# Threads containing Cecil's posts

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-containing-cecils-posts/51041>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [January 20, 2001, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-containing-cecils-posts/51041 "2001-01-20T18:22:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-containing-cecils-posts/51041/1 "2001-01-20T18:22:57Z")

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I did a search this morning for all threads that our beloved Perfect Master, Cecil Adams, has posted to. As it had on another recent occasion when I did the same search, the search engine produced, among other things, 22 such threads that were shown as being most recently posted to on December 10, 2000.

While Cecil indeed posted to all 22 of these threads, only two of them were posted to on 12/10/00. (By others, not by Cecil. Cecil hasn’t posted since mid-October.) Most of them haven’t been posted to since 1999.

Questions: (1) Has the same thing happened to others who’ve searched for Cecil’s posts in the last month or so, and (2) anybody have any clue why this is happening?

BTW, I like Cecil’s new “Perfect Master” title, although (showing my age here) it does recall to mind the Guru Maharaj Ji. Does this mean Cecil’s going to marry his secretary? 😉

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**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:** [January 20, 2001, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-containing-cecils-posts/51041/2 "2001-01-20T18:35:42Z")

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Here y’go, Rufe:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=50488](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=50488)

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**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-containing-cecils-posts/51041/3 "2001-01-21T01:06:34Z")

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If this is what you mean: I think when searching for “all posts by this member”, the dates that the search results display are the dates of the _last_ post to that thread, not necessarily of the post YOU happen to be looking for. All you get is threads that contain posts by, in this case, Cecil Adams.

Is that what you meant?

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-containing-cecils-posts/51041/4 "2001-01-25T19:18:53Z")

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Thanks for the link **Colibri** - that answered my question!

Just to bring the answer forward to the present thread, **UncleBeer** summarized things thus:

> [@](#):
>
> we had a troll come through bumping old threads, we got rid of him by pushing the big shiny red “delete all posts by this user” button. While the posts (and poster) are gone, the “last post” index remains.

So we’ve got a bunch of threads that Cecil posted to 'way back when, that _look_ like _nobody_’s posted to them since 1999. And nobody has, except for some troll who was extremely active on 12/10/00, and then had all his posts deleted.