I started lurking in Eric's forums back in the day... I think I read about his page on the WotC boards or something, or found a link there. I can't really remember, It's been a long time!
I, like many others, came upon Eric's old site while searching for information on this new Third Edition thing. After a while, and a few board changes later, I stopped lurking and started posting.
I think I found it by Googling around looking for 3E info in 1999. I don't think I really came around more than 3 or 4 time until 2001. Then in 2002, I actually registered an username and started comming around on a regular basis, as I was finally running a 3E game, and well, I like this place.
A friend of mine who I have played DnD with for 13 years told me about the site. Hack n slash was very impressed with the detail and the speed of answers to clear up alot of different topics that iccur durind a game of DnD.