It was right around when reddit became popular with the kids and went all mainstream. Someone in a thread about some contemporary news outrage-of-the-week (probably a mefite) pointed out, quite smugly, that the equivalent discussion over on the Blue was sooooo much more intelligential and whatnot. So, I decided to go on over and see what all the fuss was about. I never went back.
Don't know. I was dead at the time.
Mefi is like the quaint neighborhood pub*. Certainly, in the years you've been a regular, there have been many highlights (some of the better ones now framed above the bar as a warning to new comers), but almost never does any single moment stick out in your memory. As you look back at the years you've pissed away in this ghastly place instead of talking to your children or writing that award-winning novel you've always wanted, you feel a fondness for the entire experience: The wonderful people; the fantastic inside jokes that your SO never understood; the long, endless heated discussions over the most pointless minutiae; and even those few sadder, more somber moments, where everyone came together in a spirit of community. That's where the fondness lies.
*or Starbucks, if you prefer.