Disappearing Thread

[crosscountry]

There was a thread called "Post Your Dinner" in the BABBling forum. It's been going for about 7 years now, since 2005 and had a lot of interesting conversation in it, plus lots of photos that people put there to share their favorite meals. I posted to it in May, and then Today I noticed it was missing. There were well over 1000 posts, and probably on the order of 3000 posts that just disappeared.

Can someone please tell me why that happened?

[NEOWatcher]

There was a thread called "Post Your Dinner" in the BABBling forum. It's been going for about 7 years now, since 2005 and had a lot of interesting conversation in it, plus lots of photos that people put there to share their favorite meals. I posted to it in May, and then Today I noticed it was missing. There were well over 1000 posts, and probably on the order of 3000 posts that just disappeared.

Can someone please tell me why that happened?

Did you try google?
I did a search in google and it came right up. ["post your dinner" site:bautforum.com]
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread....st-your-dinner
Either that, or someone was quick in fixing it.

BTW: 1265 posts. Last post Feb 2010. (quite old)

[HenrikOlsen]

In "Forum Actions v" -> "General Settings" there's a setting called "Default Thread Age Cut Off:",thread older than that setting won't be shown.

[crosscountry]

In "Forum Actions v" -> "General Settings" there's a setting called "Default Thread Age Cut Off:",thread older than that setting won't be shown.

Thanks. It was showing up in May but not in June. I wondered what happened.

[crosscountry]

Did you try google?
I did a search in google and it came right up. ["post your dinner" site:bautforum.com]
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread....st-your-dinner
Either that, or someone was quick in fixing it.

BTW: 1265 posts. Last post Feb 2010. (quite old)

oops, I mean LOTS of posts since 2010. We were posting in May of this year. What you found is not the thread.

[crosscountry]

In "Forum Actions v" -> "General Settings" there's a setting called "Default Thread Age Cut Off:",thread older than that setting won't be shown.

I changed it to "Show All Threads", and the thread we're discussing still doesn't show up.

[crosscountry]

Did you try google?
I did a search in google and it came right up. ["post your dinner" site:bautforum.com]
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread....st-your-dinner
Either that, or someone was quick in fixing it.

BTW: 1265 posts. Last post Feb 2010. (quite old)

also, the post doesn't show up in BABBling, and it did just a week ago. It has been removed for some reason (either that or I am imagining the last 28 months of posts)

[antoniseb]

There is a possibility that it got misidentified as spam. If that's the case, I don't know what could get done to fix it.

[slang]

An entire thread? crosscountry, you don't happen to have a link to the thread, have you? Maybe in a PM, maybe in your browser history?

[crosscountry]

An entire thread? crosscountry, you don't happen to have a link to the thread, have you? Maybe in a PM, maybe in your browser history?

Good call.
I found this in my history.

http://www.bautforum.com/showthread....ner!?p=2019312

[crosscountry]

There is a possibility that it got misidentified as spam. If that's the case, I don't know what could get done to fix it.

This thread is almost 7 years old. There was a lot of good stuff in there.

[antoniseb]

This thread is almost 7 years old. There was a lot of good stuff in there.

I can say with confidence that I personally didn't remove it... because I haven't been on spam duty. The team has been removing about 50-100 spam posts a day, and the normal spam post is in a new thread, and the usual procedure is to mark it as spam and let the script do its thing.

Based on this thread, I have drawn attention to the mod-team that this kind of mistake is possible. Hopefully it won't happen again during the time it takes to find better ways to handle spam.

[Van Rijn]

This might be a clue. The title of the remaining thread is:

69717-Post-your-dinner

The missing thread is:

33976-Post-your-dinner!

I'm guessing the second one got deleted as a duplicate thread?

