When's the last time you did a vanity search on here?

[Idle Thoughts]

I mean, besides the one that you'll do right now after seeing/reading this topic? ;)

[Sublight]

I do them fairly regularly, to see if someone's responded to something I posted. It's a pain, though, that the software doesn't recognize your name appearing in a quote tag.

[Dinsdale]

I can't remember ever doing one.

[Agent Foxtrot]

Hah! About 10 minutes ago. I do them to check for responses to my posts.

[Robot Arm]

They don't really work for me; "robot" is too common, and "arm" is too short.

I don't think I've missed much. I seem to be far enough under the radar around here that I'm not often invoked in threads I'm not already reading.

[Silver Tyger]

Never. I recheck the posts I reply to and I doubt anybody is talking about me otherwise.

[Boyo Jim]

No one's used the word boyo in more than a week. I'm devastated.

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

I do 'em once or twice a week. I got into the habit because people kept wanting me to answer questions for 'em, but I wouldn't notice the threads if I didn't look for my name. But I admit my ego gets stroked at times, seeing my name mentioned to inspire awe or terror or ennui.

[ParentalAdvisory]

All the time. Easier to search out my posts and responses to them, than to subscribe and get annoying emails to follow threads.

[interface2x]

On occasion. It's striking how little people talk about me.

No, not little people. I mean...you know what I mean.

[Inner Stickler]

All the time. Easier to search out my posts and responses to them, than to subscribe and get annoying emails to follow threads.You can set it to subscribe to threads without email notification, if you were wondering.

[Jayn_Newell]

A few months ago. I generally don't bother, as I can usually anticipate the results, and they're not flattering.

[Hockey Monkey]

Just today in fact. I like it when people mention me. :) (Who doesn't?)

Really though, I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed responding if someone had asked me something. Really.

[CairoCarol]

Never. I recheck the posts I reply to and I doubt anybody is talking about me otherwise.

Exactly.

[xanthous]

I just did for the first time, and I found a thread that I. do. not. remember. ever. starting.

I mean, it didn't even sound like me talking. But I was also weaning off of Celexa at the time, so I was probably not entirely in my right mind.

That was crazy. I do not recommend vanity searches.

:D

[Khadaji]

I check a few times a week to see if someone has addressed and I've missed it. It doesn't happen often, but it is so easy to do that I continue doing it.

[El_Kabong]

Maybe once every six months, if that. I'm pretty sure no one has ever mentioned my name in a thread I didn't post to.

Which means I encourage you all to do so. Feel free to make up something scandalous, if need be.

[CairoCarol]

Did you hear what El Kabong did? It was beyond outrageous, and apparently involved a small domestic animal, a bottle of shampoo, and a plate of cookies. See, here's what happened ....

Oh sorry. El Kabong's here. Wrong thread.

[Claptree]

Never. The thought hadn't occurred to me. I am however going to do one right now.

ETA: Well, that was as expected.

[Rigamarole]

It's the only way to tell if someone has replied to something you said in a thread without going through them all individually, unfortunately. I wish this were not the case, but since it is I will do it occasionally. The problem with this is my name is a noun. It's normally a fairly uncommon one, but the SDMB posters are too damn well-read and articulate - they actually use it in their posts quite a bit.

[twickster]

About once a week, so see if someone has requested my presence in a thread I'm not reading. Which happens way less than once a week. :D

[The Tof]

The first thing I do is search my name to see if there are any responses to anything I posted.

[Ephemera]

Fairly often, but I'm rarely mentioned.

[Mirror Image egamI rorriM]

I don't remember, but this thread inspired me to do one, and it revealed two instances where Skald said that he covets my username. I better watch out.

[Indistinguishable]

It's a pain, though, that the software doesn't recognize your name appearing in a quote tag.
I concur.

Also, when I chose my name, I did not properly plan ahead for the possibility that I might someday actually want to run vanity searches. Now, it's all but impossible to wade through the morass to see if any of the references are actually to me. (If we ever get case-sensitive search, that'd probably easy things). Still, I try, from time to time, and on those rare occasions when I am invoked, I am stoked.

