# How do I find an old, pre-Discourse thread that I wrote? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 23, 2021, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369 "2021-08-23T13:00:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369/1 "2021-08-23T13:00:11Z")
There’s a current topic in The Pit, about Jesus and aliens, that I feel I might be able to contribute to, using a link to an old topic I created many years ago about a thought I had regarding whether or not aliens had their own Jesus. How can I find it? Is there a way I can look up _all_ threads that I’ve ever created? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369/2 "2021-08-23T13:03:07Z")
This link should work. You might want to bookmark it if it does. [https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin/activity/topics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin/activity/topics) * * * _Harder than I thought to get the link not to resolve._ ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369/3 "2021-08-23T22:17:57Z")
Click on your avatar in the upper right corner. Click the bell. Choose Summary. Likes given, topics created (threads), and posts created are all clickable links. I don’t think they’re sortable, though, so if it’s very old, be prepared to do some scrollin’. Similar links will also be there when you check someone else’s profile. To search your own posts, do the same thing to get to Summary (but any of the fields should do), click on the magnifying glass, and make sure the checkbox for Search Posts by @ekedolphin is checked. (You can also just do a general search and append user:ekedolphin to the end of it.) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2021, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369/4 "2021-08-24T02:53:01Z")
Links to a page in a thread won’t work anymore because threads aren’t separated into pages now. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2021, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369/5 "2021-08-24T02:56:38Z")
It seems to me that using the `@`sign works instead of `user:`. If I type `@BigT` into the search, I don’t get any repleis where someone actually typed “@BigT” in their post, just posts that I wrote. What I’ve not yet found is if Discourse has a way to distinguish between posts and threads (“topics”). If I know I’m the one who started a thread, it would definitely be nice to search only my OPs. ---
**Author:** ![Enjoy\_Slurm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enjoy_slurm/32/3937_2.png) [@Enjoy\_Slurm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enjoy_Slurm)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2021, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369/6 "2021-08-24T05:21:54Z")
DId you find it? Because I’d be interested in reading it. I spent about 4.2 seconds looking through What Exit’s link and then got bored and went and got ice cream. So apparently I’m interested but not that interested. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2021, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369/7 "2021-08-24T05:37:55Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It seems to me that using the `@`sign works instead of `user:`. If I type `@BigT` into the search, I don’t get any repleis where someone actually typed “@BigT” in their post, just posts that I wrote. I don’t see any difference between the two. You can find all the instances that someone’s “atted” you by going to your profile, choosing Notifications, and choosing Mentions. > [@](#): > > What I’ve not yet found is if Discourse has a way to distinguish between posts and threads (“topics”). If I know I’m the one who started a thread, it would definitely be nice to search only my OPs. It does, since it can show you the threads you started or the posts you’ve made in existing threads. Not sure if we can access that in a search in any useful way, though. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2021, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369/8 "2021-08-24T06:16:27Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > it would definitely be nice to search only my OPs. You can do it by searching for `@BigT in:first` [https://boards.straightdope.com/search?expanded=true&q=%40BigT%20in%3Afirst%20order%3Alatest](https://boards.straightdope.com/search?expanded=true&q=%40BigT%20in%3Afirst%20order%3Alatest) ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369/9 "2021-08-27T21:51:55Z")
Yes, as stated above, any post that is the first post is by definition the topic. Thus, searching for “posts I created that are the first post” will give you topics you created. Also don’t forget the “my” shortcut, as in [https://boards.straightdope.com/my/activity/topics](https://boards.straightdope.com/my/activity/topics) 👆 note the presence of the word “my” instead of a specific username. This works for all preference pages. Similarily, there is a `@me` shortcut for search. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2021, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-find-an-old-pre-discourse-thread-that-i-wrote/949369/10 "2021-09-02T13:43:11Z")
That “my” keyword is a nice touch.