When ES members leave and delete posts

DanGT86

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Did Craigsj quit the forum? All of the posts are gone. That is a big loss. If he got mad and left I wish the posts were still there.
 
In PHPBB, members can't delete all their own posts, much less their profiles, so since even his profile is gone, AFAIUI it means an admin (not just a mod, or at least it'd have to be a mod with some admin powers) actually deleted his whole membership completely in the ACP.

But I'd say that whoever did it, for whatever reason, the increasing information loss to the forum is serious. (as is the loss of posts from some other members who no longer exist in the memberlist). Kinda makes me afraid for the forum's information content if this keeps happening.

I can't imagine it was because of stuff in this thread, because Ripperton is still here, and so is his name-calling/etc. that wasn't any different from Craigsj's. (And IIRC Ripperton started it, though I was trying to ignore all that stuff and just keep track of the thread's ontopic stuff)). Craigsj could have asked to have it all deleted, but I don't understand why he would.

However, that's neither here nor there, as what's done is done, and unless someone has a backup of the posts, or there is a backup of the forum that has them, they're gone, as far as I understand how PHPBB works.
 
Surely you guys got backup? I mean this thread is like three weeks old, there has to be one or more backups during that time?
I mean afar from plain static sites any dynamic database driven site got backup, usually some basic sort of backup is included in the hosting plan from your webhost. You can start there, check with webhost if they got a recent backup. If you don't have any backup from your host, surely admin have set up nightly or at least weekly backup. And restore posts from that backup.
 
Craigsj's PM to me still exists in its entirety but the name is gone and replaced with a notice that the user is no longer registered. This would lead me to believe that all of his content is not gone. If it is just this one thread that would be strange. I would think anybody willing to contribute that much calculation and analysis wouldn't take it from us out of frustration.

This is pure speculation on my part but I got the impression Craigsj was involved in designing frames professionally. Maybe his employer wasn't cool with the volunteer engineering going on here publicly.

This thread makes way less sense with all those posts missing.

Who moderates this section of the forum?
 
I don't even think a regular mod got enough access credential to delete users. This is normally an admin task.
So who is the admin of the forum, he should know if requests was made to delete user account. He he is not familiar with such requests well, then it got to be one of the weird quirks of this old forum and backup is the only thing that will correct things.

What is the latest data put into the forum test database? If data is new enough then there is a carbon copy of a fully working forum including craigsj's data. Export-import should make that task easy?
 
Something else has to be at play here...to get mad and delete a profile over some random dudes post is a little extreme. It's the internet, and it's nothing new.

Hope he wasn't Seth Rich'd! :shock:
 
DanGT86 said:
I got the impression Craigsj was involved in designing frames professionally.
Maybe his employer wasn't cool with the volunteer engineering going on here publicly.

He definitely had that " smartest guy in the room " stance. Wouldnt listen
to any one elses input...specially someone from another forum. I probably came across as some smartass off the street.
Seemed young too and way too headstrong. This could be one of those hard knock instances for him, hope he rolls with it.
 
Craigsj had edited all of his posts and replaced all content, with just a "---" .
He then PM'd me and asked me to remove his account. Since there was no content left in any of his posts, I deleted those too.

I got no explanation, but if somebody asks me to delete their account and there is no content, I will comply.

In the past, I've had people make these kinds of requests when there were intellectual properly issues involved. You can't patent something that is already publicly posted.

Patents are really such a waste of time these days. I have at least 9 of them but they haven't done me any good. Expensive as hell to have a lawyer do them too.
 
fechter said:
Patents are really such a waste of time these days. I have at least 9 of them but they haven't done me any good. Expensive as hell to have a lawyer do them too.

Yeah, and as you say the boards like ES are driving that. But I could see where I wouldn't want old posts resurfacing if I let myself get sucked into whatever argument in a big way. Especially with a few communities where I'd post in my own name.

RIPPERTON said:
amberwolf said:
And IIRC Ripperton started it.

Post reported to admin.

That better have been a joke.
 
fechter said:
Craigsj had edited all of his posts and replaced all content, with just a "---" .
He then PM'd me and asked me to remove his account. Since there was no content left in any of his posts, I deleted those too.

I got no explanation, but if somebody asks me to delete their account and there is no content, I will comply.

In the past, I've had people make these kinds of requests when there were intellectual properly issues involved. You can't patent something that is already publicly posted.

Patents are really such a waste of time these days. I have at least 9 of them but they haven't done me any good. Expensive as hell to have a lawyer do them too.

Thanks fechter. That at least solves the mystery of if whether he went willingly or not. I found it particularly concerning when I thought he might have been banned for what seemed like a minor argument.

Hopefully you are correct about the intellectual property rights and he'll be back in a few months to sell us a bike frame. :D
 
m4k3r said:
Dauntless said:
RIPPERTON said:
Post reported to admin.

That better have been a joke.

I laughed, we must have a similar sense of humor :lol:

That's been the thing, when I first got online people started telling me there's a big difference between getting the joke in person among friends and just reading it from a stranger online. Yeah, I go look at stuff after a few years and it gets easier to see the sense of timing is different. But you also have to wonder when the other guy is exploding that too can just be a joke.