[SurrenderDorothy]

Fairly recently, only it wasn't a vanity search so much as I just went back and looked at my old posts.

I feel out of place here (I know, woe is me, right? but it's my fault, not a complaint against anyone else.) since I've been back and I thought looking at the stuff I used to talk about would make me feel like I had more to say. Instead it mostly made me realize I didn't even recognize who I was two years ago. And even though I was really obnoxious back then, I think I liked that version of myself better than this one.

[elfkin477]

A week ago. I was curious if people wondered where those of us probably bothered by the icestorm disappeared to for several days. Nope.

[Kat]

I've never done a vanity search.

[Shakes]

I'll do a search of threads I've posted in every time I log on. I thought this was standard procedure. How the heck are you supposed know if someone has responded to something you said? What if they have a question about something you said?

Or do some people just not care? :confused:

That said, I'm still pretty vain, so I'm pretty sure I'd do it on a regular basis regardless. :D

[Indistinguishable]

You can subscribe to those threads (indeed, you can set it up so you are automatically subscribed to any thread you post in). Then you need not cast any manual searches for your name.

[Sage Rat]

I did just a few days ago, but I don't very often (i.e. once or twice a year.)

The last upgrade seems to have removed the ability to do quoted searches, so where I used to be able to search for "sage rat" I now have to search for sage, since rat is only three letters and is ignored. It brought up a lot of cooking threads and threads about some rapper named Sage Francis or something.

Not ideal.

OT, but I've noticed that about half of people who write Sage Rat will forego the space. Not sure why they do that.

[Auntbeast]

Fairly recently, only it wasn't a vanity search so much as I just went back and looked at my old posts.

I feel out of place here (I know, woe is me, right? but it's my fault, not a complaint against anyone else.) since I've been back and I thought looking at the stuff I used to talk about would make me feel like I had more to say. Instead it mostly made me realize I didn't even recognize who I was two years ago. And even though I was really obnoxious back then, I think I liked that version of myself better than this one.

So you did wander off. I wondered about you and I have to say, the thought of you being obnoxious never crossed my mind. On my mental list of dopers I can name, you are one of them.

[CairoCarol]

OT, but I've noticed that about half of people who write Sage Rat will forego the space. Not sure why they do that.

Let's see, posters in this thread alone include:

Auntbeast
SurrenderDorothy
ParentalAdvisory

Did I miss anybody? :p

[jayjay]

I just did a few days ago, but that was just to check if I was mentioned in the "Posters You Can't Stand" thread.

I wasn't.

[Sublata]

Never. I already know what the result would be.

[Freddy the Pig]

Pig is a three-letter word, and searching on Freddy gives hits for eddyteddyfreddy, who posts and gets mentioned more often. So no, I don't bother.

[bufftabby]

Never. But I do admit to doing vanity searches in Mafia spoiler boards, since that's the only place I might conceivably be mentioned.

[Idle Thoughts]

Never. But I do admit to doing vanity searches in Mafia spoiler boards, since that's the only place I might conceivably be mentioned.

You might be surprised. Sometimes I'll do one here and only select the Game Room. Try it. You'll have tons of hits.

[bufftabby]

I'll be damned, Idle, you were right. Granted, a very large number of hits were mafia-related, but I also learned that my name was invoked in the Never Have I Ever thread, presumably so they could all take poor buff's toothpicks away. :( :D

I also got a case of the warm snugglies from one post, so may I just remind you, Idle: you are a genius!

[Gundhilde]

I never even considered it... I've been here 10 years and have like 270 posts (I read pretty much every day, though!). Most from when I was like 16, so I really don't want to dredge those up. I doubt anyone would have much reason to mention me. It would be awesome, though, I must admit!

[elfkin477]

I'll do a search of threads I've posted in every time I log on. I thought this was standard procedure. How the heck are you supposed know if someone has responded to something you said? What if they have a question about something you said?