By the way, on Google cache, I can see recent posts to the 33976 thread. For instance:

15-May-2012 12:10 AM #1162

Fazor Join Date : Oct 2006 Location: Near Columbus, Ohio
Posts: 11,755

Turkey burgers again tonight -- this time with some guidance to the seasoning. Grated Parmesan cheese, dried oregano and basil, minced garlic, salt and pepper (I always include a scoop of ricotta to keep the patties moist.)

Tara saw this thing about making potato chips in the microwave. It's a really complicated process that involves slicing thin chips (with our new mandolin) and placing them in the microwave until golden. It was difficult. But they turned out pretty good, and the best part is there's no oil or frying involved so I can consider them healthy.

Ever notice that when someone starts a conversation by saying, "It's not made-up stuff, it's science," they're always talking about made-up non-science?

[Tinaa]

I've been killing lots of spam but I think I am pretty careful. And I read and posted in that thread fairly often.

[Jim]

I can say with confidence that I personally didn't remove it... because I haven't been on spam duty. The team has been removing about 50-100 spam posts a day, and the normal spam post is in a new thread, and the usual procedure is to mark it as spam and let the script do its thing.

Based on this thread, I have drawn attention to the mod-team that this kind of mistake is possible. Hopefully it won't happen again during the time it takes to find better ways to handle spam.

Well, it's not impossible, but it's durn difficult. There are several steps in the process and each one gives you a chance to catch a mistake.

Moderated posts are identified in the thread list of a forum by the word "Moderated" placed before the title. If it looks like spam, you click the little box in the far right column. This highlights the thread. (It stands out.)

You then click a box at the bottom of that right hand column for Moderation Tools. This brings up a list of tools - actions - you can select. The one you want is Delete Threads as Spam. Click Proceed.

This gives you a page where you select the actions to take.
. Delete other posts and threads started by the affected users
. Soft Delete or Physically Remove
. Do Nothing or Ban These Users
Below that is a listing of Users and their IPs.
Make your selections and click Proceed.

You then get a page that lists the Users being banned and their post counts. There is a caveat shown that if a User has more than 50 posts, you'll have to use the Admin Panel. You can also unselect a User.

You can give a reason for the banning, then click Proceed.

That's lots of chances to notice you clicked the wrong thread.

Not impossible, but durn difficult.

[antoniseb]

... Moderated posts are identified in the thread list of a forum by the word "Moderated" placed before the title. If it looks like spam, you click the little box in the far right column. This highlights the thread. (It stands out.)...

Well, right, but if a spammer appends a post to such a thread, which I have seen a few times, it still shows up as moderated.

[Buttercup]

There are 2 "post your dinner" threads.

[crosscountry]

This might be a clue. The title of the remaining thread is:

69717-Post-your-dinner

The missing thread is:

33976-Post-your-dinner!

I'm guessing the second one got deleted as a duplicate thread?

By the way, on Google cache, I can see recent posts to the 33976 thread. For instance:

The one from 2005 is the original that contained all of our posts, including Tinaa's. The other one is an imposter! (is that a pun?)


Also, when was the merger between BA and UT?

[crosscountry]

There are 2 "post your dinner" threads.

Can you link to them? I can't find either in the search, and one says it doesn't exist when I click the link.

[NEOWatcher]

oops, I mean LOTS of posts since 2010. We were posting in May of this year. What you found is not the thread.

The one from 2005 is the original that contained all of our posts, including Tinaa's. The other one is an imposter! (is that a pun?)

Can you link to them? I can't find either in the search, and one says it doesn't exist when I click the link.

You say you can't find either in the search...
Did you look at the link I provided (the 69717)? I understand it doesn't have the later posts, but It is from 2005 and it's first post is by you.
How are you searching? I've had plenty of trouble with the forum's search.

I wonder if there was some cleanup in 2010 that happened to move the posts to a newer thread (the 69717) but not all posts made it there.

You're confusing me as to what's missing. The thread or just the posts?
I see a thread that matches your description but it is missing posts.

[selden]

Can't the thread be reconstituted from backups?

