# A Great Debates thread I posted in has vanished! **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 21, 2000, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230 "2000-08-21T22:58:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/1 "2000-08-21T22:58:21Z")
Specifically, the thread titled “‘Shoeless Joe’: has it been long enough?” I tried searching with every keyword I could remember, and not just in the Great Debates forum. I came up dry. Isn’t there a way to search for a thread by specific _title?_ ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/2 "2000-08-22T01:47:19Z")
I’ve looked all over the board and I still can’t find it. I’m at a loss to explain, dougie. your humble TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/3 "2000-08-22T04:52:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Isn’t there a way to search for a thread by specific title? Yes, there is: In the “Search by Keyword” box, enter any words that you remember being in the title, and click the “Match all” radio button. Then, on the second row, there’s a pulldown labeled “Search in:” Set that for “Subject only”. However, this doesn’t seem to help matters here, any. The “search” feature doesn’t seem to recognize any thread ever posted on any of the fora with the word “Shoeless” in the subject line. I don’t know what to tell you. ---
**Author:** ![Fanny\_May](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3be4f8/32.png) [@Fanny\_May](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fanny_May)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/4 "2000-08-22T05:35:00Z")
\*\* [What color is your toothbrush?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=29777)\*\* Some of us were sure Cecil answered the original thread, But Ukulele Ike claimed the original toothbrush thread never existed. ---
**Author:** ![Fanny\_May](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3be4f8/32.png) [@Fanny\_May](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fanny_May)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/5 "2000-08-22T05:45:11Z")
\*\* [Straight Dope Message Board \> Great Debates \> I’m Impressed…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21720)\*\* > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Satan 09-29-1999 09:10 AM_ > Well, if we look at just the titles on my first screen of “Great Debates,” we come up with the following: > > Shoeless Joe-Has It Been Long Enough? > Giuliani vs. Brooklyn Museum > Tachyons > Fertility Drugs > The Money Pit (not the movie) > Second Language Ed. > Giuliani & critters > The Next Stock Mkt. Crash-When ? > If Germany and Japan won WWII > Racism > ADD: under/over diagnosed or ignored kids? > Breakaway republic in the U.S.A. > World Government > Hollywood/Madison Ave & Tokenism & Minority TV > MPD real or not or what? > Second Amendment Infringement > Is furt OK? > Who murdered Jon Benet Ramsey? > Public School Horror Stories > National Security & Personal Rights > Peace Corps > Martin Luther King Jr. Day > Frozen Embryos, Humans or Not? > Important Subject That Must Be Answered (About Cartoon characters) > PePe La Pue…innocent cartoon, or stalker/rapist? > Hobbits’ Ears > Was Hitler Jewish? > Why conceal your gun? > Ouija board…harmeless toy?..or not? > Bill of Rights? What Bill of Rights? > tipping > Taco Time or Taco Bell? > Internet Relatonships > Jury of your peers > Dumb Measures in Schools After Columbine > Freedom of Speech outside the US? > Intelligent life out there? > A.D. vs. C.E. > Alien Abduction > 5/5/2000 > Waco and the authorities > Capital gains tax > > That’s a good number of “Great Debates” which are not about religion. Now then, let me just search your name and see the posts you have responded to recently… > > (Side note: ACK! You’re in RALEIGH?!?!? Damn, why can’t a poster I WANT to meet live in the same city as I?) > > It seems that you are involved in a lengthy debate about Cecil cheating… I never go to that board, actually… > > Still, I think it’s fair to say that the overwhelming amnount of posts you STARTED Are of a religious bend. Which is fine, just don’t complain about others being stuck in a rut! \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/6 "2000-08-22T14:13:59Z")
The original toothbrush thread never DID exist. But **Soupy** was so intrigued by the idea that he started it after the fact. Here’s what I said in his thread: _Look, guys. I formulated the dumbest-assed question I could think of, picked the four people least likely to respond to a question like it, and from these raw materials, crafted that post. Sorry I sent everyone to the Search Engines. Next time I’ll add flashing neon signs reading THIS IS A JOKE. Oh, yeah…green and white._ I see that Soupy’s toothbrush query recieved 41 responses, which is better than most of MY threads get. ---
**Author:** ![P\_G\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@P\_G\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P_G_B)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/7 "2000-08-22T14:23:21Z")
I’m sure I saw that some index entries got lost in the UBB-vB conversion, and some threads scrambled. Maybe it’s a sign from the Gods of Baseball that we all pray to. They want you to re-enlighten the masses. A serious, but tedious option: Now that you know the approximate date of the thread, why not search for it without using indexed words at all. You can plug numbers into the link, going backward, to look for it. I think there weren’t nearly the number of threads in '99 as now. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/8 "2000-08-22T15:03:54Z")
Well, we know he’s not making it up because it’s referred to in this thread, too, from 2/28/00. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=22542](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=22542) Looks to me like it got swallowed up in the UBB/vB changeover. Was it insured? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/9 "2000-08-22T15:59:42Z")
Perhaps the thread was archived. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/10 "2000-08-22T16:25:02Z")
Arnold’s probably right. ::: sigh ::: your humble TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/11 "2000-08-22T18:43:28Z")
Quoth P G B: > [@](#): > > A serious, but tedious option: Now that you know the approximate date of the thread, why not search for it without using indexed words at all. You can plug numbers into the link, going backward, to look for it. I think there weren’t nearly the number of threads in '99 as now. Just tried tried it, and if it’s there, it lasted over three months. I started with the end of September, when we know it was on the top of the list, as per Satan’s post, and moved forward from there, all the way to [December 29](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=7&daysprune=365&pagenumber=39), and I didn’t see it anywhere. > [@](#): > > Perhaps the thread was archived. Didn’t we eventually recover all of the archived threads? ---
**Author:** ![barflyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@barflyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barflyer)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/12 "2000-08-23T01:36:19Z")
I tried a different approach, starting at http: [//boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21720](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21720) and trying to go backwards. But the thread numbers aren’t assigned in numerical order, I guess, because the dates of first post go back and forth. 21720 is 09-28-1999 08:02 AM 21719 is 09-26-1999 05:03 PM 21718 is 08-23-1999 07:30 AM 21717 is 09-24-1999 11:20 PM and it gets worse from there. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2000, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-great-debates-thread-i-posted-in-has-vanished/30230/13 "2000-08-23T03:50:56Z")
I remember the thread dougy is asking about - no question that it existed. Prior to the UBB/vB switchover there were a couple of UBB upgrades, during one of which several people (myself included) noticed that they’d lost posts. I’d assumed that some slice of time from the board’s history had gone to ether during that upgrade.