. I love that all “violent” threads go to the Pit, and that it’s a Wild West atmosphere in there! The different categories really make it nice.
And, for the most part, there is little posing, and people seem genuinely smart and knowledgeable.
Go Dopes!
A small town in the American South can be an intellectual desert.
This place is cool, cool water.
I had lurked for about six months when the Knock’in Boots Poll: Having Sex - so what do you call it? thread showed up.
I just had to log in and contribute “Snugglebunnies”.