# Does anyone else 'search' for past posts by members?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 12, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744 "2003-08-12T21:48:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/1 "2003-08-12T21:48:30Z")
I mean, when you all were new, or even today when someone replies to your topic that you don’t know or that you never seen before?
What I mean is you ever see a person you don’t know and go down to the widdle search button and click on it (often twice cause the site moves slow and sometimes you don’t know if one click is sufficiant. Kinda like those people who think that by pressing the button on the elevator or on the crosswalk will make it go faster? I hate those people. Dammed impatient fools. Shit. I just realized I hijacked my own tread)?
Thus far I have done it a couple times. Just to get a more indepth feel for the people here. Read some of the past comments and posts they’ve made, laugh at their quips and accedotes, Scan for Social Security Card number…you know…the usual.
But seriously. I did it 5 times already today on various people who intrigue me and almost everyone who replied to my first topic.
I have this great, lothing, emotion inside where I can’t help to feel like I’m stalking each and every one of you.
So ease my mind a bit, will you kind folks?
Anyone else ever do this?
---
### Author:  [@BuckleberryFerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckleberryFerry)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/2 "2003-08-12T21:53:35Z")
I usually do this if it’s someone who only has a few posts, or if it’s someone that posts to my posts/threads often, I do it to see what they’ve been up to lately. I check **NoClueBoy** and **Q.E.D.** every so often because they seem to hit all the good threads.
I’m not stalking them, really!
---
### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/3 "2003-08-12T22:02:14Z")
I don’t usually hit that search button because it brings up every single post a person has made - that’s too much strain on the hamsters. I will look at the profile, and sometimes I go to the search page and look for what that person might have posted in the last week or so, but if someone has thousands or even hundreds of posts, there’s no way I need to see them all.
Except maybe for **Rue DeDay** - but that’s because I harbor deeply seated lust for him and since I can’t stalk him in person, I have to be happy with his written words. 😃
---
### Author:  [@Jessity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jessity)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/4 "2003-08-12T22:03:16Z")
I do. Sometimes it’s a random person whose name I’ve never seen before; sometimes it’s someone I know.
---
### Author:  [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/5 "2003-08-12T23:27:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I have this great, lothing, emotion inside where I can’t help to feel like I’m stalking each and every one of you.
I’m getting a restraining order.
> [@](#):
>
> Does anyone else ‘search’ for past posts by members?
Yes.
Now quit distracting me from the people **I’m** stalking. 😃
---
### Author:  [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/6 "2003-08-12T23:48:28Z")
I will admit to doing searches for infamous members from before my time. I am drawn to trainwrecks. Just yesterday I amused myself reading the Uekte and G.Nome posts.
---
### Author:  [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/7 "2003-08-13T00:01:21Z")
Sure, I used to do it all the time. When I first “joined up”, I became an instant fan of **Crunchy Frog** ’s and read just about all of his past posts…even in the infamous threads, under his old nick.
Many people that interest and amuse me I still look up. I also enjoy digging up the old feuds, but I’ve read quite a bit of them by now. When they’re mentioned nowadays, I already know what people are referring to, so I feel “in the loop”, so to speak.
My husband looks up all my posts periodically, which is why I am so nice and soft-spoken on this board. Hi honey!! I love you! I’m still behaving and talking nicely about you! 😃
---
### Author:  [@auntnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntnut)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/8 "2003-08-13T01:02:06Z")
Well, seeing as you have become “The great (tho forgotten) thread revivor”, and my newest bestest friend in the whole world, I HAD to do a search on you (by the way, your library books are three days overdue, I told them you would be in this weekend)
😃
---
### Author:  [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/9 "2003-08-13T01:22:28Z")
I also acquainted myself with most of the infamous former members, and read the infamous trainwrecks.
I’ll search an unknown person’s posts if they say something so fascinating that I wish to subscribe to their newsletter.
And I’ll search a couple of particular members’ posts on a regular basis, because I want to receive every bit of wisdom they ever say.
---
### Author:  [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/10 "2003-08-13T01:37:28Z")
If it’s someone new and they say something really outlandish, I might. And occasionally if I’m bored I’ll go try to find an older thread that I’ve heard mentioned as a [particularly nasty trainwreck](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=37697).
---
### Author:  [@Necromancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necromancer)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/11 "2003-08-13T01:40:58Z")
I’ll admit that I’ve never done a search…though I may start by doing a search on **Idle Thoughts**
😉
---
### Author:  [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/12 "2003-08-13T01:56:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> …go down to the _widdle_ search button and…
Now you’ve got **Eve** twitching, and it’s not the _good_ Eve twitch.
---
### Author:  [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/13 "2003-08-13T02:34:34Z")
You will learn, **Idle Thoughts,** that you can’t always judge a thread by its title. Sometimes a thread gets hijacked to BF Egypt, and hilarity ensues. Sometimes people are having a bit of fun under a very misleading title. There’s a thread like that now in MPSIMS. Can you find it?
---
### Author:  [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/14 "2003-08-13T02:53:50Z")
I hope nobody searches my stuff!
“Doesn’t he _ever_ say anything of substance?”
---
### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/15 "2003-08-13T02:59:07Z")
I looked up **Wang-Ka** after reading his thread about the waterbed.
---
### Author:  [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/16 "2003-08-13T03:11:08Z")
Yep. Yep. Yep. Now and then I do searches on amusing posters.
---
### Author:  [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/17 "2003-08-13T03:28:17Z")
I recently searched for threads by **Hiyruu** and read his infamous “Great Phi Theory” trainwrecks.
---
### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/18 "2003-08-13T03:45:11Z")
I do it on asshats, to see if they’re always asshats.
Sometimes you come across really weird posting patterns. Someone will have been a member for months or years. They start spouting stuff that comes across like a 2-day member troll. You look up their past posts, and it turns out they only post for a few days in a row every few months. Don’t know what’s up with that.
---
### Author:  [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/19 "2003-08-13T03:47:09Z")
Yes, quite frequently, and I think I shall search on **interface2x** today 😛
---
### Author:  [@Kricket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kricket)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744/20 "2003-08-13T04:45:29Z")
I’m thinking searching on me would be pretty boring.
Although I once got a pretty cool compliment by Algernon when he was first new, and have always remembered him because of that.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-search-for-past-posts-by-members/194744.md?page=2)