How far do threads go back?

[Judgypants]

Can you search the boards from years ago on here?

yep

Hi Judgypants
Search page
From this page you can search for any message posted on the talkboard since it started in 2001. The only exception to this is threads such as classified ads and the "Chat" topic, where threads are removed after a certain time. Messages posted in the last few seconds may not appear in search results here.
Enter as much or as little information as you like. All the fields are optional. But if you don't enter anything, your search won't match any messages (over 4 million last count).
If you are looking for a specific thread you've read before, but don't remember the title, don't forget you can find it by finding any words in any message in the thread. For example, if you know tech contributed and used the words "calamine lotion", search for that in the text of the message and nickname tech. Leaving a field blank means "all". So if you don't care who wrote the message, leave the nickname field blank. To see the topic lists, click the "choose topics" button.

Hope this helps.