# What happened to this thread?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-this-thread/205414>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [October 3, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-this-thread/205414 "2003-10-03T19:44:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-this-thread/205414/1 "2003-10-03T19:44:32Z")

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Paco romano posted a bizarre thread in GQ called “Do all novels have chapters?” and a number of us were trying to figure out what he was getting at. But now it has vanished.

Is it a hamster thing, or did some moderator kill it. If the latter, why?

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**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-this-thread/205414/2 "2003-10-03T19:52:37Z")

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It was removed. Paco is a sock puppet. Our policy concerning sock puppets dictated the thread be removed.

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-this-thread/205414/3 "2003-10-03T20:21:14Z")

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Ah. I suspected as much. So he was trolling with a bizarre question to get earnest answers from unsuspecting Dopers like Exapno and myself who couldn’t believe anyone would ask such a stupid question.

One must not have much of a life to be wasting time with stupid games like that.

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-this-thread/205414/4 "2003-10-09T22:37:55Z")

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The problem is that a sock puppet can ask a reasonable question, or post a very interesting or thoughtful comment, and it’s gonna (usually) get deleted anyway.

The rule is, no socks. That means no socks. Whether the sock is posting something inherently trollish or profoundly moving or intellectually stimulating doesn’t matter. It’s gonna go.