STORM2K

There was an occurance tonight where a couple of posts got deleted. Here is what we know at this point:

1. There is no sign of corruption in the database therefore the likelyhood of this being a bug or accidental occurance is minimal.

2. The posts in question appear to have been deleted under normal circumstances. By that I mean they were deleted by someone with the authority to do so. I know this because the posts are normally assigned sequence numbers. The number pattern should be sequential. What I see in the database is that the numbers were assigned (to the original posts) and then reassigned to new posts after the originals were deleted. The only people that can delete other's posts are members of the staff.

3. The profile changes to OtherHD could be a bug. We had another occurance of this several months ago.

Having said that, I would like to state publically that I have the utmost confidence in the entire staff. They provide a tremendous service for us all in keeping this a nice place! The policy of the board is to allow free debate as long as it stays professional and avoids name calling and other generally anti-social behavior. Those of you who have been members here for long understand that we don't practise opinion censorship! Anyone who thinks we do is welcome to contact me directly. The staff policy when deleting posts is to copy the post into the "Staff only" forum and then send the member a post explaining why the post was removed. I'm sure there are several f you who can attest that this does happen on occasion

There are two plausible explanations to what happened tonight.

1. It was done intentionally in the heat of the moment. I hope that this isn;t the case but we all have to remember that the staff are human as well. We are discussing this possibility in a "Staff only" forum. So far no one has admitted to it and I trust each staff member to be honest! That's why they have the privileges they do!

2. The posts were deleted accidentally - The staff memebr have some buttons available on every posts that allow them to edit/delete/ and perform some other functions. It is possible that thiswas done accidentally.

Bottom line is we don't know what really happened. I apologize to the members whose posts were deleted on behalf of the staff. Sorry that it happened but at this point all we can do is get on with the debate!

Marshall - I second your sentiments. Thanks for posting about this and keeping us informed.

Patricia

I agree 100%!! I trust everyone here on the staff and I believe it was just a mistake. No harm, no foul. You guys and gals keep up the good work.

Missed all this!! I don't know what happened, but I trust that the staff wouldn't intentionally do anything like that!!

I came in ex post facto, so I didn't get to view the posts in question at all.

Last night I was browsing this forum but never got to enter that thread in particular before what happened because it is not atractive to me and I haven't replied there but as a mod I have to go into all the treads and I went in after the incident happened.

We will get to the bottom of this so S2K members dont worrie because we are working to determine the real cause of this unusul occurrance.

Thanks for Investigating Marshal. I also echo you. I can also assure the members that steps have been taken for the furture.. If it happens again, we WILL know who,what,and where.. The admin team has installed some additional software that will allow us to track deleted pots..

This is the first I've heard of this.....as I posted in another thread. Thanks Marshall for the vote of confidence.....as you know, I was a little *gun shy* after the happenings at the *other board*...with all the name calling etc by so called friends, I was kinda skidish about the position but after almost a year....rest assured, I'm very confident in my ability to be fair and nonjudgemental.

Dennis

I believe to be the best prove that posts are hardly deleted.
I have none of mine "un-American" (I don't feel that, but hey, this is a free speech place right?) ones ever deleted.

I might (and I do) disagree with many here around, and I have ideas that might (and actually do) hurt many, but never felt the sensation to be in any way under censure.

Thanks to you all

Paolo

We have many refugees from another message board here at S2K and we all well remember logging on in the morning, only to find complete topics and entire posts gone. Just gone - no explanation (this is not directed at you Dennis or TLC, please know that).

Contrast that atmosphere to the family friendly atmosphere here at Storm2K and there is NO comparison, IMO.

If a few posts get deleted, then so be it. If a few of mine were deleted, I'd be thinking - huh, that's strange, that just doesn't happen here. Now that did happen elsewhere......so what I'm trying to say is this - I can forgive a lot here at Storm2K b/c I know the Admin isn't at all like the other place......

Keep up the good work Ticka/Marshall/Chad and the Mods!

Mary

chadtm80 wrote:Thanks for Investigating Marshal. I also echo you. I can also assure the members that steps have been taken for the furture.. If it happens again, we WILL know who,what,and where.. The admin team has installed some additional software that will allow us to track deleted pots..

