Disappearing Poster names in old threads

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#1

Some older threads seem to have the usernames erased.
The posts are still there, but the name of the poster is absent.

Is this becuase of a new software upgrade that refuses to read the old format? Why is this going on?

Examples:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=340
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=530
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4167

These threads of similar age don’t have that problem:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4192
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4221

Does anyone know what’s up?

#2

Likely unrelated event:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=3&daysprune=1000&sortorder=asc&sortfield=lastpost&perpage=50&pagenumber=3

Near the bottom of this page, is a thread titled I got a hole-in-one so I’ll buy YOU a drink? which is listed as started by a poster called Trumpy303. This poster’s name isn’t turned into a link like everyone else’s. A search of the board on his name turned up no hits.
What sort of anomaly is this? If it’s a banned poster or something, I’ll stop asking… I’m just curious why this happened.

#3

I don’t know the specifics of why the posters names come up as guest. But I believe in has something to do with board switching to Vb.

Mods please jump in and correct me.

As far as the Trumpy303 question.
That poster probably changed their screen name, and although in the the actual thread, it would be shown as the new name, in the thread index it would still be listed as T303.

If you look up on the page you linked to, http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb...50&pagenumber=3, the OPer of ‘2 year old car’ is listed as beatle, who is now known as Ringo.

Yes, the former beatle is Ringo.

#4

Uh, that should be ‘2 year old in a car’.

And http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=3&daysprune=1000&sortorder=asc&sortfield=lastpost&perpage=50&pagenumber=3

#5

That was me, BTW.

I’ve also noticed that if a post was started by a poster who has been banned or is no longer a member, their name is not a link (that is, it isn’t undelined).

#6

My guess: those were old threads converted from the UBB days, and the newer version of the vB software (and the newer version of PHP we’re now using) is not rendering these older files properly.

Sorry 'bout that. I can’t see anything we can do to fix this, short of going backwards and that’s not going to happen.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

#7

Of course, if I had checked the links I would have realized that my old name (Trumpy303) was not a link, so that shots a big hole in my theory. :smiley: