Let's say I wanted to find a story from 2012 or view all stories from that time. Could I do that and if so, how?

7239521 Yes, you could.

I actually made a program that could help you with that.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/405983/how-i-find-new-groups
(it's an old blog, but the idea behind it is still sound)

You can also do it without the program, but it may be slower.

TL;DR: Select all stories that have ID between X and Y.

Oh, and there's also a group for it.
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/214971/fimfiction-by-year

7239521

Ah, the good old days!

But put: published:<2013-1-1 (or whatever you want your cutoff date to be) in the search result.

For example:

published:<2013-1-1 Only stories before 2013
published:<2014-1-1 Only stories before 2014
published:>2013-1-1 Only stories after 2013

7239521
I see the others have it covered. Still, here's the link to the guide on Fimfiction's search tool, if you want to know more: link

7239528

7239529

7239531
Thanks.