Disappearing threads?

[mrklutz]

I posted this morning to a thread in Great Debates titled something like "Is global warming real?". As far as I could tell, everyone was being civilized, although we had strayed from "is it real" to "what's the best way to approach the situation." Now the thread has vanished. When I do a search on my username, it says I've posted nothing in the past week, even though I posted a couple times to that thread.

Are the hamsters eating threads? I don't know of another plausible explanation for its disappearance.

[Q.E.D.]

Nine times out of ten, when a apparently innocuous thread disappears, it's because the thread starter was a returning bannee. As a matter of policy, whenever such a character is discovers, he is promptly re-banned and all his threads and posts made to disappear. The reasoning for the latter is to deny him any benefit to his return. If such material were to be allowed to remain, the theory goes, then it would only encourage them to return again and again.

[mrklutz]

Ah, that makes sense. Too bad I don't remember who started the thread. Ah, well. It won't be the last time the subject is discussed, I'm sure. Just seems a shame to have made what I thought was a particularly good point only to have it vanish into the ether. :D

Thanks for the info.

[TubaDiva]

It's too bad. Why don't you start another thread and see where it goes? Might stick with some non-sock types around.

TubaDiva

[DSYoungEsq]

It's too bad. Why don't you start another thread and see where it goes? Might stick with some non-sock types around.

TubaDiva
I swear, I learn more about you every day, Tuba. I had no idea you don't wear socks... :D

[TubaDiva]

They look funny with the garter belt.

TubaDiva

[VegaBean]

If such material were to be allowed to remain, the theory goes, then it would only encourage them to return again and again.Do I sense you doubt the theory works? I do. IMHO a person who started a discussion as commonplace as on global warming is just looking for a couple of opinions and then has done his/her posting for the day. By the time it disappears the poster is on another thread and never knows that one is gone. IMHO

[Agent Foxtrot]

We also have a problem with disappearing posts, it seems, as in this thread (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=350120).

Adam

[TubaDiva]

Yep, sometimes we remove just the offending post and leave the rest of the thread, as in this case.

TubaDiva

[Good Egg]

Theres a thrread title with poster name in the pit, but when to try to see it, theres nothign there!!! :eek: help me, I'm scared

[Q.E.D.]

Theres a thrread title with poster name in the pit, but when to try to see it, theres nothign there!!! :eek: help me, I'm scared
That's just vBulletin weirdness. It happens from time to time, though I've not seen it since they upgraded to 3.0.7 a while back. Right before it happened, the board refused to load for a time, so I suspect a high traffic volume had something do do with it. Sometimes, during periods of high server load, some data gets misdirected, causing odd behavior like this.

It's either that, or a bad batch of Hamster Chow.

[What Exit?]

Theres a thrread title with poster name in the pit, but when to try to see it, theres nothign there!!! :eek: help me, I'm scared
I found that Ghost too, I assumed the rest of the thread would fade out soon.

I knew about Zombie Threads, but now we have Ghost threads and phantom threads. Is it Christmastime or Halloween?

[VegaBean]

Yep, sometimes we remove just the offending post and leave the rest of the thread, as in this case.

TubaDiva
See, this is exactly what I was talking about. You are so missing the point.
That's why it's such a chore for you and you never get any results.

First. The "offending post" was offending anyone, it was commonplace and in fact it was quoted by someone agreeing with it. So deleting it is a whole lot less "noble" than you make it sound. You pretend you are protecting the teeming millions from something but you are just excercising your delete key. And the only reason you do that is because if you don't excercise authority you have none. But that only impresses those who don't know what you deleted. Those who saw it think you are clueless about how boards work.
The original poster was long gone. There was no argument about what he said, so he undoubtedly neve returned to the thread.

Your empty gesture was wasted, as usual.

Of course, you will erase this post and somehow think nobody read this. Oops! they already did.
Of course you will lock this thread as a sock magnet. But oops it only draws attention to the quote in question.
Of course you could delete this thread, but then a dozen more people will find you odd. Hmm. Maybe that's the best plan after all ;)

[VegaBean]

Yep, sometimes we remove just the offending post and leave the rest of the thread, as in this case.

TubaDiva
See, this is exactly what I was talking about. You are so missing the point.
That's why it's such a chore for you and you never get any results.

First. The "offending post" was offending anyone, it was commonplace and in fact it was quoted by someone agreeing with it. So deleting it is a whole lot less "noble" than you make it sound. You pretend you are protecting the teeming millions from something but you are just excercising your delete key. And the only reason you do that is because if you don't excercise authority you have none. But that only impresses those who don't know what you deleted. Those who saw it think you are clueless about how boards work.
The original poster was long gone. There was no argument about what he said, so he undoubtedly neve returned to the thread.

Your empty gesture was wasted, as usual.

Of course, you will erase this post and somehow think nobody read this. Oops! they already did.
Of course you will lock this thread as a sock magnet. But oops it only draws attention to the quote in question.
Of course you could delete this thread, but then a dozen more people will find you odd. Hmm. Maybe that's the best plan after all ;)

[ Word to your mother: Wow. this new no-ban policy sure speeds up posting. ]

[VegaBean]

It's either that, or a bad batch of Hamster Chow.That's Purina Hamster Chow®

[ Love ♥ these new ... ]

[What Exit?]

I keep seeing a last post from VegaBean. But when I check the thread, they are not here. Could this be the Ghost in the Machine or did Michael become aware and he is having fun at my expense?

VegaBean (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?find=lastposter&t=350166) is a guest with 145 post count. When I click on his show all posts: Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

[j2browning]

Yep, sometimes we remove just the offending post and leave the rest of the thread, as in this case.

TubaDiva
See, this is exactly what I was talking about. You are so missing the point.
That's why it's such a chore for you and you never get any results.

First. The "offending post" was offending anyone, it was commonplace and in fact it was quoted by someone agreeing with it. So deleting it is a whole lot less "noble" than you make it sound. You pretend you are protecting the teeming millions from something but you are just excercising your delete key. And the only reason you do that is because if you don't excercise authority you have none. But that only impresses those who don't know what you deleted. Those who saw it think you are clueless about how boards work.
The original poster was long gone. There was no argument about what he said, so he undoubtedly neve returned to the thread.

Your empty gesture was wasted, as usual.

Of course, you will erase this post and somehow think nobody read this. Oops! they already did.
Of course you will lock this thread as a sock magnet. But oops it only draws attention to the quote in question.
Of course you could delete this thread, but then a dozen more people will find you odd. Hmm. Maybe that's the best plan after all ;)

[ Aha. Disappearing off and on posts. Tricky, faked me out for a few hours, but to what point? ]

[j2browning]

I keep seeing a last post from VegaBean. But when I check the thread, they are not here. Could this be the Ghost in the Machine or did Michael become aware and he is having fun at my expense?

VegaBean (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?find=lastposter&t=350166) is a guest with 145 post count. When I click on his show all posts:

They seem to have put Vegabean on everyone's Ignore list. Everyone but hers that is. So whe she comes to the thread it shows her post and she assumes everyone else sees it too. Until today. Tricks like this only work once.

[What Exit?]

They seem to have put Vegabean on everyone's Ignore list. Everyone but hers that is. So whe she comes to the thread it shows her post and she assumes everyone else sees it too. Until today. Tricks like this only work once.
If true that is a little nasty. But I will wait to hear from a Mod or Admin, rather than a guest that seems to have an agenda.

[TubaDiva]

::: sigh :::

TubaDiva