# How Far Back Can We Search?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-back-can-we-search/282775>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [January 3, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-back-can-we-search/282775 "2005-01-03T02:30:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-back-can-we-search/282775/1 "2005-01-03T02:30:57Z")

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I’m wondering how far back, chronologically, the search function goes.

I’m looking for a post (not important, but checking my memory of something). I know I have the right search terms, and it seems as though the search goes back to 2000. If I can find this, it will be prior to that.

Is that as far as the archives go?

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-back-can-we-search/282775/2 "2005-01-03T03:08:10Z")

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> [@The Punkyova](#):
>
> it seems as though the search goes back to 2000. If I can find this, it will be prior to that.
> 
> Is that as far as the archives go?

It goes back a bit further. Searching on **Lynn Bodoni** (member number 2) returns a thread from [08-07-1999](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=3089)  
Searching on **Revtim** (member number 300) returns a thread from [08-06-1999](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=4184)

Somewhere back there, there was a period were all posters were labeled ‘guest’, so usernames get unreliable. Searching for a common SDMB word ‘ **Straight** ’ turns up this thread started by **Ed Zotti on 03-10-1999** : [Welcome](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=491&highlight=straight)  
I only know that the first post is by **Zotti** because his name showed up as the thread starter in the search results. In the thread itself, everyone is labeled ‘guest’.

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-back-can-we-search/282775/3 "2005-01-03T18:17:34Z")

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There are at least two issues that _may_ interfere with ancient searches.

The first was the switch from UBB to vB software. The text should be the same in each post, but the tags and formats of some things changed and the usernames were often lost in the migration. Those corrupted tags might interfere with a search if the only incidence you really wanted occurred as part of a hyperlink (that is no longer recognized).

The second was our Winter of Our Missed Content when several weeks worth of history was simply swallowed by the demons of the database (and several good threads occurred on the ezboard substitute that are not recdorded, here).

If your search includes the username or your post occurred during the disruption, you may _never_ find the target post.