I’ve been meaning to ask this question for a while. I swear I joined earlier than April of 03. I have been reading the StraighDope in print since 86 or so. I have been reading it online since I discovered it on AOL. I know I joined the SDMB a while ago but mostly lurked. Do the join dates start only after the switch from AOL? I think I joined during the AOL days but I don’t remember if I had to rejoin after the switch.
Definitely. There is absolutely no technical connection between the boards at straightdope.com (over which the Reader has complete control) and the boards at AOL (over which they didn’t). The board software has no clue about who used to be on AOL, or when (though, of course, many of the board people do). However, the switch from AOL was in 1999. Did you spend a full four years lurking?
Probably. I’m not much of a message board person. This is the only one I go to (except Baen’s Bar on occasion) and I never had much inclination to post much. In fact in the years after AOL I mostly read Cecil’s articles and left the MB alone. Prior to 99 I probably posted a couple of questions and thats about it. But seeing all these 99ers putting down the newbies bothers me sometimes, I’m not a newbie! 
Of course now I’m addicted and need help. I knew I should have stayed away.
Your story is probably not all that unique.
We’ve always known we had many more lurkers than posters; this was even true on AOL, probably even more so now that we’re on a subscription basis.
So yes, it’s possible that you could have been a faithful member since we opened the doors on AOL (July 1996), stuck with us through our transition to our own site(summer of 1999) and still be hanging with us all these years later, but this would not be reflected in your signup date here.
Can’t change your status, sorry. Though it might be interesting to see just who is from those old days; some of you I know from way back, but I bet there’s even more that are just too shy to speak up.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Around since before the beginning.
Didn’t expect my status to change. Like I said, for years all I did was read Cecil’s columns and pretty much ignored the MB except to ask specific questions. I have been a member of the Cecil cult since '86, when I first picked up *The City Paper * in DC and read the column. '03 is a pretty good indication of my actual Doper status. I was just curious because I don’t remember signing up twice. I must have and I was able to get the same name.
Nope, only one database since our move to cyberspace, unless you’re counting the temporary board we had for a couple of weeks when the board was down a few years back. (But since that was temporary and I didn’t get to save any of it, it doesn’t count.)
We’ve gone through two different sets of bulletin board software, but all the old stuff rolled through the change/upgrade.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Last I checked, it was still there. Just not open to new posts.
URL please? None of my links, etc., would work and repeated emails to the administrator gave no joy either.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
I removed it from my favorites months ago. They may have finally closed it since then but it was still there long after the SDMB was reopened.
I think I remember seeing it up for a while too.
There’s always this: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://bb.bbboy.net/straightdope
Some of the thread links work, some don’t.
Click link, click June 04, 2002, look at newest member.
“Gotcha ya!”