lots of great replies !!  for me, I was feeling stale on guitar after 40 years of strumming and singing. I came across a Hilary Hahn video one evening and for about about a month I watched her and dozens of others playing from old time to classical. The fuse was lit.

So then I began the dreamer stage. looking at violins online, stopped in at SamAsh and fondled a few and started looking at prices, I guess I knew inside that at this point I was going to become a violinist, but hadnt commited yet.

I logged onto the library sight one day to see what types of learning materials were available as I already knew lessons werent in my already stretched budget. What I came across first was two VHS copies of fiddle for kids. Being a start at the basics kind of guy I got those and watched them over a weekend quite a few times. They were teaching boil them cabbage down and went over all the parts of the violin from scroll to end pin. So, I ordered a $50 outfit from amazon,game on.

After searching "free violin lessons" I joined a violin site called Violin stars, free lessons for beginners, Kim was my first teacher and I joined her forum. This is her :

This was before I found fiddlerman. Kim was great, she saw right off how quick of a learner I was and drilled me like I was in boot camp. I learned lots of twinkle variations,bowing patterns,and other pieces ,etc. She also had a post a video section which was part of her lesson plan & critic. I guess I disappointed her at the point when I posted a few videos of me doing fiddle tunes I was learning on my own. She was a die hard classical teacher and I had crossed the picket line. She scolded me, saying all I would become was another out of tune, scratchy fiddle player and I bit back....so after a few heated exchanges I left. I did contact her about a year later and thanked her for all she had taught me and we talked a bit. She expressed sadness that I had left as she saw me as having the potential to be a great violinist.She even offered to pick up where we had left off  but I said no thank you & we parted ways having reconciled .

I guess I could go on and on but I think that gives a pretty clear picture of the starting point.