# 'The Beginning' In Display Options? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 23, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942 "2019-04-23T15:28:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/1 "2019-04-23T15:28:00Z")
I just got something I at least thought was weird under ‘Display Options’. It said I could sort the list from ‘the beginning’ (as opposed to ‘two days’, ‘one week’, ‘two weeks’ _ **etc.** _) When exactly is the ‘beginning’? The beginning of the column by Cecil Adams? The beginning of time itself? The beginning of the message board? If so, on the last one, when exactly did the message board begin? I have been on it for about 20 years now. And when I joined up, it was already going for some time, it seemed. Please answer this profound question. I must not be the only one who wonders:). :):)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/2 "2019-04-23T15:33:41Z")
Did you try it? I just clicked on it and (at least in ATMB) it went back to 3/13/99. I assume that’s the beginning of this board. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/3 "2019-04-23T15:33:57Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > The beginning of the message board? If so, on the last one, when exactly did the message board begin? The beginning of this message board. The first forums were ATMB, Comments on Cecil’s Columns and General Questions. Using the display options to display posts “From the Beginning” and “In ascending order” shows the first post in ATMB is March 11, 1999, CCC as April 5, 1999, and the first one in GQ as June 1, 1999. As with the creation of the world, I believe there was a gradual process of separating the light from the darkness, and new forums were added one by one. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/4 "2019-04-23T15:39:53Z")
I note that the first “This board sucks! I’m moving on!” thread came on April 10, 1999. 🙂 ---
**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:** [April 23, 2019, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/5 "2019-04-23T15:47:13Z")
My mistake. I should have sorted threads by “Thread start time” rather than “Last post time.” Comments. March 10, 1999. General Questions. Strangely, the sort by start time give October 3, 1999, as the first, although other threads were started as early as June 1, 1999. Something screwy there in the sort. ATMB. March 13, 1999. Again, the sort option doesn’t work properly for thread start time. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/6 "2019-04-23T15:54:57Z")
When was this new option added? The flashbacks are fun. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2019, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/7 "2019-04-23T16:02:11Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > When was this new option added? The flashbacks are fun. What “new option”? The option to see posts “From the beginning” has been there ever since I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/8 "2019-04-23T16:04:01Z")
Going back to the very first page of The BBQ Pit listings, I notice a post on 02-24-2009, but then underneath that is a post dated 07-30-1999, continuing down to the bottom to a post dated 03-27-1999. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/9 "2019-04-23T16:05:06Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > What “new option”? The option to see posts “From the beginning” has been there ever since I can remember. Then I somehow missed seeing it all these years. 😃 ---
**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:** [April 23, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/10 "2019-04-23T16:37:55Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Going back to the very first page of The BBQ Pit listings, I notice a post on 02-24-2009, but then underneath that is a post dated 07-30-1999, continuing down to the bottom to a post dated 03-27-1999. As I said, the sort function seems to be screwy. In many cases when a new forum was started threads that had been started earlier in other forums were moved there. I’m not sure of the date, but the Pit was the fifth forum started, or at least its forum number is 5. Comments is 1, ATMB is 2, General Questions is 3, and MPSIMS is 4. The Pit is 5. There appears to be no forum 6. Great Debates is 7. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/11 "2019-04-23T20:15:33Z")
I believe what was once “Forum 6” was Straight Dope Chicago, which was pruned off the board when the site was worked on in 2017. For those that don’t know what I’m talking about, we once had some columns aimed towards local (Chicago area) content, with a message board forum to match. The idea really never got traction and was ultimately abandoned and when the site was changed it was all just dropped. Jenny your humble TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/12 "2019-04-23T21:25:51Z")
