I would, too.
I’m 52, started lurking in 2001 and joined in 2003. No idea how I found the place.
I’ve never been a very active poster, but in the last few years have been more so.
I did fall away for a few years, probably around pay to post, but eventually came back.
I really appreciate this place, but like many I assume its future is, one way or another, finite.
True, been here since 02
I’m 22, but I guess it’s not quite fair to say that I’m an active user given that I’ve only made my account a few minutes ago :'D Still exploring. Interesting that the average age is around 50±
I wonder how long this board has existed? 
We got started on AOL in the late 1990s Then we moved to a different system that reset everyone’s start date to 1999. So 27 years ago. We’ve rehomed once more since then, but everyone got to keep their join dates, names, post history, etc.
27 years ago most of us were between 30 & 40, with some both younger and older as well. Now … well … you can do the math. The heyday of joining here was the mid 2000s. Since ~2010 there’s been a steady small flow of new folks, but not many.
We don’t all always talk about fogey stuff; most of us young at heart. But whatever challenges you’re facing in your life, decent bet a bunch of us have survived whatever it is and will be happy to commiserate.
Welcome, and hope you stick around!
Thank you, I’m very excited to be here! That’s really interesting… Thanks for telling me about the history, too. I have only recently found out about this board. I think it takes a few turns to stumble across it in the wild… Maybe that’s why there’s less people joining nowadays. AOL is something I haven’t known about a few days ago. It would be nice if the majority of the internet would move back to messaging boards/forums like these. The topics are interesting, people are way more calm and kind and the moderators really know their community. Anyway, I could go on about the internet as it is, today, forever 
Thank you for welcoming me ^.^
How did you end up finding this place?
That’s a very encouraging sentiment. Having “grown up” with unmoderated newsgroups, boards like the Dope were an island of relative civility. Now that chaos has returned and engulfed almost everything it’s very gratifying to hear that well-moderated forums are still appealing. Welcome to the Dope!
I remember in San Diego, 1970, waitng for the weekly local alternative newspaper..it carried a cool column called the Straight Dope…these people would answer all sorts of peculiar questions!! I joined here 2010. I’m 71 now.