I lurked for a while, and then after reading I stuck my wedding ring up my nose I decided I fit right in.
Boredom drove me to www.bored.com which listed this place. That boredom changed to curiosity which led me here. I knew nothing about ‘Straight Dope’ before that day.
I had been reading the SD in the local weekly rag on a catch-as-catch-can basis when I found a link to the Straight Dope homepage. I became a frequent visitor there and quickly caught up on a lot of the columns in the archives, etc. but I didn’t really stumble on the SDMB until I felt like I had to take issue with something in one of Cecil’s columns (I can’t even remember now which one it was). I clicked on the link and found myself here.
I registered and lurked for a while, then for some reason I got sidetracked and went AWOL for a year or so. When I re-discovered the board I got involved and started posting, and have been a (several times) daily visitor ever since.
Was it the graffe.com (wizard site) forums, OT section? Because I’m pretty sure a link to Scylla’s blimp thread from those very EQ forums was my first exposure to the SDMB 
And personally, I am glad for that. You probably don’t even remember me, but you have answered several of my GQs in the past. (It’s hard to forget Fat Bald Guy).
Bermuda999, Opalcat,Tubadiva and a host of other smartasses whose comments were put in from the old message board in the back of the chapters of The Perfect Master’s books.
I was like, " Hey…a bunch of smartasses…just like me! I’m not alone!
I’ve been a part of this place ever since.
So if you are looking for someone to blame, I would say it is dem guys and dames up above.
Sidebar: Whatever happened to Bermuda anyways? That **St. Peter’s Basilica What’s being the door? ** was what brought me to this place full time.
FTR, I am a chihuahua.
Surely you jest.
A fellow poster from another forum told me about SDMB. Cafe Society was my first stop, and I was impressed with the sheer number and variety of threads and the intelligence of the posters.
I joined after my first visit.
I used to visit sporadically back when the SD was on AOL then I sort of forgot about it for a while. One sleepless, lonely, and isolated night I ran across it again. Felt a little less lonely. So I stayed.
God I’m old. I read about the AOL site in a Straight Dope book. That was it… although, back then, I posted under another name, oddly. ( Something I’d forgotten about and was reminded of last year by a friend. 
)
Cartooniverse
Well, let’s see… first, this guy working on my team sends me a link to one of Cecil’s columns – I don’t even remember what about any more :eek: !
Then, I start reading the archives… eventually I exhaust them, and turn to the Staff Reports.
At some point, there was a staff report that got me clicking on the “Comment on this Column” link. The rest is history…
See, that’s why it’s called the 'Dope. They drag you in gradually, until you’re good and hooked and can’t manage without your daily fix… 
Dani
I’d read all of the books, and was looking for something to do. I lived in Bangkok, so couldn’t just pick up the Chicago Reader or a local fascimile thereof, so I thought I’d check for Cecil’s columns online. After a time I noticed that there was also a message board, which I started reading off and on in early 2001. I joined up after repatriating to the States in summer 2001, around my birthday actually. Maybe I felt like I shouldn’t have to work that day.
I don’t remember how I found the SD site, but once I read all of the columns there and got bored, I wandered in to the message board. The posts were so intelligent and witty, and everyone was (generally) nice, at least in MPSIMS and IMHO where I tend to hang out. I was really impressed by the nice things that were said in Roland O.'s picture thread last fall. No one said anything mean about people’s hairstyles or choices of clothing. And so many of the threads have me laughing out loud at work! I lurked for about a month and then just realized that I had to be a part of such a great group.
I was shouting at the television something along the lines of: “Maybe if you pronounced Porsche correctly, Conan, you’d improve your chances of being given one, 'ya dipstick!” when I realized that maybe I had it all wrong.
I really didn’t know where to ask, so I sent the question to the Straight Dope and they replied by telling me to post the question on the message board.
And here I am today. ::sniff:: Heartwarming, really.
I blame that Celyn person…She told me about it. Said it was a message board full of interesting, frighteningly intelligent folks, and that once I stayed a while I’d be hooked. She was right
And where else would I learn about “ear orgasms”? I ask you??
Once upon a time, AOL charged you by the minute, and therefore had a motivating reason to maintain lots of interesting content and forums, things to keep you fascinated and online longer. Then they introducted flat-rate-monthly and it seemed like they were soon nuking vast segments of what I used to go online for. An entire “channel” of forums and resources called “The Exchange” was wiped out and I had been a regular on about 3 forums there. So I was ripe for something new to do when AOL featured the Straight Dope in the little “featured stuff” corner on the front page, quickly found the forum (General Questions), and haven’t left since.
Of course, AOL’s demolition of their own content areas continued and after a year and a half or so, they announced they were ditching the Straight Dope. When they emigrated over to here, I followed.
Actually, I do remember you, back when you were Elenia28. You always seem to have something interesting to say on most of the topics around here.
I first found the Dope through a link on Fark to one of Cecil’s columns. I poked around in the archives a bit and bookmarked the site. After a while, I found the messageboards through one of the Threadspotting links, though I don’t recall what the original thread that hooked me was. I lurked for a few months, and eventually registered an account in May of 2001, just in case I wanted to post. There actually wasn’t a particular thread that made me say, “I MUST register so I can post in this!” About a week later, I made my first post in a thread about Steve Wright quotes.
I posted here and there sporadically across a few different forums, but didn’t become really active until the Winter of Our Missed Content. I lost about thirty posts or so in the board crash (which was about half my total at the time), and went back into lurk mode. Though I read the Dope every day, I’ve gone stretches of 5-6 months at a time when I haven’t posted anything because I haven’t felt like I had anything to add to the discussions, or haven’t had the time to sit down and write out a response. When the board switched to pay-to-post, I immediately ponied up the money because I felt that I was certainly getting my money’s worth just reading. So, let me just add a big “me too!” to all of the users who’ve commented on the intelligence, wit, and general awesomeness of this board and its community of users. You guys rock.
If all Chinese jumped at once, would cataclysm result?
Cecil’s answer to that one really sent me rolling on the floor laughing. It’s the one that got me hooked on Straight Dope. I printed it. I read it once in a while. I suggest you do too.