# Is there a way to search Weird Earl's and Threadspotting? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 15, 2010, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-search-weird-earls-and-threadspotting/557205 "2010-10-15T02:20:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-search-weird-earls-and-threadspotting/557205/1 "2010-10-15T02:20:06Z")
I’m having a bit of trouble. I’m trying to find a featured site from several years ago, about a box with some very strange things in it. Attempting to browse the archive hasn’t proved enlightning. Is there any way for me to search for it? ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-search-weird-earls-and-threadspotting/557205/2 "2010-10-15T15:24:28Z")
Not at the present time, sorry. Can you describe more about the site? Maybe we can figure it out. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-search-weird-earls-and-threadspotting/557205/3 "2010-10-15T16:09:34Z")
It was this weird (yeah, I know) site where you clicked on a virtual box. You’d get a description of something really weird inside. There were levels of weirdness- I think seven “floors”, with the seventh floor being the strangest of all. There was also a dumpster where you could browse rejected submissions. I’m really having trouble putting this into words for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-search-weird-earls-and-threadspotting/557205/4 "2010-10-15T16:19:21Z")
Not long ago I did some searching of the archives to locate threads and posts relating to 9/11. It took date and time specifics for that search to get what I was hunting. In your case, if you can remember anything like people who posted, approximate date(s) when it was active, words of more the four letters that were fairly unique in the discussion, specific websites mentioned, or other such triggers, maybe a Google search based on them could get you some hits. Were there other synonyms in the thread for “box” with more than four letters? Can you remember any of the “very strange things in it”? ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-search-weird-earls-and-threadspotting/557205/5 "2010-10-17T03:52:52Z")
It wasn’t a Spotted Thread, it was a Weird Earl’s. It was posted maybe a few years ago- I can’t remember if it was before or after I de-lurked. Contents of the box included a lot of “seemingly ordinary devices” that did stuff like erase whole colors from the universe (and one “seemingly ordinary object that turns out to be an ordinary object”), a tarantula that just wants to be friends, and “Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?”. I can’t remember most of them- they were just that strange. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-search-weird-earls-and-threadspotting/557205/6 "2010-10-17T18:26:40Z")
Since this thread is open and the **Tubes** offered I have one I’d like to re-find: It was a site that generated new age (?), hipster (?), or technical sounding paragraphs but was essentially meaningless constructs. As you read what it randomly generated it \*almost \*sounded like it made sense. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-search-weird-earls-and-threadspotting/557205/7 "2010-10-18T01:59:45Z")
Google should work. Just add site:[noparse][http://www.straightdope.com/weirdearls/[/noparse]](http://www.straightdope.com/weirdearls/%5B/noparse%5D) to the search. That said, none of my search terms seemed to find the link **Malleus** was looking for. And I had no idea what to look for for **PlainJain**.