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[Shakkara]

Learned it all by myself through trial and error. Was the old 2D version of DF, years ago, so it was a little bit simpler.

Took a whole weekend to learn just the basic user interface. Just used ? all the time and lactually read the manual.
Then it took another week to more or less master the game, at least use all the advanced commands and correctly use the options such as floodgates, bridges, fortifications and channels, what to grow, how to deal with nasty floodings from underground river, and what to take with me on embark and how to trade properly.

I remember it took me a long time and much frustration to figure out how/when to use t for looking at stuff inside a structure, and not k or q.

[Neckbeard]

I found out about Dwarf Fortress from one of the creator's of Haven and Hearth referencing it in his signature and wanting to know what that is.

Now as too how I learned to play dwarf fortress on the other hand (which I'm still learning now, but whatevez), I initially learned how to play from watching Captain Duck and his lets plays.  Then I tried it myself, while expanding my knowledge from the wiki.

My first fort got to the goblin seige, and at first I succeeded in locking myself in underground!  I also had access to iron and a master armour dwarf from a mood, who made the first artifact I ever saw.  It was an iron shield with an image of goblincap in oak.  So I suited up 10 dwarves in iron armour and obsidian swords (thinking they would have been better than iron, and not like training swords or anything.  This was back in 31.25.  Or maybe it was just me, as only one of them was a competent swordsdwarf and they rest where no skill at all.) and then sent them out to fight.  Everyone died.  Although it still took the goblins a while to break the squad down one by one.  (Because they marched out of my airlock one by one.  FOR NO REASON.)

[Zale]

Tvtropes.

I spent most of my first fortress trying to figure out how to dig.

It went down hill from there, but I managed to survive long enough to have a tantrum spiral mid-winter. I ran out of booze.

[rarborman]

*resists TVtropes*

Back in flat-world through lots of fun, 3d versions only ever play the adventure mode, its just too much fun to play forts anymore for me.

[Shinotsa]

I started a little less than two years ago while avoiding studying for an exam. Came across the game after loving Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and looking for more roguelikes on some review websites. I looked on the wiki for a few seconds and learned about up/down stairs and decided to try my own fort. I blocked myself in with walls and everything went better than expected. I had booze, chairs, tables, and even a few beds. Then I got greedy.

Dwarf Fortress only got hard when I got greedy. I wanted a cistern. So I created an elaborate system to drain all the murky pools at the start of every summer. Everyone died when a marsh titan entered the fortress through the aqueducts. In the next fortress I wanted a giant tower as a symbol of dwarven excellence. A bronze colossus tore the doors to the temporary surface town down before I understood what a building destroyer did since I had always had drawbridges. Throughout the first nine months or so of me playing I lost countless fortresses due to being unable to actually train a military beyond having them pick up weapons and hit enemies with them occasionally before being slaughtered. Many peasant rushes were had, and a few were even mildly to wildly successful.

Despite all the losses I really had, and still have, a great time learning Dwarf Fortress. Mainly because you only learn through losing, and we all know what losing is.

[Prometheusmfd]

My journey into Dwarf Fortress is certainly an odd one, and begins about a year and a half prior to me even downloading the game for the first time. I was but a young, ignorant gamer, perusing TvTropes like the addict I am, when I came across the Boatmurdered page. Like most people, Boatmurdered was my gateway into the game, but not the LP itself. Not for a while. I perused the TvTropes page, enthralled by the memes and in jokes for a month or so before I actually read the LP. After that, It was nothing but video LP's and livestreams of the game. I'd lurk the forums, and read up on the dev log, but I never actually played the game itself. I went through all the archived LP's, all the Youtube LP's, followed every stream that happened to have the game on it, but I could never work up the nerve to play the game itself. A year and a half passed, and I decided I was going to download it. I spent two days just generating worlds before I started a fortress. It died quickly. And while I am still pretty much a novice at the game, I have grown to love it as much as my more graphical games.

