So I'm trying to figure out which exchanges I should join. I've been looking at the exchange list on the wiki and there's so many to choose from.
Does your country of residence make a difference for what exchange you use? Which exchanges do you all use? Anybody have any good horror stories, or any other stories of great customer service or something?
Do most people just use one exchange or a few?
Depends what you mean by "best". I think that Mt. Gox and BTC-e have the best rates, but a lot of BTC-e's funding options don't work in the US. When (if) Bitinstant comes back online you should check that out too.
In terms of easiness, I use VirWoX because you can use debit cards. It takes 2-3 days for your first transaction but after that it's instant. The rate is like $.49 plus 3.5% (USD) but it goes down the more you buy. Only thing that sucks is that there's a transaction limit, but you can request to have it removed. I haven't made a request because I haven't had to, but I'm guessing that you have to be a business or otherwise have some good reason.