# Assorted board quirks

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assorted-board-quirks/101051>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [March 31, 2002, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assorted-board-quirks/101051 "2002-03-31T11:58:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assorted-board-quirks/101051/1 "2002-03-31T11:58:30Z")

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In the [Another question for the owners/adminstrators of this board: Replacement Cecil](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=106495) thread:  
Where did my post go? Post time was 03-30-2002 01:27 PM GMT, if it helps.  
It was there, now it’s gone. And **merrily** ’s running gag ran away, too! 😃  
In the [Why do straws have stripes on them?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=106037) thread I’m sure there was no **Kniz** when I started my reply. That post appeared while I was still previewing mine. Yet my post is in front of it.

Is the time (and therefore their order?) of the posts set at “post reply”, updated (or not) with every “preview”, or when you finally “submit reply”? Did the board rely on my maladjusted computer clock (few minutes)? Was it a glitch or a ‘feature’?

:thinks: Does that mean I can start a reply, (preview once in a while to keep the cookies warm?,) wait for someone to post, wedge a post in front of him, and appear to _be clairvoyant_? 🙂

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assorted-board-quirks/101051/2 "2002-03-31T17:25:16Z")

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Sorry, but the database sometimes gets incompletely updated, especially at times of high activity.  
I would think that the post time gets set when you press “submit reply” and not before. But I will try to find out the definitive answer.

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**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assorted-board-quirks/101051/3 "2002-03-31T21:41:54Z")

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I found out the vBulletin 1.1.3 software quite simply called a current\_time()-routine at every single point when a timestamp is needed. I don’t guess they changed it since that version.

So times in different lists may be inconsistent if the server is bogged down between two code lines that update the post database and the forum list, for instance.

If I got it right, the post time is set at the very moment the server processes the code to set the post time. D’oh!

Thanks a bunch, anyway! 🙂