I asked about hydroelectric power vs. oil-based power and how much bang for your buck you got with both. Got some very informative replies and forevermore impressed MrWhatsit with the quality and caliber of posters here on the SDMB. (The original question had been posed by him in conversation one day. I said, “I’ll ask that on the SDMB.” He was quite surprised that I got informative and even somewhat technical replies, within the space of a day. I said, hey, man, it’s the Dope.)
My first thread was an IMHO asking how do you shampooyour hair?
God is MUSTARD!
No! God is CATSUP!
No! God is KETCHUP!
Splitter!
It was a dumb question and it got a fair number of responses (18) but I felt really stupid by the end of it.
It was about cats and dogs… I used to dogsit a lot of dogs and noticed that the ones who lived with cats would kick the grass after they pooped and the ones that didn’t didn’t… also that my own dog started kicking the dirt after I got a cat. And my current dog acts like a cat in a lot of ways. So I wanted to know if dogs and cats learned from each other.
It was a dumb question.
It figures.
Mine was 'What stupid tricks do you teach your kids." 89 posts. Not bad.
I asked for a workout video recommendation and got one response. And I neglected to thank monster, which was quite quite rude of me. Thank you, monster.
A poorly thought out, badly executed, almost unintelligible, over top attempt at a rant over a phrase that mildly irritated me. Needles to say I was roundly abused and told I was an utter moron. I did learn that would be be better if I proof read and think twice before posting.
I haven’t read all of this thread, but this is something I absolutely cannot mention or it will get me banned. It’s THAT bad - take my word for it.
And take anyone who KNOWS me’s word for it, too.
Quasi
I’ve tried looking for my first post, but the earliest option is only to go back 4 years, which produces a lot of threads. :eek:
So there isn’t a simple search option? 
This is the oldest of your threads that I could find. It’s from October 13, 1999, about “Ode to Billy Joe”. It’s just a matter of going to the search page and setting up the parameters you need. But that seems kind of natural to me, since I used to be a computer guy before I retired.
My very first threads were both ones oft repeated since.
Which came first - orange or orange?
I seem to be speaking in those threads in a way that I no longer do. That’s a trifle weird to see.
My first three (at about one a month) were all General Questions, which all received prompt, polite and helpful answers. Definitely an encouraging welcome.
Japan Parliament = Diet. Why?
Mori to Clinton: ‘Who are you?’
How reversible are vasectomies?
I didn’t start my first Pit thread until about a year later.
Smoothly done, that man. 
From that thread:
But what parameters did you use in the search screen?
As I said, the longest option under advanced search was 4 years (and I’ve posted a lot of threads before then).
I too used to be a computer guy…
Now if you want to tackle the tricky question of where my signature came from, I’d be doubly grateful! (I think it was to do with sneezing.)
Arnold Winkelried:
‘glee, I take my hat off to you… at first I thought you were kidding with your cite but I looked it up and it was indeed accurate. (Still in awe at the magnificent answer)’
If you go into your profile and click the statistics tab, there’s a linky that says “show all threads started by XXX”.
But maybe that only goes back four years as well?
Under advance search I set the following options:
User name: What Exit?
From the drop down below it, “Find threads starter by User”
*The important part: *
Sort Results by: “Thread Start Date” … “in Ascending Order”.
My first thread was [Concerning Swiss cheese article:](http:// Concerning Swiss cheese article: - Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports - Straight Dope Message Board)
I don’t think it worked out too well and got only a few replies including one that was unwarranted it appears.
Under the box where you type your name, select the drop down box and search for threads started by user. Ignore the date requirements, unless you’ve started hundres of threads.
EDIT: Damn, beaten to the punch.
My first one was What do gnats eat? It got a few joke responses, and a few knowledgeable ones.
Doesn’t work for me. I changed user names back in 1999 and it won’t let me search for my original name.
At the risk of further hijacking my own thread…
the SD Search function remains a mystery to me. I made a valliant attempt this time after there was made mention of the old ‘Billy Joe’ song chestnut, which seems to return periodically here.
And I made a particular effort because this is the ONE time, as far as I can remember, that I DID provide THE incontrovertible answer to the perennial puzzle when I quoted Bobbie Gentry herself explaining the meaning of the song. If I remember correctly, it was taken from Billboard’s Book of #1 Hits… and my reply has even been quoted in another thread on the same subject later on.
I signed up as omniscientnot in April or May 1999, but changed the user name to **omni-not **in November of that year. And I’m pretty sure it was under that username that I posted the now famous answer.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming
See the advantage of signing your posts?
Regards,
Shodan