[Phlum]

i started playing minecraft, then taken by the idea that one could simulate the rise of civilization with people preforming jobs and such. then facepalmed as i realized that 1. the diamond seems to control all. 2. eveyone who played minecraft was 8-12 years old and thought that they were tough when they killed a player by spaming a left click and that they were smart if they could downlod a skin. so i looked for any game where i could simulate the rize of civilization from single persons, to thousands of pesants ruled by a single entity (IE. me) dwarf fortress was the only game that fit the bill. in my first fort i remeber not being able to farm because of the little circular stone bumps on the ground, (i thougt) and not knowing how to change z levles.

[Moonshadow101]

Sitting in dorm with laptop, wanting to play a video game but having the graphical power of a small bald man running shader calculations by hand.

Vaguely recalling Penny Arcade, at some point, having said "Everyone has a Dwarf Fortress phase."

Google Dwarf Fortress. Immediately decide not to play it upon seeing some screenshots.

Realize that there are actually some good-looking tilesets available. Reconsider initial decision. 

Visit this forum, poke around a bit. Read the Boatmurdered LP, get PUMPED. (and also understand some of the basic principles.)

Download Lazy New Pack. Fail miserably to do anything.

Watch CapnDuck's tutorials for, like, five hours.

Try again. Succeed and making a basically functional fortress, but ultimately either die or give up.

Try again. Make a better fortress, but ultimately either die or abandon.

Repeat previous step for a couple of years.

Make this post.

[misko27]

WIKI!
At First, I tried to do it myself. That did not go far and I abandoned within a week of not knowing what anything was.
THen, Discovering the wonders of reclaim and designation simultaneously, I tried to build.
'Twas Slow, Ardous, and involved the death of everyone on multiple occasions. Mostly Because i Didn't understand the military.
Then, After repeated reclaims of first fort, I died to combined force of Tantrum, Siege, and FB with deadly dust and wings.

[xpi0t0s]

These got me started:
http://afteractionreporter.com/dwarf-fortress-tutorials/

[toomanysecrets]

Wiki "quickstart." It's super helpful to newbies and answers a TON of questions.  Then I kept reading the wiki and then I read the wiki some more and later I read the wiki a little more.

[DavionFuxa]

I learned of Dwarf Fortress through a friend who happened to have been staying over. I didn't immediately get into playing Dwarf Fortress because I was going on a trip but I did get into playing it the next month (May 2012, this year).

First time I looked at Dwarf Fortress mode, all I remember is looking at the menu and thinking - I need Help. I found Darkgalahad's Tutorial on the game and after multiple viewings I basically got a basic fort going.
Find his Tutorial here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoUTi1aTW2Y

The fort I made played for a while, but eventually a Goblin Ambush showed up at the entrance of my fort and Slaughter almost every Dwarf - almost, they didn't all die before the Goblins retreated. That isn't to say they weren't about to Tantrum Spiral though so I abandoned that fort.

I can't really remember much about Fort's after that - I am and will always be more-so attracted to this game through Adventure Mode then Fortress Mode.

[HavingPhun]

I learned everything so far on the wiki and on the forums. I'm still learning though.

[Cein929]

I am rather new to it still but already love it.
I learnt by watching countless hours of captnduck video tutorials while playing along.
Attempting fortress after fortress until i had the basics down.
and then rewatching his tutorials for it to get ingrained into me head.

and ofcourse i always have the wiki open when i play

[moki]

I read Boatmurdered  and said to myself "This is awesome, let's try it!". First fort died from lack of food and booze, second fort died from flooding, third fort died from goblins, fourth to sixth fort died from tantrum spirals, seventh fort died from !!dwarves!! in the boozepile, eighth from a bronze colossus and I think, I learned quite a bit on the way. Other than that, the wiki was most helpful and probably saved forts 9 to 15 from other stupid ends.
Now I'm trying to learn the current version, because I didn't play for almost a year. Disabled all the vampires, night creatures, etc. for the first try, but I'll get to the real Fun with the next fort.