Currently, we are unable to search for anything on TubaDiva because Discourse doesn’t recognize her name as legitimate.
After all the years and work she put in here, especially in getting moved to this new board, it seems totally wrong that her name has disappeared like she never existed.
I assume it was a mistake, since I can access the profiles of @xash and @Marley23, the only former admins I can think of. Not to mention all the former mods that I can still access, whether they still post here or not.
Can you explain why and for what reasons? Why not just change her status back to poster? Because that’s one heck of a design flaw if it’s true. So once you are an admin, you could never go back to just being a poster? You would have to change your name and lose your entire posting history, starting at zero posts?
What is it that a poster can do by looking at Tuba’s profile? It doesn’t give anyone access her admin powers. All it shows is posting history.
Are you the one that intentionally deactivated her account? Because if not, I’d rather hear from Ed, that’s why I addressed the question to him.
For some reason, Ed chooses not to reply to a PM from me. Not even for a simple yes or no answer on something. That’s why I posted to him here. I really don’t see why this is top secret info. It’s not like I asked what her password was, I just want to know what the supposed security problem is.
What difference does that make? Ed’s been admin under both and I can read his profile. Why is being able to read his profile less of a risk than reading TubaDiva’s?
The rest of the various mods have some admin privileges, but she had “god mode” control over the entire board.
It makes sense to disable that account, else if anyone got control of her account they would be “god”, and who knows if they would be old testament or new testament.
And I guarantee you would not. Since Discourse doesn’t see TubaDiva as a legit user name, all you can search for are posts where someone mentioned her name. I’m not really interested in poring over tens of thousands of posts by users that mentioned her name in threads she didn’t participate in. Unless you have a way to narrow that down that I’m not aware of?
As far as I know, Ed has all her powers and I can see his profile and the posts he’s made over the last 20 years. Why is Tuba’s profile a super security risk that needs to be wiped from the boards memory, but Ed’s is a big yawn and of no security concern whatsoever?
And sorry, I just can’t understand why something unchangeable is built into the board software that doesn’t allow an admin to quit and go back to being a mod or poster without giving up their user name and history. I can’t see any point to attaching unremovable admin powers to a user name.
@engineer_comp_geek , you been doing some admin functions for a while, name changes and merging accounts, stuff that Tuba used to do as admin. Does this mean if you quit tomorrow your profile would be wiped from board history too?
I don’t think that Ed regularly reads the boards so it’s unlikely that he’s seen your request.
Changing her status back to regular member would make sense but it’s unlikely that any of the current Mods have the power or authorization to do so. Ed probably could but even if he was aware of your request, I doubt that he’d be so inclined.
But if I’m understanding correctly, her posts weren’t disappeared for privacy reason, her account was disabled to make absolutely sure a bad actor can’t hack into the admin account and effectively take over the board and hold it hostage.
I’m surprised we still haven’t transferred full admin powers to someone else, even as a semi-permanent/long-term temporary, but still technically “interim admin”. Wouldn’t that have the added benefit of turning her account back into that of a regular member?
If discourse is set up such that once a user is an admin, they can’t be downgraded, I’d be curious if there was any way to restore her posts. Can her username be banned so the posts would still be available but her privileges revoked?
I suppose at least, if this is the case, we now know that whoever eventually takes over admin duties should set up a separate account just for that. That way they don’t risk losing their entire posting history if/when they step down.
But she was still a pretty prolific poster and people may still want to revisit her old posts.
You can still google her username and come up with threads she’s posted to. You can’t access her profile, but her posts still exist. Here’s a random one that showed up when I used google to search for her name.
Why not? She was the face and voice of this board for 20 years. I think that’s a good reason not to get rid of her account. I can give you more if you want. If you are not interested, no problem. I am interested, that’s why I started this thread.
I think it’s more accurate to say he doesn’t read them at all unless the mods bring a problem to him.
I know the mods can’t do anything, that’s why I addressed the question to @Ed_Zotti . I’m sure Ed could ask somebody to fix it, but as you said, I don’t think he would be so inclined.