I thought we had a list of these at one point. From what I can piece together, these are the forum numbers: 1 = Cecil’s Columns 2 = ATMB 3 = General Questions 4 = MPSIMS 5 = BBQ Pit 6 = Staff Reports (later merged into Cecil’s Columns) 7 = Great Debates 12 = IMHO 13 = Cafe Society 17 = The Game Room 18 = The Barn House (no longer exists) 20 = Straight Dope Chicago (no longer exists) 34 = Elections 35 = Marketplace 37 = Boo! (no longer exists) There are a bunch of testing forums and moderator only forums in there as well. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/13 "2019-04-23T22:18:40Z")
Wait, where is this option? In my User CP I have something called “Edit Options.” When I click on that, I get “Thread Display Options.” In there I have four choices, including “Thread Display Mode” and “Default Thread Age Cut Off.” I can eventually get to “Show All Threads,” but there’s nothing like “From the Beginning.” Nor does the oft-maligned search function have that term. The closest I can find is “Any Date.” ---
**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:** [April 23, 2019, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/14 "2019-04-23T22:51:26Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > 6 = Staff Reports (later merged into Cecil’s Columns) :smack:Of course. If you try to enter “6” as the forum number it takes you to Comments due to the merger. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2019, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/15 "2019-04-23T22:56:03Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Wait, where is this option? In my User CP I have something called “Edit Options.” When I click on that, I get “Thread Display Options.” In there I have four choices, including “Thread Display Mode” and “Default Thread Age Cut Off.” I can eventually get to “Show All Threads,” but there’s nothing like “From the Beginning.” It’s not in User CP, it’s on each forum page. At the bottom there is a blue line with “Display options.” You can select options for “Sorted by,” “Sort order,” and “From the.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/16 "2019-04-24T01:50:47Z")
Thanks **Colibri**. I found it, but it doesn’t seem to work well for me. When I try searching for my own OP’s, It shows me as the thread starter in fewer than 100 in GQ and hardly any in ATMB. And I still can’t find my very first post, which would have been shortly after I first signed up (if not the same day.) Of course, I understand that everything before The Winter of Our Missed Content is sort of hit or miss, but I’m pretty sure I’ve started more than a few hundred threads over 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/17 "2019-04-24T02:12:16Z")
just a side jack … did they ever find out what caused the month or so board outage ? ---
**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:** [April 24, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/18 "2019-04-24T02:30:04Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Thanks **Colibri**. I found it, but it doesn’t seem to work well for me. When I try searching for my own OP’s, It shows me as the thread starter in fewer than 100 in GQ and hardly any in ATMB. And I still can’t find my very first post, which would have been shortly after I first signed up (if not the same day.) > > Of course, I understand that everything before The Winter of Our Missed Content is sort of hit or miss, but I’m pretty sure I’ve started more than a few hundred threads over 20 years. I don’t know what to tell you. I find you have started 333 threads (the first 1/16/2000), of which 54 were in GQ and 11 in ATMB. The earliest post I can find by you is 8/6/99. The problem there, as you can see by checking the earliest threads, is that the names have become disassociated from the posts in the database and appear blank. Therefore you won’t find your earliest posts. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/19 "2019-04-24T03:34:28Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I find you have started 333 threads (the first 1/16/2000), of which 54 were in GQ and 11 in ATMB. That tells me that over 20 years and 25,000+ posts, only 1.3% of them represented an actual, original question or thought that I contributed to this Board. :eek: And I’m sure many of them were topics that had been discussed before and I was simply rehashing. :smack: Now I am really, really depressed. ☹ ---
**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:** [April 24, 2019, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942/20 "2019-04-24T05:10:21Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > That tells me that over 20 years and 25,000+ posts, only 1.3% of them represented an actual, original question or thought that I contributed to this Board. :eek: And I’m sure many of them were topics that had been discussed before and I was simply rehashing. :smack: > > Now I am really, really depressed. ☹ Hey, I start very few threads myself. I’ve only started 20 threads in GQ in almost 19 years. (Of course, that’s because I already know most of the answers.;)) But the number of threads you start doesn’t have much to do with how much you contribute to the board. I’m sure I’ve started many fewer threads than you. (I can’t tell the number of “real” threads without searching every forum, since several moderating actions generate new threads in invisible forums.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-in-display-options/832942.md?page=2)