Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

I'm curious as to how everyone discovered the 100 Hour Board. Found it through a friend? Daily Universe column? Board writers with bags over their heads? Web search for tunnel worms?

I'll start: I actually found the Board the old-fashioned way, by walking past the physical board in the basement of the Wilk sometime in 1999. I thought it was hilarious, and so did my friends. We developed the habit of checking the Board every couple days -- it was always exciting when we spotted new answers. We eventually asked a few questions -- I don't remember what they were about, but they were probably silly and nowadays I would be embarrassed to admit that I asked them.

I didn't know if the online Board existed in 1999 -- I think it did, but only in its very early stages. I never read it online. I didn't discover the Web version until 2002, shortly before I applied to be a writer.

My story is very similar. Minus the writer part. Just wandering through the Wilk, and found a board with very random stuff on it. I remember reading 31009 not too long after I got hooked and laughing way too hard. Then I proceeded to spend way way too much time standing in that one spot reading way way too often. Not knowing about the online version, I attempted to wean myself off the board so I could get more studying done and not have a crick in my neck. Forgot about it for a while, and then had a question I couldn't figure out the answer to, remembered that there was supposed to be an online version, and got re-hooked. Thank heavens that was after I graduated, so I didn't have to worry about grades anymore. Well, minus the fact that I was reading the board instead of grading papers for my teaching job.

For what it's worth, back in the physical board days, my first question was number 30763. I think I had been reading for close to a year when I stuck that in. A question of no consequence, to be sure, but when my friend was stumped and I was stumped I knew who to call. . . er, write. There was something kinda fun about sticking a little piece of paper in a box, I tell ya. And yet that and 27572 were the only ones I ever put in before swearing it off.

(Forgive the choppiness of my writing. This response is piecemealed together from several sources. It's not even that long, but what can I say? I'm lazy.)


So once upon a time, I was a freshman. I got a job working late at night in the Wilk, and when my coworker and I would walk out together, she’d often stop by this quaint little board in the basement of the building and try to convince me it was awesome. I promptly forgot about it until several months later.

I was really bored one day, so I was going through some random blogs of people I barely knew through facebook. I ran across a post someone had written about the 100 Hour Board, and how awesome it was. So I checked it out. I became hooked. I read for months and months until I finally got up the courage to ask the Board a question.

The rest is history.

My first semester on campus, I made friends with a girl in my Spanish 101 class (back in the day before they changed everything up to this 105 nonsense). She had work right after class, so one day when we were walking out I asked her where she was going. She let the cat out of the bag that she worked (works, actually, to my knowledge) as a BYU operator.

Once I was in on that secret, it wasn't hard for her to get me hooked on the Board. She told me about it since she wanted to chat about the latest hot post that everyone was talking about at work (what is it about that mysterious BYU operator/Board writer connection?). I quickly became addicted, as did my roommate. We've been spreading the good news ever since. 8)

During freshman orientation someone (BYUSA?) had that big tent set up between the Wilk and the library for the various clubs, and I remember walking by one time and seeing this guy with a bag on his head. Naturally, I was intrigued, and I took a little flier for the Board. It looked interesting, and I looked at the web site a week or two later. I would drop in occasionally, and by the end of the semester I was a faithful daily reader. I would occasionally look at the physical Board in the Wilk, but since I had often already read the responses on the site, I usually just stuck with the web site. I've gone through most of the archives for that year, and I asked probably a dozen questions or so. Mostly I just enjoyed reading.

Well, as some of you may know, I found out about The Board when a faithful writer handed me a fateful flier. I'm still not sure who it was that handed me that flier, but they changed my life.

Enter odd story. . .
Usually if some dame handed me her address, I threw it into the nearest recycling bin. But this one was different. She had a wet gleam in her eye and some attractive numbers, so I kept it. Then, as I was working on a tough case that I couldn't quite crack I remembered her. She had promised me answers and right now, that was what I needed. So I sent her my question and before long a once cold relationship burst into a raging bonfire.