If not, what would happen if the Web service used by BAUT failed catastrophically? Would the entire Forum be gone forever?

The WayBack machine of archive.org claims not to have it, either.

[Swift]

Can't the thread be reconstituted from backups?

If not, what would happen if the Web service used by BAUT failed catastrophically? Would the entire Forum be gone forever?

The WayBack machine of archive.org claims not to have it, either.

This is slightly better than a guess, but I believe if the entire forum database was wiped out, it would be restored from back-up. At one point, those were done daily, I don't know if that is still the case (that was pre-'cloud'). I do not know if an individual thread can be restored from back-up. I believe Fraser is the only person who ever deals with such issues.

[slang]

I do not know if an individual thread can be restored from back-up. I believe Fraser is the only person who ever deals with such issues.

As much as I admire and thank Fraser for all his work, I do believe there are other people who work with forums, threads, and backups I don't think that digging a thread out of a backup and restoring it is a trivial job, but maybe someone built a tool for it..

[Swift]

As much as I admire and thank Fraser for all his work, I do believe there are other people who work with forums, threads, and backups

I didn't mean that Fraser was the only person on the planet who ever dealt with just, just the only person on BAUT. Certainly none of the moderators deal with this kind of stuff.

[grapes]

Can someone please tell me why that happened?

Maybe your answer is here:
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread....89#post1294789

ETA: At one point, the BA decided to delete all threads in OTB that had no recent posts. As far as I know, that was the only wholesale purge, and it occurred all at once.

[crosscountry]

Maybe your answer is here:
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread....89#post1294789

ETA: At one point, the BA decided to delete all threads in OTB that had no recent posts. As far as I know, that was the only wholesale purge, and it occurred all at once.

You say you can't find either in the search...
Did you look at the link I provided (the 69717)? I understand it doesn't have the later posts, but It is from 2005 and it's first post is by you.

You're confusing me as to what's missing. The thread or just the posts?
I see a thread that matches your description but it is missing posts.

The thread that is missing was active as of the end of May. The other one hasn't been posted to since 2010. It looks very similar to the lost one except it stopped 2+ years ago and was likely a facsimile. This creates the confusion that we are experiencing.

I maintain that the thread to which I refer (#33976) is missing since the beginning of June.

[grapes]

I think that my link is to the "missing" thread. It has years of posts, and recent posts in May.

There's also some comments from a few years ago about those other threads (the link is to an earlier post in that thread).

ETA: Here is the link again, to the OP of that thread instead of the discussion about earlier threads.
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread....ie-around-here

[grapes]

I maintain that the thread to which I refer (#33976) is missing since the beginning of June.

The thread numbers just before and after are non-OTB threads still available. Both were started Oct 21, 2005. I think that means #33976 would've been a victim of The Great Purge if it hadn't recent posts.
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/33975
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/33977

[Swift]

My memory is that "Who else is a foodie" and "Post your dinner" were completely different threads (even if related topics). I was never particularly active in the Dinner thread, but my memory matches crosscountry's and that it was active till recently.

I have no explanation as to how several months or years of posts could have been deleted from the Dinner thread. I can't even think how an accident during spammer killing could have done it; I would think such an accident would either completely delete the thread, or maybe delete a couple of posts around that of the spammer.

I wonder if the database had a hiccup.

I think the only possiblity is to see if Fraser can have it recovered from backup. I'll see if we can contact him to do that.

[Van Rijn]

My memory is that "Who else is a foodie" and "Post your dinner" were completely different threads (even if related topics).

Yes, from the Google cache, "33976-Post-your-dinner!" had 1164 posts. "69717-Post-your-dinner" (last post in Feb 2010) has 1265 posts. "77062-So-who-else-is-a-foodie-around-here" has 561 posts. They all appear to be different threads: First and last posts are different, thread start dates are different, last post dates are different. It looks to me like the "33976-Post-your-dinner!" thread was completely deleted.