I found the column years ago. Was a regular reader. The MB was then pay only so I lurked for years.
I was searching how to solve the, “Guess how many candies there are in a candy jar,” game. So after weeks of searching around and playing with formulas, which didn’t really work out; I found out that there is not really a way to use the formula that I did come up with, given how little information the creators of the contest give you.
I found a thread about the subject and it was from the Straight Dope Message Board. I clicked on it and started reading the replies. I was quite impressed and it seemed like people looked like they knew what they were talking about. This message board looked like an interesting site that I had never seen anything like before. And it was perfect timing to; I was looking for a good message board to post on because I was tired of Yahoo! Answers not giving any good replies. People usually only post like a couple of sentences and complain if your question is too long way too easily. Here people write more thoroughly and are much more tolerant of long posts. And obviously, the population of the Straight Dope Message Board are extremely more intelligent than Yahoo! Answer’s.
So then I made an account and started my own and very first thread: How many candies are in a jar - packing efficiency and volume?
I’ve been a reader of TSD since the early 1980s, but I had no real interest in the forum until a friend kept sending me threads that matched my own interests.
You people are much smarter and more knowledgeable than the folks at other forums, and your insults are way funnier.
In an era where online conversation is devolving to 140 character chunks that blow away in the wind, the massive solidity of a good forum is beyond price. A massively solid forum with attentive, responsive moderation that lets fun be fun and assholes be cast into the outer darkness (Facebook) is truly priceless. If what remains are a body of users who may fight like cats and dogs but do it with some degree of intelligence, wit, knowledge and enforced civility… happy to be here.
ETA: Here’s to us; there’s damn few of us left. #noshitsherlock
I picked up a copy of the book, first, & then came here a couple of years later.
Pointlesswasteoftime.com (which has since been merged into Cracked) had a link to the Straight Dope webpage in the “Mirth Canal” (basically links to cool/funny sites on the web) buried down a few pages. Eventually, I registered for the board.
I too found the Straight Dope columns in the Montreal Mirror when I was a student at Concordia University. I was disappointed to leave the columns behind when I moved away from Montreal. In 1999 an on line friend was going to start a webzine and asked me if I wanted to do some kind of column for it. I was poking around on the web (using Netscape Navigator!) and found this place. Joined Feb 29, 2000, so not a 99’er and either had and lost or never paid at the right time for Charter status. But leap day is pretty cool, I am one of the first dopers ever to sign up on a leap day. I didn’t have a computer for a while in the early 2000s too, so that is part of it as well.
I am still here. I sometimes wonder why, but I am still here.
An exceptional, once-in-400-years leap day, yet.
I can’t remember exactly since it’s been nearly 10 years, but I think somebody on one of my e-mail discussion lists pointed me this way.
Sounds like my posting rate for the first 10 years.
Books
Website
Board
I sent a question in to the column and got an reply saying I should post it here (I still remember the question).
This was early days, like a week after they had moved off of the AOL site, people were still talking about it. I had made up a user name and posted under that name, then forgot both the name and the password so I created a new user name and pw. This might technically be a sock puppet, but since it all happened in the tail end of the Clinton administration, I’m hoping for some kind of statue of limitations.
I think it was a link to a thread about bubbles when you pee in a urinal that got me here first.
It was the smart and informed posters who kept me around…
Followed a link that came up on a search. The board used to be good back then.
In the last 5-6 years, it has really taken a nose dive.
I used to do some fraud detection at the credit union I used to work for. I noticed a member had some odd withdrawals coming from her account. I had no idea where the withdrawals were coming from, so I Googled the name and one of the links was a thread here.
Near as I can figure the member was doing business with someone who was posting here. Wish I could remember what the withdrawals were called, then maybe I could find the thread.
Anyways, I clicked on that link and I think I spent the rest of the day reading threads. I lurked for a few months and then decided to sign up.
A high school friend of mine in the late Eighties had several of the collections of Cecil’s columns in paperback. I read 'em and loved 'em. Years later, I Googled “Straight Dope” to see if Cecil had any online presence, and found this wonderful place. My life has never been the same since.
I was told I should check this place out by this really hot older woman.
after poking around a bit I realized I loved this place. There is only one other board I read with any regularity and that one is pretty much dead.
A poster from a cycling board (mountain bike review) had a hard time finding an answer to something and posted the question here and linked to it. I followed the link, found some other interesting stuff around here and that was that.
Well, IMVHO, it’s never come close to the halcyon years of AFCA. The official forums were always a little duller and less interesting than the ad hoc original.
Like many others, it was the books although joining took a bit longer since AOL was difficult to access.
This would have been a good topic for a Poll.