"Wet gleam?" Just been slicing some onions, had she?

Lol!

I don't know about that but beleive me, that wet gleam is hot!

My story isn't that great. I, like ahem, had a friend repeatedly telling me about the Board, trying to convince me it was awesome. For a bit I was just kinda like, "Oh, ok. Yeah. Sure. That's great."

I sure am lucky Lexi stuck with it.

Also, every time I went over to her house, she was on the computer, and every time I asked her what she was doing, she would say something to the effect of, "Answering questions for the Board."

So yeah. Curiosity killed this cat. Or something like that...

I met the Board through Curious Physics Minor and the possibly-dead Mr. Fixit. Last summer I and my roommates and they and their roommates would stay up every night on the weekends and play canasta outside on the lawn of our apartment complex until we basically fell asleep. A couple times, CPM would just pull out his laptop and check the Board just as the new day's questions would come up.

And then Mr. Fixit applied, and I just had to follow suit. I mean, he was already beating me hardcore in canasta, and I couldn't just take that lying down. I'd only ever looked at the Board a couple times, but it was pretty easy to apply, and then all of a sudden I was a writer and it was weird. And the Board and I have been best friends ever since.

Or something like that.

My very first introduction was my freshman year when I saw a girl dressed as the Hundred Hour Board for Halloween. Awesome. Forgot about it for a while.

Then there was Uffish. We happened to be in the same ward and the same D&C class last year, and one day after class she took me home to feed me. We got to talking/sharing sweet internet findings/swapping stories, and so on. She told me she was a writer before I even knew what the Board really was. I checked it every once in a while that summer because I thought Uffish was an amazing human.

Then came fall, I moved in with some new roommates, was using my roommate's computer, and saw that she had the Board open. But she was logged in - as a writer - so I confronted her and exposed her for what she was. That being Ahem. With the encouragement of these two fine ladies, I applied, and here I am today. Cough.

Aw! You did the Little Pete cough! Heh.

That was Novel dressed up as the Board, by the way. It was so funny! She'd printed out bios or questions, I can't remember which, and pasted them to a giant flattish cardboard box, which she wore hung around her neck. And wrote "The Hundred Hour Board" in big letters on the top.

Heh. And that story illustrates well just how closely I guard my identity.

I've seen the board mentioned several places, and it's come up in recent conversations, so I decided to join.

That is all.

That is all? Hmm, where I have I heard that before. . .



Horatio. . .?

I've heard it lots of places. Most recently from you, in that post.

You know, I've come to realize that the board is really cool. I'm going to like it here(the board board)/there(the board).

Lol, true, true. I was thinking of a particular person though. In fact, his name is in my last post.

Well, then I think I might like this Horatio fellow.

I first heard it from a person not related at all to the board, and have since adopted it as my own when occasion allows for it.

Well, my first exposure to the Board was last year. A friend of mine showed it to me, ranting and raving about how wonderful it was. I glanced at it and was utterly unimpressed.

Fast forward a few months. Last fall, my schoolwork was moving excruciatingly slowly for one reason or another and I was killing time on the internet. While playing sudoku, I remembered the 100 Hour Board, visited it, and quickly became a regular reader. I even gathered my chutzpah and asked a question.

Fast forward a couple more months. I was at some ward function when one of my friends let it slip that another of my friends was a writer. I asked what her nym was and she refused to answer. I began to read the answers more carefully, listening for her voice in the answers. I guessed correctly and badgered her into admitting that I was right. It felt pretty good. With her help, I came up with a nym, which emboldened me to ask a few more questions.

And now... I am here.

Seventeen points to John Doe for referencing my favorite writer...ever. My roommate and I were reading the board in two different places (I think I was on campus & she was at home) at the same time on the day Horatio posted his resignation, and we both called each other at the same moment to commiserate (of course, both of us got busy signals, so it took a few tries to get through to each other). What a sad day!