# When did this message board go online? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 21, 2002, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212 "2002-12-21T10:48:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212/1 "2002-12-21T10:48:44Z")
HELL-low, I’m trying to remember something and boy is the memory going fast. The thing I’m trying to remember happen **before** this place went online, and there was still the old AOL board. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212/2 "2002-12-21T17:46:07Z")
😕 Are you looking for something that happened then, and you want advice about? IIRC, stuff from the old AOL board isn’t accessible to this board anymore. Are you looking for help in remembering something? A lot of stuff happened…I think you’ll have to give us a little more to go on (I wasn’t around back then, but by “us”, I mean Dopers). I think the switch to this board format occured in 1999…for some reason August comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212/3 "2002-12-21T18:31:46Z")
I would try your local historical society. Or maybe you have a post-it note stuck to your monitor with the information you need? ---
**Author:** ![pezpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@pezpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pezpunk)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212/4 "2002-12-21T18:33:33Z")
I’m going to guess it was earlier than August 1999. (see my registered date.) I believe it may have been March or April. As for the op, I’m with \mnemosyne\. What you talkin’ about? ---
**Author:** ![pezpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@pezpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pezpunk)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212/5 "2002-12-21T18:34:38Z")
Registered this long and I still can’t get the coding straight! Sheesh ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212/6 "2002-12-21T18:40:51Z")
Well, userid number 2 is **Lynn Bodoni** (there is no userid #1), registered March 9, 1999. Several folks we don’t see around here often (like **SDStaffWildBabe** ), as well as **Ed Zotti** , registered on February 18th and 19th. **Monty** registered on the 19th, as well, as did **C K Dexter Haven** and **Ian Rey** , who posted today. **Eutychus** registered the next day. **Cecil** registered on March 10, 1999. The oldest thread I remember was started on March 12, 1999. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212/7 "2002-12-21T20:56:02Z")
Do I feel foolish! I read this in the OP “I’m trying to remember something and boy is the memory going fast. The thing I’m trying to remember happen **before** this place went online, and there was still the old AOL board.” and didn’t pay enough attention to the thread title, “When did this message board go online?” Ringo took a good stab at an estimate. I don’t know for sure, but I think that all the people that Ringo mentions were “staff” in some way or another, and possibly “testers”. The first person to sign up that was a “regular” user was, I think, [GusNSpot](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=33), with a registration date of 10 March 1999. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212/8 "2002-12-21T21:46:49Z")
August. March. Same difference 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212/9 "2002-12-21T21:50:04Z")
**Ringo** and **Arnold Winkelried** have got to be pretty close. I registered on March 11th, 1999, and IIRC correctly I had been out of town on business for a day or two, and missed the very first day of this board being open. So I think the 9th or 10th must have been the first day the regular users were allowed to join. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2002, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-this-message-board-go-online/144212/10 "2002-12-22T02:06:38Z")
Thank you all. I was trying to remember when I met this guy online. I met him in/on\ a different AOL board. The reason I asked about when the SDMB went online, is because I quit AOL shortly there after. Neirther of us can remember when we met, but at least I now know it was before March '99. Thank you again & have a very Merry Christmas!