Thanks Chad and Marshall...we'll catch them next time hopefully there isn't a next time

I feel that surely this was just a mistaken click of a button. Today is the first I have heard of it and wasn't able to view the deleted posts either. Like Marshall said, we are human and mistakes are made. If this was intentionally done and an explanation was not forthcoming then I am sure we will cross that bridge if we get to it. We work hard to maintain this board and it is not done without mistakes, but one thing I do know is that when mistakes are made, they are corrected immediately and steps are taken to ensure that same mistake is not repeated. Thanks to all the members, YOU are what makes this board great!!

I trust each and every member of the mod squad! Im sure if it was intentional an explanation would have been offered and it would not have been done under the counter. Im sure like gulf said it was just an accident. If not im confident Marshall and the Admin will get to the bottom of it.

Storm2k is such a great place to chat and discuss difficult issues, never once have I felt hurt or violated in response to a thread... thats because the members are so wonderful and genuinely thoughtful of others, even if there is a difference of opinion.

Your post Marshall is proof that all of the mods and admins are on top of things and are as open and honest as possible with the members. I have COMPLETE faith in all of you and though I may be in the minority with my opinions at times, I'VE ALWAYS FELT that the staff at S2K treated my comments with the utmost respect.

Thanks guys!!!

Administrative Antics? Moderator Malfeasance? I doubt it.
Hey I can't remember what I said yesterday most of the time.
Keep up the good work, staff!

I have faith that the mod(s) involved did it on accident and that the admins will take care of the situation as soon as possible.

Alright, I have to say a few things. I'm still upset about what happened last night. Marshall, I appreciate the work that you did to make sure it wasn't a database problem. Thanks. Moving on...

If the posts were deleted by accident, then why doesn't that person just come forward and say they did it? If they didn't MEAN to do it, then that person should have NO problem admitting to it. That leads me to believe that it was more than a minor slip-up. Also, yes, one of my posts were deleted. But what I haven't said yet was that one of my subsequent posts were edited--the last part of the reply to Kami was taken out--the part where I said I agreed with her views.

If it was just one post from one member that was deleted, I would be inclined to agree that it was an accident. But 3 posts? From 3 different people? It still doesn't add up.

Additionally, I was blocked last night on AIM by one of the staff members. This happened right after the posts were deleted. I will not say publically who this person was, but some of you I did tell in private.

This was not an accident IMO.

Marshall, do you know if there is any way for me to retrieve my deleted post by going through my temporary internet files? I do remember viewing my completed post after it was submitted, so I'm hoping I can still get to it. It would be a shame if it was lost, cause it was a well thought out post, and I got a lot off of my chest.

One other thing, it seems that I am not able to get HTML to work. When I tried quoting Tom this morning, I couldn't get the quote box to come up. The same thing happened last night when I tried to quote Kami. I checked my profile, and the Yes button is clicked right next to "Always allow HTML".

I had a couple of posts "disappear" too, but I am ok with your explanation. Accidents do happen and also computers, while they have come a long way, are not infallible.

OtherHD wrote:If it was just one post from one member that was deleted, I would be inclined to agree that it was an accident. But 3 posts? From 3 different people? It still doesn't add up.

There were in fact three sequential posts deleted. Either scenario I outlined previously could still apply. IMO

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OtherHD wrote:Additionally, I was blocked last night on AIM by one of the staff members. This happened right after the posts were deleted. I will not say publically who this person was, but some of you I did tell in private.

While the staff is usually very open about their availability on AIM/MSN etc, this is not a requirement. Even the staff has a right to a life off of the board. Who they chose to communicate with outside the board is their own business. I suggest you deal with this one-on-one.

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OtherHD wrote:One other thing, it seems that I am not able to get HTML to work. When I tried quoting Tom this morning, I couldn't get the quote box to come up. The same thing happened last night when I tried to quote Kami. I checked my profile, and the Yes button is clicked right next to "Always allow HTML".

We only support some basic HTML tags like bold/underline/italics... Even though HTML is allowed it's currently limited to just those tags. If anyone would like us to add more tags please contact either Chad or myself via e-mail or PM.
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OtherHD wrote:Marshall, do you know if there is any way for me to retrieve my deleted post by going through my temporary internet files? I do remember viewing my completed post after it was submitted, so I'm hoping I can still get to it. It would be a shame if it was lost, cause it was a well thought out post, and I got a lot off of my chest.

I doubt that you will be able to find your post in your temp files. Good luck...