Or do some people just not care? :confused:

Um...you could do what I do: click on your name and choose "all posts by" and quickly see if any of the threads you posted to have new responses. You have to have some idea what # your post was, though. I've never searched for my name to see if people have replied to me, because I sort of care what others might have added after me regardless.

[Kal]

Never and I couldn't if I wanted to.

[Sleel]

Never. No point. Don't really care if anyone is talking about me, only care if they're talking to me.

[ZipperJJ]

I did one for the first time ever a few weeks ago. I actually found something, which shocked me. It was a thread where my pal Lobsang was just being weird and making a list of seemingly random posters. I never saw the thread and didn't get to participate and I was bummed.

I do often do a "find all posts by..." search, just to check up on threads I posted in to see if there were any good replies I missed. Usually not.

[Heropsychodreamer]

One thread came up on a search for my name. the post was by elfkin477 on May 16, 2004.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4863696&postcount=46

[Boyo Jim]

No one's used the word boyo in more than a week. I'm devastated.

I did another search today, and found someone mentioned me about four hours after I bitched upthread -- and did so in a totally different thread, even. I'm back to believing I'm the king of the world!

[Fish]

I never do vanity searches; my name is too common a word.

I'd consider changing my username to something which could be vanity-searched, but hell, I'm already well aware that I'm on nobody's radar here. :)

[Lobsang]

I did one for the first time ever a few weeks ago. I actually found something, which shocked me. It was a thread where my pal Lobsang was just being weird and making a list of seemingly random posters. I never saw the thread and didn't get to participate and I was bummed.

I do often do a "find all posts by..." search, just to check up on threads I posted in to see if there were any good replies I missed. Usually not.

The thread in question was "List of people who are on this list". At the time there were a lot of list threads and I thought I'd make one.

How come you never got to see it or participate in it?

[Yookeroo]

Never have.

[Second Star to the Right]

Can't do one, as all the words in my username are either too short or too common. Also, I have so few posts I think I fly under the radar most of the time.

[Lobsang]

Can't do one, as all the words in my username are either too short or too common. Also, I have so few posts I think I fly under the radar most of the time.

I tried to do one with your name. I broke it!...

"Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 4194304 bytes) in /home/straightdope/boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php on line 1007"

[Skald the Rhymer]

I don't think I ever do vanity searches. I assume everyone but the four of you who exchange emails with me hate me. :)

[Sir T-Cups]

I don't know what that is :(

[Lobsang]

I don't know what that is :(


It's where you search for your name 'Sir T-Cups' to see if anyone has mentioned you.

[Walkabout]

I do it once or twice a year, just to see if my username has come up anywhere. Other than the Feud threads that I participate in, I've been mentioned exactly once. I guess that could be a good thing.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

Pig is a three-letter word, and searching on Freddy gives hits for eddyteddyfreddy, who posts and gets mentioned more often. So no, I don't bother.

Aha! So you're the reason I got a hit when I just ran a vanity search! Which I normally don't do, but upon seeing the title of this thread felt an irresistible compulsion to engage in, setting the time for a week's worth of Dopery.

Only to discover that no one has been talking about me, especially not in the "Dopers you admire" thread. :(

[jayjay]

Only to discover that no one has been talking about me, especially not in the "Dopers you admire" thread. :(

There's the difference between us...I only did it to make sure I wasn't mentioned in the "Dopers You Can't Stand" thread...

And was pretty happy that I wasn't!

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

There's the difference between us...I only did it to make sure I wasn't mentioned in the "Dopers You Can't Stand" thread...

And was pretty happy that I wasn't!

Well, I'd already checked THAT one. :D

[ambushed]

When I created my handle, I hadn't considered whether it would be searchable or not. Only when I later tried a vanity search to see if anyone was directing any comments at me did I realize that I shouldn't have used a common English word.

As a result, I cannot do a vanity search without thousands of false positives, so I don't bother trying.