I was certain this had been asked about before, but searches turned up zilch, so if I’ve missed something, I apologize.
Anyway, either I’m crazy or the board is. In this thread, I distinctly remember reading someone’s post about how C K Dexter Haven basically shouldn’t care what people want regarding posting rules, and I replied to that post as well. Those two posts are gone now. In this thread, Zenster wrote a post replying to five or six posters, me among them (he said “now you’re talking!” about my mention of Indian food). That post is gone.
Am I insane? Did I imagine these posts, or did they really disappear? Is it a known problem?
I posted an item to the Security guards thread in IMHO, quoting another Doper in the process. The post I quoted from is there, but not my post!
Also, I just got one of those “Database Problem” screens show up…
Is there no friendly moderator/administrator who wants to put my mind at ease, alternatively declare me insane?
Maybe the dissapearing posts are troll-posts?
::Thwapping Priceguy over the head::
Read the Announcements every now and then, hmmmmm?
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/announcement.php?s=&forumid=2
When we discover a troll, we ban the name and remove all the posts we can. If the board is slow, we might not be able to remove all the posts at once, but we’ll try to get around to it.
Well, now I’m on the brink of insanity, because when I click on the links you shared, Priceguy , I see posts written from you!? 
Curiouser and curiouser!
:smack: I am soooo certain my mistrakes are adding up!
Ow! That hurt!
OK, I suppose the guy chiding Dex might be considered a troll. But Zenster talking about food in his own food thread? I guess that was a one-time glitch and I only reacted to it because another post disappeared at roughly the same time.
Sorry to bother you, Lynn. Please don’t hit me again. Get well.
It’s just a wonky piece of software. I remember reading about this issue on here before - posts just not showing up for whatever reason. They were not all “bad” posts.
I think the SDMB has a poltergeist.
Lynn,
There is something going on. The “cooking fish” thread in IMHO had three of my posts selectively deleted from it. The “mashed po-fucking-tatoes” thread in your Pit had a recipe post of mine deleted from it. Search under Osip in IMHO to see about his peach salsa thread that was completely deleted after several people (including myself) posted to it.
Rarely is it a short post of mine that goes missing. It is most often the lengthy ones, taking over an hour to compose that get shot into the void. Something is going on.
Best Wishes,
Zenster
Dan, it’s NOT wonky software. I watch Zenster’s posts, as I am now addicted to his recipes. I was even thinking of that peach salsa with Mahi Mahi, dammit.
This is three recipes in a row, and aside from the title of mashed po-f***ing-tatoes, there was nothing offensive about any of them. But, in all fairness, it was a pit thread.
And I went to the announcement referenced previously in this thread by Lynn and there’s nothing there.
And for the record, I do not consider Zenster a troll, and I too am curious what’s happening to his posts.
Thanks
Q
And I seem to have become addicted to the word “and” for some reason! 
Q
Well… couldn’t it be wonky software that’s programmed to eliminate posts by Zenster that contain recipes? Shouldn’t be too tough.
I don’t know. But it’s specifically his posts in 3 different forums over the space of a week or so…would it target Zenster specifically, or anyone who writes longer than usual posts? That’s not taking into account that being out here in the wilds of Silicon Valley, he just doesn’t have competent software on his end.
Maybe that’s it - are the disappearing posts inordinately long?
dantheman, it also happens to my short posts too, just not as often. Plus, I see the posts list into the thread. I can come back once or twice to make sure they “stuck.” Then I’ll return later in the evening and find that they are gone. I could understand if it was always the “trailing edge” post that disappeared from a thread. The last post not “sticking” wouldn’t surprise me too much.
Last night, three of my recipe posts from the “Cooking Fish” thread in IMHO were deleted from within the body of the thread. They were surrounded by all sorts of other posts (including ones commenting on my replies), yet somehow none of those replies got nailed. Just this morning, I reposted my main reply and one of my other recipes. Again, I saw them enter into the body of the thread. When I came back to post my final recipe, the first two were already gone. I cannot imagine how a server glitch is removing replies from within the body of a thread. One would think there would be damage to other posts within that thread as well. The three earlier replies in the “Cooking Fish” thread were not contiguous either. There were other interposing posts among them.
This is as strange as a snake’s suspenders.
For an example of a short post being deleted, I direct your attention to the “Toilet Paper Roll” poll over in IMHO. I sent in a brief reply about how hanging the roll with top over the front delivery prevents fecal matter from be transfered between occupants of the bathroom. When the thread was moved (per the OP’s request) from Cafe Society into IMHO, only my post disappeared, not any of the others. You can see a reply that refers to my “fecal matter” comment. My post is nowhere to be seen. It was all of one paragraph long.
[Elmer Fudd]
There’s something awwfwy scwoooowy going on awound here!
[/Elmer Fudd]
Since my Board just broke 100,000 posts, I was doing some statistics generation lately.
I’ve found that missing posts and threads do happen, even at off-times, as a result of incomplete submissions, Net interruptions, and even “causes unknown”. Often, these end up in the “Moderator Queue”, which can be accessed from either the Moderator’s Control Panel or the Admin Control Panel. I just found three entire threads in there, with one post each, this morning. The posts are not typically very long - or, that is, size does not seem to matter. So some could be hiding in there.
I’ve also noticed that when I re-index the post, thread, and forum-count numbers, the number always gets knocked downwards by some. No idea why, but one time it was as much as about 50 posts out of 95,000 or so.
Also, yesterday I noticed that 8 posts seemingly vanished, but no one knows whose, as no one has reported them missing. So, to back up dantheman, the software, combined with the dynamics of the Net, is indeed quirky.
Not sure what’s going on here. I do note demand has been unusually high lately, and when that happens, trouble usually follows.
I’ll kick this up to the techs, but as intermittent problems are the worst ones to try to troubleshoot, no promise as to what we’ll be able to find out here.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator