# Total posts v. Post ID

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-posts-v-post-id/33318>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [September 15, 2000, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-posts-v-post-id/33318 "2000-09-15T16:47:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-posts-v-post-id/33318/1 "2000-09-15T16:47:28Z")

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OK, here’s the post with Post ID 737,000, posted about a half hour ago:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=737000#post737000](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=737000#post737000)

Yet the SDMB main page, when I logged in about 15 minutes ago, said:

> [@](#):
>
> 34697 threads in total | 656805 posts in total

Where’d the difference (about 80,000) come from?

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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:** [September 15, 2000, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-posts-v-post-id/33318/2 "2000-09-15T16:54:10Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RTFirefly \*  
> Where’d the difference (about 80,000) come from?

Or should that be, where did the difference **go to**?

I can postulate several theories -  
[ul]  
[li]Post ids did not necessarily start at 1 and increment by 1[/li][li]When we changed from uBB to vBulletin, the first post with vBulletin did not necessarily have a postid immediately following the postid for the last post under uBB[/li][li]deleted threads, archived threads[/li][/ul]  
I’m betting on a combination of all three. I think for a better scientific theory we need to know the list of postids that are missing. RTFirefly, why don’t you start looking up each post, starting at 1, and tell us which ones are MIA.

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**Author:** ![barflyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@barflyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barflyer)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-posts-v-post-id/33318/3 "2000-09-15T16:56:23Z")

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This was covered before. The numbers don’t line because…um now it gets fuzzy. The Grand Conversion we always hear about? Maybe someone else remembers the thread explaining it?

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**Author:** ![ren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@ren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ren)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-posts-v-post-id/33318/4 "2000-09-15T17:38:22Z")

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I seem to recall Jerry the tech guy explaining that there were extra posts in the vB database after conversion from UBB. These posts were supposedly from aborted conversion attempts and were just sort of orphans sitting around. I also recall that they were cleaned out on a subsequent maintenance pass, but apparently the numbering remains off.

For one who remembers all this in such detail, you’d think I could post the link to where he said it, but I can’t seem to find it. ::Sigh::

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-posts-v-post-id/33318/5 "2000-09-15T23:20:20Z")

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Thanks, ren, Arnold, barflyer. It didn’t surprise me, somehow, that it has _something_ to do with the UBB → vB conversion.

And btw, **ren** , have I mentioned your sig line is one of my favorites? Consider it mentioned. 🙂