Has anyone ever determined how long this message board goes back.Can I retreive messages from years back (not that I plan on doing it) or does Fodor's delete them at some point. I mean there must be hundreds of thousands of messages by now if they are sequential without a cutoff. If so, Fodors should add a feature to retrieve messages by year - we may learn about the good old days.

Why would you want that old information? Hotels and restaurants may be out of business by now.

I agree that it doesn't seem helpful if they posted messages by year - you can search by topic, and it will bring up all posts, old and new (at least as much as is indexed by the search engine, which isn't always everything).

But yes, they do keep old messages. Here's the oldest message I was able to find on the US board. It is from July 18, 1996 and was message number 146,965 when I found it:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...?fid=1&tid=102

jlm,
Soooooo cool!

I wonder what ever happened to this poster....how his life was after posting this? :-?
Or is he still here???

I clicked on the link, read the post, wondered why nobody replied, and hit the "back" arrow. Guess what - couldn't go back!

Kal, have you left a trap in there for me?

Faina,
That just happened to me too! a TRAP!!!

I'm not trapped here. Back works fine.

Since this was before registration, I don't think there's a way to find this poster's other posts, if there were any. Would be fun to know.

Oh, JLM, there is an easy way to find all posts (if s/he used the same screen name only) - just type the name in the search window! Old or not, it should be pulled up. For example, Elvira on the European board left before the registration, but her old posts can be found by doing the search.

I, personally, truly appreciate all the "old" posts. With a search, for sure, there is lots (and lots) of outdated (and also useless) information, but you can also sift through for positively incredible insider tips and information - not found in any of the tour guides contributed by folks who've given up on posting the same info over and over again...Or, for one reason or another have just left...

I agree that the old posts are great to have. In addition to information, they often provide good entertainment. I was just questioning the benefit of being able to pull posts by year. Seeing all the posts from 1999 just doesn't seem like it would be useful, but pulling all the posts on a topic (say Chicago), including those from 1999 would be.

Well first off there's pre-registration and post-registration.

Why would you want to retrieve messages by year, rather than by topic or destination? I don't understand why this would be helpful to you.

And yes there are hundreds of thousands of messages. I believe they stay unless they get 'locked' or deleted by editors because or inappropriateness. Recently someone topped some oldies from 1999, I believe.

Faina,
Elvira left before registration? Was that why she left? BTW, I've been around since long before registration, but I took about a 3-4 year sabbatical from the boards.

Nina, I think I came aboard after she left, besides I didn't go to "Europe" for a while, as my travels were mostly domestic then, so I don't know the full story.

Maybe there is a post somewhere explaining why... but I doubt the registration has anything to do with her "untimely departure."

Here's an old get to know everyone thread: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34421309

utahtea

What's your favorite regional food that you discovered on your travels that you can't find at home? Might be the longest running thread that I know of. Started on 8-9-02 and is going strong with 611 posts and the last one was on 4-26-06. http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...=1&tid=1398941

Utahtea (circa Feb. 2002)

Thx utahtea, I'm not sure how I missed that back then ('03)...wouldn't be a bad one to revisit or update though...

Nina - did you go by "Nina" in the pre-registration days? I remember a Nina from back then. Just curious.

Tomorrow is the 3rd Anniv of the WineOs thread on Other Topics.

910 responses <hic> and still "stroing gong"....would have been higher if my sugar level wasn't hitting 910, too!

I've had a wine and then when I went to post about it...found it listed already in the thread.
What a bunch of drunken bums! :-"

Nobody will argue with your last sentence O

What's the name of that thread that had over 1000 responses?
Anybody remember that one?