Have they said that is the security problem? All I’ve ever seen is it was disappeared for “security reasons”, no specifics. And no reason why Ed’s account apparently has bulletproof security.
We’ve been told repeatedly that Ed is the Admin. Full stop. He’s in charge of the whole shebang. AFAIK, there’s been no mention of anyone else coming in, although @engineer_comp_geek has/had some admin powers. He’s also the only one I’ve seen since Tuba that has actually done any tech admin stuff. I may be mistaken, but I don’t think Ed does any technical stuff.
I’m baffled by this once an admin always an admin thing. If a mod can be downgraded, why can’t an admin? What would even be the reasoning behind this setup? I think even doing the banned thing you mention would be better than the situation now. Just put “RIP Jenny” or something similar next to her name instead of banned, sock or whatever. I know you would still see “suspended” once you got to her profile, but at least you could get into it.
You would have thought that a software thing that would effect every admin on every Discourse board would have been spelled out clear and early. It could lead to some amusing semi-sock names popping up since you wouldn’t want an anonymous admin. Poster Bob’s Your Uncle could also be Bob’s Your Admin.
Absolutely. As I said, she was the face of the board for twenty years. If you had a problem, you went to Tuba.
Sure, but it also brings up a lot of threads that she didn’t post in at all, just someone mentioning her name. Having access to her profile weeds out a bunch of posts that she had nothing to do with. I wouldn’t be surprised if you would turn up 500+ posts with her name that are from after she died.
Well, either someone did something or this was a non-issue to begin with. I just did a search on TubaDiva. Yeah, the first 30 or so were mentions of her, not her posts. Then you start seeing her posts interspersed. If you search on @TubaDiva, you get only her posts. It’s there; nothing for a moderator or an admin to do.
Not like you can from a profile. If you know a way to do it where I can filter her topics from all her posts, I’d like to hear how it’s done. That would help a bit.
Sure there is. Make her profile available just like everyone else on the board, including the current admin. Making people jump thru extra hoops because of some kind of security thing that only exists for Tuba’s account is ridiculous.
Even if I never wanted to look at her profile, the fact that it’s been disappeared, and for some reason the person who did it isn’t willing to explain, is bad enough itself. She’s probably the most recognized name of all time on the board and a great influence. Without her we’d probably still be clanking along on a falling apart version of vBulletin. Above all, she was actually accessible to posters and was more than willing to explain things to anyone that asked. And she managed to do it for 20 years without spilling top secret knowledge that would bring the board down while explaining, or having it hacked by nameless security threats.
No longer needed admin accounts being deactivated is pretty standard security. So, yes, extra hoops to access pretty minor functionality isn’t ridiculous or unwarranted.
Except it’s not SDMB policy. I’ve already pointed out that I can access any admin I remember in the last 20+ years, except for Tuba’s. Why the need to disappear her profile rather than change her status from admin to poster of some sort? And, again, if profiles are so hackable at admin level, why is Ed’s viewable to everyone?
No, “security” isn’t a explanation. An explanation would be something like" we found her account was compromised" or “something in the old admin profiles had a flaw and we weren’t able to update her profile.”
I’m sure all that @engineer_comp_geek was told was “security”, I don’t think he’s lying about that, or would lie about that. Quite frankly, I don’t think Ed includes the mods in any of his decisions, thus you don’t know anything but what he chooses to tell you. That leaves you in the middle just having to repeat whatever answer he gave to you. That seems to be his admin style. BTW, were you made aware that access to Tuba’s profile was removed when it happened? Or did you just find out now?
I do think that if the admins were reversed and Ed’s profile was disappeared. TubaDiva would happily explain what the problem was, either privately or publicly. She had no problem explaining things without endangering board security.
Discourse also has profiles that are intended to make things easier than having to do multiple searches for posts. That’s the whole point of the profiles, it brings all posting info into one place, not to mention all the other info they contain. And I already explained above that even if I never wanted to read a single Tuba post again, it’s still wrong to erase her profile and have Discourse label her name as invalid. She deserves better.