# How many threads have been deleted? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 22, 2006, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389 "2006-10-22T01:02:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/1 "2006-10-22T01:02:50Z")
I just searched in about half a dozen different ways for an old thread I started, and it seems there is no record of any threads I started before 2006, in any forum. What’s the deal? What are the criteria, if any, for deleting/archiving threads/posts? Are they ever going to come back? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/edb3f5/32.png) [@Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Push_Up_Bra)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/2 "2006-10-22T01:08:45Z")
They may have been lost in the Winter of Lost Content, as it’s known, when there was some server fart and a lot of stuff just vanished into the deserts of the Interweb. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/3 "2006-10-22T01:15:10Z")
You miss the fact that Eva mentions all threads earlier than 2006. The Winter of our Missed Content was only a small amount compared to the four years she’s been a member previous to this year. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/4 "2006-10-22T01:41:48Z")
[QUOTE=Eva Luna] I just searched in about half a dozen different ways for an old thread I started, and it seems there is no record of any threads I started before 2006, in any forum. [/QUOTE] WITCH!!! Burn her! ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/5 "2006-10-22T01:49:58Z")
according to the search function, I’ve not posted in the pit before 2005. the two times I’ve been pitted don’t seem to be around, either (way back when I first joined) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/6 "2006-10-22T01:53:07Z")
[QUOTE=Eva Luna] I just searched in about half a dozen different ways for an old thread I started, and it seems there is no record of any threads I started before 2006, in any forum. [/QUOTE] My oldest post I can search for is Feb. of 2006, and I have been posting here since 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/7 "2006-10-22T02:13:45Z")
I found a thread I started in 11-20-1999. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/8 "2006-10-22T03:03:40Z")
[QUOTE=Revtim] I found a thread I started in 11-20-1999. [/QUOTE] Very good. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/9 "2006-10-22T03:43:02Z")
My point, which I thought was self-evident, was that threads from before this year were not deleted (or at least all deleted), which could have been inferred from the previous posts. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/10 "2006-10-22T03:44:39Z")
[QUOTE=Eva Luna] it seems there is no record of any threads I **started** before 2006, in any forum. [/QUOTE] Well, your **posts** are there: **2001** : [Perfect vs. relative pitch](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=1727836#post1727836) **2002** : [How to deal w/loved ones with depression?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2005176#post2005176) **2003** : [That sucks rocks! People, especially in…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2963054#post2963054) **2004** : [I bring you the Chernobyl, invented by my insane…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4627002#post4627002) **2005** : [If you can’t find any at the Caribbean butcher,…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5649125#post5649125) However, a search for threads that you started doesn’t show anything before 2006. Yet this thread you started in 2002 is still there: [How to deal w/loved ones with depression?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2005176#post2005176) When I search for threads _I_ started, they show up all the way back. Perhaps the database hiccupped the last time it rebuilt your threadstarted index? ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/11 "2006-10-22T04:18:18Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] When I search for threads _I_ started, they show up all the way back. Perhaps the database hiccupped the last time it rebuilt your threadstarted index? [/QUOTE] That’s one helluva hiccup. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/12 "2006-10-22T04:36:35Z")
When I do a general vanity search there are 750 results returned and they go back as far as Oct. 2005. When I seach GQ alone for my post, I again get 750 results and they go back to 2003. When I search GQ for posts 1 year old and older I got responses from back to 2001. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/13 "2006-10-22T05:56:28Z")
Here’s a thread you started from 2004: > **[Kosher question: how humane is treatment of livestock?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=270802)** > > I more or less understand the major rules of Kosher slaughter and butchering, but how about the poor average Kosher chicken’s life up until that point? The sources I’ve found so far seem to suggest that cruelty to animals is forbidden, but how much... Here’s one from 2002: > **[European chord notation mystery?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=107696)** > > Any European-educated music geeks out there? I finally found a Web site for guitar tablature for Russian artists (actually, a couple of sites: www.akkords.ru and www.accords.ru, and I’m guessing one is a ripoff of the other). I was very excited to... They are still there, evidently. I think the search function here loops through the Fifth Dimension though; many things that are there disappear in the interhamsterian voids. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/14 "2006-10-22T06:06:27Z")
As a work-around you can set forum to display threads from “the beginning”. Once that’s loaded up click on the heading “thread starter” at the top to re-sort. In MPSIMS [your threads start on page 367](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=4&page=367&sort=postusername&order=asc&pp=50&daysprune=-1). [Page 151 in the Pit](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=5&page=151&sort=postusername&order=asc&pp=50&daysprune=-1). ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/15 "2006-10-22T12:47:52Z")
I was just about to start a thread like this! I went looking for a Pit thread I started to link to one I was going to start with a similar theme and could not find any threads I started in the Pit “one year ago or older”. How’re you all finding these older threads? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/16 "2006-10-22T13:23:35Z")
[QUOTE=Biggirl] could not find any threads I started in the Pit “one year ago or older”. [/QUOTE] Yet here’s one you started in the Pit in 2003: [Did Geraldo actually do this really stupid thing?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=174068) I found this the hard way, by looking at _all_ your BBQ Pit posts from the beginning, until I chanced upon one that you started. It looks more and more like the ‘started by’ index is ausgefucked, at least for some people. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/17 "2006-10-22T14:01:07Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] Yet here’s one you started in the Pit in 2003: [Did Geraldo actually do this really stupid thing?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=174068) I found this the hard way, by looking at _all_ your BBQ Pit posts from the beginning, until I chanced upon one that you started. It looks more and more like the ‘started by’ index is ausgefucked, at least for some people. [/QUOTE] Your diligence and patience has astounded me. I post a helluva lot in The Pit. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/18 "2006-10-22T22:53:14Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > I found this the hard way, by looking at all your BBQ Pit posts from the beginning, until I chanced upon one that you started. Could have saved yourself some trouble by reading my post 14 above. Here are all of Biggirl’s pit threads: [Page 44](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=5&page=44&sort=postusername&order=asc&pp=50&daysprune=-1) (halfway down) [Page 45](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=5&page=45&sort=postusername&order=asc&pp=50&daysprune=-1) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/19 "2006-10-22T23:08:51Z")
[QUOTE=CarnalK] Could have saved yourself some trouble… [/QUOTE] Nah, I’ve had a horrible cold for three days now, and I _feel_ like suffering. Besides, I wanted to know if a _search_ would turn them up. A general search does find them, but a ‘threads started by’ search doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-have-been-deleted/377389/20 "2006-10-22T23:37:58Z")
Well, now that you have all her threads listed you can find unique keywords in each and see what percentage of the others come up in a search. Perfect way to while away the evening. 😛