# Do a vanity search on your Username; what's the oldest thread on your list?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-vanity-search-on-your-username-whats-the-oldest-thread-on-your-list/609605>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 15, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-vanity-search-on-your-username-whats-the-oldest-thread-on-your-list/609605 "2012-01-15T15:15:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 17

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-vanity-search-on-your-username-whats-the-oldest-thread-on-your-list/609605/17 "2012-01-16T15:45:32Z")

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> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> Perhaps I wasn’t clear in the OP. I do know how to look at older threads than the ones that show up in an “Advanced Search” on Username with no adjustments to the search criteria.
> 
> But if all one does is that minimal amount of criteria setting, it’s my experience that 30 pages (25 posts per page) or 750 threads’ worth is what comes back.
> 
> I was wanting to get a gauge, from those willing to share, of how far back your “oldest thread” takes you. Mine is less than a year’s worth.
> 
> This any clearer on what I was hoping to learn from other posters?
> 
> Thanks for asking, by the way. I see there’s my usual lack of clarity going on. 🙂

I still have no idea what you’re asking for.

If I search on the “find posts by” half of the search page and set it to look way back, I end up with my first post (10-14-1999). I killed an otherwise interesting thread (an unfortunate pattern that would repeat itself over the next thirteen years): [Favorite shows, hated episodes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=14158)

If I put Rhythmdvl in the left half of the search box (is \*that \*what people mean by ‘vanity search’?) and set no other parameters, the oldest thread isn’t that much later: 11-16-2000.

I’d long forgotten about it, but it’s fascination. In a thread simple titled [CIA](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=46865&highlight=Rhythmdvl), now-banned member Peace quoted/asked a GD question about a thread I’d started on 11-14-2000: [Legitimate critiques of the CIA](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=46609). The basic ideas that started the thread(s) was my generalized disdain for the CIA and quest for a credible cites to test the assumptions behind the disdain.

The fascinating bit (to me, at least, now I know why they’re called ‘vanity’ searches), is date on the thread and the following quote from the OP:

> [@CIA](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia/41508/1):
>
> What would \*\*Rhythmdvl \*\*have replace the critical (and sometimes unpalatable) functions of the CIA in the nasty _real_ world where terrorists plot and plan to wreak destruction on American targets of opportunity both inside and outside the US?
> 
> Americans are allowed the luxury of taking freedoms and ideals seriously because there are “bad guys” like the CIA in the shadows, de-lousing the place.

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