Came for the Cecil, stayed for the GQ.
I just like trivia. I don’t really care much for posting answers, have to be in a certain mood for that. I just read it like the back sections of the Sunday paper, where all the mixed topics are.
I discovered the Straight Dope about a year and a half ago. I think I linked from bored.com, bt I’m not sure. Read all the column archives, lurked for a few months, then finally registerd. Refused to post while I was unemployed, though. I thought it would be too much of a distraction. I was right. 
I, too find that most of my 'net time gets spent here now. Don’t know what I did without it.
Back in about the mid-90s, I was introduced to the Straight Dope through the books a friend had. Then, I eventually found the web page.
As far as the SDMB goes, I probably lurked for at least a couple of years before registering. The post count is small and the sign-on date is within the last year, but I lurked for so long that I never needed to ask the questions that so many newbies do.
Anyway, I guess I’m just a fan of trivia. The SDMB is a chance to learn more, to be entertained, and to share knowledge if I can.
Was chatting to a cousin on ICQ one night, and he sent me the URL because he was reading the SD at the time. I don’t think he’s a member of the boards… (mentally reviewing every post I’ve ever made)… but it doesn’t really matter. He’s a “long lost” cousin - someone I tracked down while doing the family tree, but who belonged to a branch of the family that we’d lost touch with 20-odd years ago.
I followed a link to get here. Don’t remember where from, but I now check the boards every chance I get (quite often now that I am unemployed.)
There is one bad thing about the SDMB. It makes me realize just how little I know. I feel as if I’m surrounded by great intellect here. Makes me feel very insignficant.
But, I learn something here each day, sometimes a couple of things per day.
I had never heard of Cecil or the Straight Dope books before I arrived here. I followed a link posted by Guinastasia on another messageboard. I love this place because we have intelligent discussion and we respect each other even when we dissagree strongly, and we don’t devolve into the sort of name calling and death threats that usually result when you try to hold debates on the internet. You people are the greatest.
I bought The Straight Dope in the early 1980s at a second-hand bookstore, just on a whim. Loved it. Looked around for The Straight Dope Returns, bought that, and used them to win arguments in the “Letters ot the Editor” columns of my local newspapers.
Couldn’t find anymore books, got sad, moved on. Thought no more had been written gasp!
Fast forward to 2000. In July, I got my very own computer, complete with Internet access. Surfing and cackling one night, I did a Yahoo search (this was before I learned to love Google) on newspaper humourists. Maybe I was looking for Dave Barry, I’m not sure now.
SUDDENLY – I see “The Straight Dope”.
No, says I. It cain’t be true! Really? Yup.
I was in Straight Dope heaven. They could have come an’ blown my brains out, I couldn’t have been happier. Still looking for a way to get the new books (don’t like buying over the Net, sorry, and trying to talk the bookstores here into importing is … well, interesting, to say the very least. “Yes, The Straight Dope. No, It’s not about marijuana. Honestly.”)
Saw Threadspotting, but never really looked until I read some of Scylla’s. And the Evil Villain thread. Then, I didn’t dare post. I lurked, yearningly.
January this year, I decided, “What the hey?” and plunged in. So here I am.
IceWolf you’re in NZ right? Scorpio books in Chch just rock and they do mail order.
I wandered in here from snopes where I never felt at homeand hardly ever posted.
Primaflora, you wonderful doper you! I’ll see about trackin’ them down …
Awww, now you’re spoilin’ me, Primaflora! Thanks! Where you from, if you’re homesick 'bout webpages from New Zild?
Christchurch. We’re in Brisbane now, came for family reasons before the great crackdown on Kiwi immigrants.
So where are you?
Auckland. So – an ex-Mainlander, huh? I won’t hold that against you, Primaflora. If you want to e-mail, the address is at the bottom, like the rest.
Meanwhile – the rest of you can get on with your regular programming, now. Sorry 'bout the wee hijack.
For some reason (I have no idea why, but I thank God and Cecil periodically), we had the first SD book laying around in my basement a few years ago. Again, for some reason (see previous parenthetical notation), it was open to the question about the caloric content of sperm.
Read it, read the follow-ups, read the entire friggin’ book several times. About a week later, go to “www.straightdope.com” on a whim, and discover “WOW! Hey, Brother, get over here! There’s a WEBSITE!”.
