Here on DP look for "Sticky:" before the title of the thread. However, being on page 36 of a thread full of "hey, good advice" type posts like the ones here won't help much, humans wont read it, and bots don't really care for pages sooo deep, or rather won's see them on the main page. Why? 43 Pages will look like this 1 2 3 ... 43 So being on page 23 is read by NO ONE. You may think that page 43 may be good, but honestly, how long do you think page 42 was visible? If its not on the first three pages, leave it and look for another sticky. HOWEVER, a sticky with multiple pages is more likely to retain PR because the thread updates (and yes, google knows when a thread updates, do a search, it'll tell ya when it was posted in last and by whom!) where as a sticky that gets locked with no replies just gathers dust (no new content, so it seems Google does not read stickys just like forum members, lol).
I'm sure sig links still help in Google's algo slightly, but I wouldn't make it the focal point of your SEO efforts.