Do the post numbers after it change or remain the same?
Let’s say you have a thread with 10 posts, post number 3 is racial spam from a sock puppet and the mod decides to just delete it all together. Is post number 4 still post number 4 or is it now post number 3?
Yes, the numbers change.
That answered, we rarely - very rarely - hard-delete posts. We normally soft-delete, which leaves a message, or wish them into the cornfield.
It’s possible to do that on individual posts? I thought that that only worked on threads.
Wishing an individual post to the cornfield also results in renumbering. As a test, I wished away Frank’s first post in this thread (sorry man, this is science). The result: One lonely post in the cornfield; new post in line gets vanished post’s number.
So I link to a specific post and another post ahead of it gets deleted, when someone clicks on my link, they’ll get a different post, right?
Ah. No, that number stays the same. It renumbers the thread, but the post id is unique and fixed.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9179526&postcount=7
but doesn’t this type of link depend on the post number?
Good question. It does show the post id as well as the count.
Let’s find out.
My post above: [link removed]
ETA: Invalid post specified. So it’s looking at the id and not the count.
Again ETA: Then I deleted my post #3 (I think it was) and the link took me to the correct post. So it’s definitely looking at the id.
not only that, but if you follow the link on my previous post, although your post is now #6, when you are seeing the individual post, it appears as #7.
What if we change that last number in the URL to something else entirely?
OK, it looks like all of those links will show the post, and if there’s a number given on the end, it’ll display that number, no matter what it is. With nothing in that last part of the URL, or a non-number, the link isn’t there.
Could you tell me why at least two non-offensive posts were deleted from this thread?
They were subsequent to #17, I think.
Just curious.
In general, when an otherwise innocuous post disappears, you may safely assume it was from a sock.
Yeah, but check this out: There are limits
Or, you can assume I was on crack and popped open the wrong damned thread looking for said posts! False alarm, my bad…
I think this has been asked and answered.
Gfactor
General Questions Moderator