Ways that this BBS has changed your life
or
Adventures of randomly clicking through the Internet

How has this BBS changed your life? No, not the BBS directly changing your life (ie: making me somewhat broke from buttons), but more indirectly. Has the BBS introduced you to something which led you down a new path?

Ok, I'll go first:
A post I read in 2002 led me to my first online serial, Homestar Runner, which I've religiously watched for 3 years (and one day).

Clicking through the site 6 months later led me to its fast-paced forum and a random webgame Shade.

I posted for help with the game and was quickly and briefly sucked into the H*R community and its random AIM chats.

The AIM profile of the most active member (Carter, you rock) contained a link prefaced by the innocent words (paraphrased), "Start at the begining and read through; it's really funny." The link was to Sluggy Freelance, which introduced me to the vast world of web comics.

A message on the comic page two months later introduced me to the Sluggy IRC community, which I promised to only chat on for that weekend.

By Monday, I was entrenched, and for the next 5 difficult months, the Sluggy IRC community was the comforting social life that fit my only free time: midnight and later.

Through the Sluggy IRC community, I had a bi-weekly internet radio show for the majority of 12 months, deftly avoided the comics thrown at me, and generally delved into the psychology of Internet socialization.

This path faded away during mide 2004 as I was introduced to rock climbing, took a random undergraduate class, and started working more (including late nights on the button project). That's the story of how one empegBBS post led me through an entire social shift and into some deep cavernous expanses of Internet subcultures for almost two years.

So, what paths have the BBS led you on?