The real question is, are some of these absolutely insane people who are ripping into others thinking it's taken as a joke and the response is just playing along when in fact the other is really angry? That one there, that BETTER have been a joke.
 
macribs said:
neptronix is running a test version of the new forum software. So he must have a database backup, as his test forum does affect this forum. Check with him if all other options fails.

If you find out there is a lack of backups, you guys need to address backup situation and run frequent backup. It just makes life easier for everyone.

Restoring deleted posts is extremely hard to do in this system. Many hours of work by hand.. i spent half an hour restoring 2 lost threads last week.

Upside: phpbb3.2 keeps deleted content around but marks it as deleted. Way easier to deal with.

I'm still waiting on feedback for phpbb3.2 at this point btw.
 
Dauntless said:
That's been the thing, when I first got online people started telling me there's a big difference between getting the joke in person among friends and just reading it from a stranger online.

That's because i think 60% of a conversation is body language, 20% tone of voice and 20% is what is actually said. When conversating online people are missing about 80% of the conversation. That's just my uneducated guess!
 
Dauntless said:
That better have been a joke.

No it wasnt a joke, I did report the post because it was wildly inaccurate and it victimised me.
I should have started reporting vitriolic posts as soon as they started ie NutSpecial saying "I think you might be full of it" on page 1
You dont insult someone just because you dont understand what they are saying.
Reporting posts to admin as soon as they appear is the best way to keep threads stable and civilised.
The way this thread went mad caught me off guard because I havnt been in this situation for years and forgot about how to handle it.
In future, whenever Im in here Im going to keep my cursor hovering over that little red exclamation mark.
Funny I dont have to keep my guard up over on DIY.
 
RIPPERTON said:
victimised me.

Reported.

lol, sorry no safe spaces on the interwebz my man. but seriously, nutSpecial said you might be full of it followed by a laughing emoji face indicating he's goofing around. try not to take everything so personally. Life is too short bruh..
 
I got to say the temperature rise in that thread caught me off guard as well even if I didn't participate. ES is for the most part a very friendly and civilized forum. I've spend a few hours here the years and it is rare to see things escalate like it did.

I think Ripperton you can safely post in this forum without fear of getting slammed. And if you find people are being harsh it could be posted as joke or just plain horsing around with no foul intended. I get it you didn't feel comments was rectified. All I can add is to try to be thick skinned or do as I try to do, count to ten :) It does not always work, and I too have posted harsh comments on this board in a heated moment. But I do hope people see more then one thread before the hammer falls.
 
RIPPERTON said:
Dauntless said:
That better have been a joke.
I should have started reporting vitriolic posts as soon as they started ie NutSpecial saying "I think you might be full of it" on page 1
You dont insult someone just because you dont understand what they are saying.

The problem is, in real life it doesn't take much of anything for some people to start flinging them. I'm a freelancer, when I see a boss that's free with it, I then see a workplace that's free with it. On my first day I might already be asking myself just how bad I need this 6 week gig, or to be called in for the occasional 2-3 days, etc. Unfortunately I ususally did need the job bad enough. But since those people only do it because they are intellectually and morally inferior, I realize I'll be promoting right out of there, so no need to stand my ground on ground I don't want to hold anyway. You won't make it in TV/Film if you're thin skinned. But theh funny thing is, for there being so many incredibly thin skinned kids these days, there's also those who've had to put up with them and come out of school trying to make sure everyone knows THEY won't be pissy.

But you care about someone like that saying you're full of it? Good lord, do you know what substandard IQ around here keeps calling the kettle black pretending I'm somehow full of it? They say that because they're afraid they'll go unnoticed.

m4k3r said:
That's because i think 60% of a conversation is body language, 20% tone of voice and 20% is what is actually said. When conversating online people are missing about 80% of the conversation. That's just my uneducated guess!

I think what's more important is a matter of the rythm and timing are way off. Laughter is an emotional reaction, by the time they see your followup online the emotion has changed and they just don't take it the same. Unless you figure out how to put the right spin on it.
 
The written word is 100% interpreted in the reader's mind, so I learned to stop even attempting to joke around on the forum years ago, especially since I'm too sarcastic.

Back to the topic, the nearly blank posts shouldn't have been deleted as the content would have still been viewable (viewable isn't a word???...this software has the worst spell-checker ever) by looking at the edits. I really wanted to go back and fully review some of that content at a later date to gain a full understanding.
 
John in CR said:
Back to the topic, the nearly blank posts shouldn't have been deleted as the content would have still been viewable (viewable isn't a word???...this software has the worst spell-checker ever) by looking at the edits. I really wanted to go back and fully review some of that content at a later date to gain a full understanding.

Yeah, thats what I was thinking too. Even if he didnt want to participate anymore there was tons of good math and formulas there i was going to revisit. Its rare to find someone who will provide such in depth analysis on the spot and show the math.

In this case it was his wish to have the posts deleted so I guess that becomes a discussion about ownership of our content.
 
fechter said:
Craigsj had edited all of his posts and replaced all content, with just a "---" .
He then PM'd me and asked me to remove his account. Since there was no content left in any of his posts, I deleted those too.

I got no explanation, but if somebody asks me to delete their account and there is no content, I will comply.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought the whole reason we added Post History feature was because a member named Nuts&Volts went on a similar self-deletion rampage, removing important content he'd contributed to threads, so that if members did this, stuff could be recovered.

Assisting them by removing even the history defeats the point of having that feature. :(
 
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