Gandhi90s

I've noticed over the last two weeks that posts have been disappearing mysteriously. This seems to have nothing to do with moderation or TOS violations.

For example, a post that I read, quoted and responded to is now gone. See:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...8&postcount=26

I've also been noticing quotes which, when I try to follow the quote link, do not lead to the source post. As in the above example, the quoted portions, at least, do not appear to contain anything objectionable or controversial that might have caused the source post to be deleted.

Also, a few days ago, there was a thread in the AA forum entitled someting like "How many EXP?" to which I responded. That thread seems to have disappeared as well. While it may have been merged, I can't locate it.

Has anyone else noticed this?

goalie

posts (and threads for that matter) can be deleted by a mod for any reason-not just a tos violation. it could be that the post(s) in question (and no offense meant ) could be leaning to opening a "pandora's box" and it was nipped in the bud (i've had that happen to some of mine)

it could also be the the original poster has chosen to delete their post(s) (a lot of that happening now that omni is open to the public) tho i don't know how that affects subsequent quoted posts

as to post counts, i have learned that if a thread is moved to omni, all who posted in that particular thread will have their post count go down by the corresponding number of posts in the "moved thread"

kipper

I believe, based on the discussion here, even if you delete your post, if it has been quoted in another post, it will appear in that post.

Gandhi90s

None of which applies to the post I was referring to. Did you click on the link I provided and then click on the link to the quoted post?

Cholula

The post that you were referring to above, in an OMNI/PR thread, was deleted by the OP just minutes before you posted.

For whatever reason, he must have decided to retract that statement.

goalie

interesting-thanks for the heads up

yes i did and yes i did. i was simply offering thoughts/ideas/suggestions as to what might (n.b. might) have happened (which btw, the second item i mentioned was in fact what did happen as mentioned by Cholula below

Gandhi90s

I thought only mods could delete a post once it had been submitted. That doesn't usually happen instantly. That is what confused me.

When I make a duplicate post (or one that I want to delete for whatever reason), I've always thought that my only remedy is to edit the post and replace the text with "Deleted" or something similar. Am I wrong? Just curious.

Cholula

You can also delete your own post and then it disappears to everybody but moderators of that forum. Or maybe the OP can see it as well. You don't have to replace your text with anything.

Try it in a new post in this thread.

Gandhi90s

Learned something new today!

SkeptiCallie

In OMNI a person can delete his or her post. It is advisable to replace the text first with null text. This will prevent the first line of the deleted text showing up in an OMNI search forever, adjacent to a garbage can icon.

I have tried deleting posts in non-OMNI forums. That also has not worked well. I have found that one could delete and replace text but not the posts themselves. So per Cholula's post, I am going to test it again, in this column. If this post disappears, then Cholula's advice has worked, for this forum at least, and I will go to other forums and test there.

See you on the other side, people!

__________________________________________________ ________________________

(ETA: A second or two after saving text above) Test finished: I could delete the above text if I chose, but there are no screen options that say "delete posts." I know that in other non-OMNI forums I have not been able to delete the posts themselves.

???????

__________________________________________________ __________________________

Second try: I logged out, waited a few seconds, logged back in. This was so that the "last edited" line will show up below. Still no way. Will try some of the various icons in the top screen line. I can't find any way to delete this post. I can delete and replace text but, as in the past, cannot delete the non-OMNI post itself. How is this done, Cholula?

oklAAhoma

OK. I give. How do I delete this? I see the same ol' options listed, none of which is "delete post".

SkeptiCallie

Cholula, did you mean to say that one could delete the contents of the post? That would seem to make more sense than to say that one could delete the post itself. SFAIK, one cannot delete the post itself in a non-OMNI thread--though you are the expert in this matter, and I am just asking.

If deleting contents of a post (as opposed to deleting the post) is what you meant to say, then your comment that one does not have to replace the deleted text with null text might make sense. I am reading your post literally and not understanding it.

Again, for any newbie reading this, the rules are different for OMNI in post deletion. In those, even though OMNI posts can more or less be deleted, one had better delete text and replace it with null text first.

(So long as I am posting anyway, have been wanting to ask: Is FT working on repairing the vBulletin flaw that makes deleted OMNI posts continue to be displayed in an FT search? The flaw has evidently been known to exist for months? TIA for answering.)

ETA: I just remembered, in the above scenario of deleting text in a non-OMNI post and saving the deletion, it is not possible to save a deletion unless there are at least a few characters to save, hence the logic of typing in some null text. So I'm still not understanding any of this.

Mrs Cholula

xxxxx

Cholula

OK, I'll leave this to the experts as I had Mrs. Cholula post here and in an OMNI thread, delete the verbiage and enter null characters.

But in both cases the posts still show...you just can't read anything.

The post that was referred to in the first post of this thread was physically deleted by a member who is not a moderator. How that happened I don't know.

planeluvr

The post was in OMNi and a poster can delete his own post but in all the other forums this is not possible.