Zombies wake up to delete zombies, which wakes them. Huh?

[DMC]

I’ve noticed a few old posts that suddenly jumped to the top of FQ for no reason and after a bit of digging, realized that they were bumped because the second post in each was deleted. Stranger still, the message is replaced with “(post deleted by author)”, yet neither author has posted in years. One of the deleted posts was visible in the Internet Archive and seems perfectly innocuous.

So zombie posters are deleting zombie posts which bumps said zombie threads. Is that intentional and is it really the users doing the deleting?

Examples:

Order of Color Word Appearance

In one of Cecil’s columns ( http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_168b.html ) there is a discussion about the order of color words appearing in a language. The classical Greeks are said to have only had words for four colors: black, white, red, and yellow. I don’t read Greek, but I have read translations of the Homeric sagas, and I clearly remember that the goddess Athene was often described as gray-eyed. But as gray isn’t supposed to come up until the seventh color, at the earliest, this s…

What's this kind of multiple scatter plot called?

What’s this called? An array of graphs to visualize relationships between all pairs of a list of variables. The same list of variables appears on the left and bottom edges, and if the list gives five variables, there would be twenty five little graphs tiling the whole space. Graphs on the diagonal are all trivial straight lines, but the rest of the graphs get more or less interesting. Thanks!!

[What_Exit]

@engineer_comp_geek
This is very weird and probably a setting is also incorrect.
It appears ddunn801 has suddenly returned and deleted an old post in one example you provided.

Same with typhoon.

I don’t believe they should have the ability to delete an old post.
It gets weirder, typhoon is deleting a post a day for the past 3 months.

I sent a report to ECG & Ed.

Have you seen any others like these from any other users?

[GreysonCarlisle]

Did a test to make sure it works on this board, and you can delete your own posts at any time. There is a time limit on how many you can delete.

You also have to wait 24 hours to restore a deleted post here, so I haven’t verified that works yet.

[Jasmine]

I don’t understand. I’m a paid member, so I have a few privileges. One of them is deleting/editing a post within a fairly short period of time (5 or 10 minutes?). As far as I know, I can’t do anything else in that regard and only a moderator with enhanced privileges has that power. That makes me think it can’t be the original posters. That begs the questions, who and why? What would be the purpose?

[GreysonCarlisle]

@Jasmine

I don’t understand. I’m a paid member, so I have a few privileges. One of them is deleting/editing a post within a fairly short period of time (5 or 10 minutes?).

Anybody can do those things.

As far as I know, I can’t do anything else in that regard and only a moderator with enhanced privileges has that power. That makes me think it can’t be the original posters. That begs the questions, who and why? What would be the purpose?

It’s the actual posters doing it. As to why, I couldn’t begin to tell you.

Hey, @typhoon! What’s up?

[kayaker]

@What_Exit

typhoon is deleting a post a day for the past 3 months.

Effectively deleting his account which I thought was not possible.

[What_Exit]

We’re working on undoing and closing the hole in the system.

[Senegoid]

Your post has been deleted by the deletist!

[Snowboarder_Bo]

I just edited a post of mine 9 minutes after I initially posted.

Post #15 in the Expanse S6 thread:

The Expanse Season 6 episode discussion (spoilers as they air)

Oh, and I thought it was amazing that Naomi threatened Amos and Amos backed down. I mean, sure, you could argue that he only backed down to keep from killing Naomi, but even that is a helluva thing for Naomi to tempt and shows how far Amos has come. I thought this brief scene really showed how familiar they’ve become to each other while acknowledging that the dynamics of their relationships have and are continuing to change. This was, to me, the overarching theme of the episode.

[engineer_comp_geek]

@Snowboarder_Bo

I just edited a post of mine 9 minutes after I initially posted.

The edit window was extended a while back. I don’t remember exactly what it is currently set to but it’s longer than the 5 minutes that we used to have.

You are supposed to be able to delete your posts within approximately the same time frame. After that, you are not supposed to be able to delete your own posts.

[What_Exit]

That is allowed and I think it might be set to 15 minutes.

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These are posts from 2003 & 2004 being deleted, 1 per day.

[GreysonCarlisle]

@engineer_comp_geek

You are supposed to be able to delete your posts within approximately the same time frame. After that, you are not supposed to be able to delete your own posts.

I’m not sure that’s possible. IIRC (and if some newer update hasn’t changed things), the time limit for edits doesn’t apply to deletions. Best you can do is set the max number of deletions to 1 per day, which seems to already be the case.

[What_Exit]

Well I think that is a problem if accurate.
I suppose we can get in the habit of checking the deletion reports for old threads and revert them.
We can make an explicit rule telling posters not to delete old posts. But we shouldn’t need to. But ECG is looking into this.

[engineer_comp_geek]

Users deleting their own posts should now be disabled, just as it was back in the vBulletin days.

Users can edit their post to say “nm” or “nevermind” or something similar within the edit window, which is currently set to 15 minutes. If you edit a post in this manner and still want it deleted, report the post and a friendly moderator will remove it. After the edit window has closed, posts will not be deleted.

[edit - Clarification:,As long as you edit the post to say “nevermind” or some variation of that within the edit window, we will remove the post even if you report it afterwards outside of the edit window. What I am trying to say is that if you don’t edit the post within the 15 minute edit window, we won’t delete it afterwards. I hope this is clear.]

If someone (who is not a mod or admin) could test this to make sure it is working correctly, we would appreciate it.

[kayaker]

I just attempted to delete my post (#6) in this thread and could not do it.

ETA: I could still edit a minute later.

ETA: and again after another minute went by.

[GreysonCarlisle]

@engineer_comp_geek

If someone (who is not a mod or admin) could test this to make sure it is working correctly, we would appreciate it.

@kayaker

I just attempted to delete my post (#6) in this thread and could not do it.

And my restore button is now gone for the post I deleted earlier. The fix seems to be working.

Thanks!

[What_Exit]

Thank you both for testing. It helps and is appreciated.

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I glad all of those restores didn’t bump the threads back to the top of latest. It would have been a flood of about 80 threads.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Great job, everyone! Thank you!

ETA: Especially like ecg’s post above clarifying all the time constraints, eh.

[Mama_Zappa]

Were all the deleted posts by the same two users?

Are any of those users’ posts still visible?

[Atamasama]

@Senegoid

Your post has been deleted by the deletist!

(I don’t think we have the Discourse text color change plugin though, which might be for the best.)