Continue reading part of junior year and all of senior year in HS. Lurk on MB for a few months, then register to post in Gatsby’s seti@home thread (I often wonder if I would have registered at all except for that). On a whim, check out the rest of MPSIMS. Discover fun people and fun threads, stick around.
What keeps bringing me here? People, topics, annoying stuff, fun stuff, checking on my friends, talking about amusing stuff. IOW, the essense of what the SDMB has become: a community.
I love Imponderables, too, but once I got older, my dad bought me Return of the Straight Dope, and I thought it was fantastic. Later, when I still had AOL, this place was featured, and I fell in love with it. I read every column in the archive, and lurked for about a year, then my computer broke down. Awhile later, I got a new computer, and found the site again.
Met the woman who is now my wife in January '97. Was looking for something to read on the toilet at her apartment maybe a month later. (I’m a dedicated excremeditator.) Found the first “Straight Dope” book on her shelf. “Hey, what’s this? Will I like it?” She just grinned and said, “Yeah, I think so.”
Sat there for an hour, until my legs were asleep. I guess you could say I liked it. Anyway, I asked her about it; she grew up in Chicago and knew Cecil’s work from way back. The paperback I was reading was old, the standard paperback size (not the current large trade size), and falling apart.
I quickly discovered the other book at the shop, picked it up, and learned secondhand that there was an AOL board. At the time, I was an AO-Hell member, so I went there and lurked a bit. My first post from way back then: “Why does BASF advertise on TV?” Got a great answer, and that was that.
I lost track of it when AOL dumped them, but rather quickly found the website. I lurked on the message boards again for a while, then registered (I don’t remember my first post here) and was off to the races.
Why do I stay? I like hanging out with people who are as smart or smarter than I am. I have no insecurities about being bested intellectually. I’m pretty confident in my thinking skills, and I like to be challenged by people who match or beat me, because I know that’s how I improve. (I have nothing but contempt for people who deliberately hang out with folks who they think they’re smarter than, in order to boost their feeling of superiority.)
The boards can be counted on to provide intelligent discourse, sound reasoning, and high-quality verifiable information on a regular basis. In many ways, the SDMB is the critical-thinking training I didn’t get in school. If it wouldn’t make the server blow up, I’d say this should be required participation for everyone in the world. 
I’ve been a fan of Cecil’s since the first SD book. Had lurked on the site for months until I finally registered.
Background-I was one of those annoying child prodigies,was reading and writing by age 3. Was fast tracked through the school system until I finally rebelled in my teenage years from all the pressure to be perfect.Went through the sex,drugs and rock and roll phase. I took until about the age of 29,when things officially went to hell in a hand basket for me to settle to down. That year I lost two people very special to me and had to move back in with the parents after 12 years of being on my own.
Nowadays I’m getting back on my feet both emotionally and financially slowly but surely.
I love this board for the community. I usually post to IMHO or MPSIMS. After a long hard day in my cube farm/call center job coming here and flirting with the men of the SDMB is a fun way to blow off steam. And through this board I’ve made some great friends who will go unnamed.
I’ve spent a lot of time lurking on Usenet. One group, alt.humor.best-of-usenet, had a post from alt.fan.cecil-adams about bathroom etiquette that had me in stitches. I started lurking there (popped out once to donate my seti units). The threads there were funny, articulate and educational but the interface was terrible (my news service did not get all the posts).
I don’t remember whether it was my sister kiffa or myself that found the archives. I spent several days going through them and then looked at the message board. ChiefScott had a question about drowning birds. I was hooked.
I guess the feature that attracted a lurker like me was the General Questions atmosphere with a sense of community. No child prodigy here - it takes a lot of energy to get these brain cells firing properly.
Yes, it was me, kiffa, who found SDMB and the archives after my sister brachy [see above] showed me the alt.news site. I forgot how to get back there so I hit yahoo and TA DAH! the message board and the archives. Yup, twas I.
My story is kind of funny and recent.
A couple of days ago I was killing time at work (part of my job has been of recent to do a night watch on an Orca who just got moved from here (Vancouver) to San Diego, it left me with time to kill). Anyways there I was surfing the net killing time when I decided to punch my dog’s name into a search engine and see what came out. My dog’s name is Democritus (if you wanna see pictures of him go to my website) so I got a lot of websites for the philosopher but in amongst those sites was a post from one of these boards because one of the users is Democritus. I was intrigued. I surfed around the message boards and it seemed to me that I had found a bunch of intelligent people asking and answering some intelligent questions. Now I’m hooked.