The Lemon Fool

I think I see this now and again. Just now I can see a notification for me saying:

"Reply from ap8889 in topic"
Astrazeneca - prospects, and worthiness of a new addition
January 12th 2019 6:48pm


(i.e. viewtopic.php?f=33&t=15632 )

but this post doesn't appear on my browser....trying deleting my cache....but no avail.

it looks like the post *might* be close to my end of page.

Matt

TheMotorcycleBoy wrote:I think I see this now and again. …
but this post doesn't appear on my browser....

I also had the notification. The post would either have been deleted by the author or by a mod. That's why we can't see it. A mod can probably confirm if it were soft deleted. I don't know who can read hard deletions.

PinkDalek wrote:

TheMotorcycleBoy wrote:I think I see this now and again. …
but this post doesn't appear on my browser....

I also had the notification. The post would either have been deleted by the author or by a mod. That's why we can't see it. A mod can probably confirm if it were soft deleted. I don't know who can read hard deletions.

Thanks PD,

That confirms that I hadn't just imagined it! Can anyone in Administration (or a moderator) confirm this? I suppose that if the author was the deleter, I would expect just this, i.e. notification is merely orphaned. But if deleted by another (e.g. a mod) then I guess a note of explanation is typically left.

I hope I'm not wishing to sound pedantic but I was already a little tired - and so was a mite puzzled as how why I couldn't find the text previously written.

Out of interest, another forum I sometimes visit, also displays a sequential number against each post in a thread, e.g. #1, #2, #3, #5. Then it is more obvious that #4 is either a deleted post, or a post sent by a "being-ignored-member".

Matt

TheMotorcycleBoy wrote:I think I see this now and again. Just now I can see a notification for me saying:

"Reply from ap8889 in topic"
Astrazeneca - prospects, and worthiness of a new addition
January 12th 2019 6:48pm


(i.e. viewtopic.php?f=33&t=15632 )

but this post doesn't appear on my browser....trying deleting my cache....but no avail.

it looks like the post *might* be close to my end of page.

Matt

I don't know if ap8889 was serious*, but in response to having a thread removed, he, like someone before him, requested that all his posts be removed.

As a moderator pointed out that time, there is a legal requirment that they attempt to comply with such requests.

Alternatively it is possible to post, then very shortly afterwords delete your own post. I have done so in the past.

*I actually thought that he was joking, but it's a bit like telling HMRC that you have a business selling cheese then expecting them to understand it as a joke. There ARE legal requirments, and they are required to assume that you are not joking.

PinkDalek wrote:A mod can probably confirm if it were soft deleted.

It was deleted by ap8889 a couple of minutes after posting. C.

csearle wrote:

PinkDalek wrote:A mod can probably confirm if it were soft deleted.

It was deleted by ap8889 a couple of minutes after posting. C.

Thanks Chris, So if I ever get a notification again, but can't find the post, it always means either the poster or a mod has deleted it? i.e. it's unlikely to be a forum bug, or a browser cache issue?

Matt

TheMotorcycleBoy wrote:

csearle wrote:

PinkDalek wrote:A mod can probably confirm if it were soft deleted.

It was deleted by ap8889 a couple of minutes after posting. C.

So if I ever get a notification again, but can't find the post, it always means either the poster or a mod has deleted it? i.e. it's unlikely to be a forum bug, or a browser cache issue?

This forum software has behaved strangely in the past so bugs certainly can't be ruled out. Unfortunately I'm not knowledgeable enough to say whether a cache scenario could cause such an orphaned notification.

Yes I suspect the most likely cause is a post deleted shortly after it was posted.

Regards,
Chris

TheMotorcycleBoy wrote: But if deleted by another (e.g. a mod) then I guess a note of explanation is typically left.



Matt

No, this is not the usual procedure. Deleted posts do not have explanations left. Edited posts have a mod box, or a mod box may be added to a thread if there is a lot of disharmony or have been a lot of deletions.

Mel

melonfool wrote:

TheMotorcycleBoy wrote: But if deleted by another (e.g. a mod) then I guess a note of explanation is typically left.



Matt

No, this is not the usual procedure. Deleted posts do not have explanations left. Edited posts have a mod box, or a mod box may be added to a thread if there is a lot of disharmony or have been a lot of deletions.

Mel

Sometimes an explanation will be left, visible to moderators of that forum.

TJH

Ok, thanks for all the replies. I now have an explanation!

Given that we login to TLF for free, I don't think that I should expect any more (I've had stated in the past, how useful Mel and I find this place!!)

However, if any changes are ever to be made to the way that posts are laid out, may I make a suggestion?

Currently posts are titled as follows:

#193290 Post by melonfool » January 13th, 2019, 7:25 pm
....

and

#193307 Post by tjh290633 » January 13th, 2019, 9:43 pm 
....

where I assume #193290 and #193307 are sequence numbers to a table outside of this thread. And they are hyperlinks to the matching URL for that post.

I wondered how easy (I'm sure this is how some other forums are implemented) it would be to make the sequence number unique only to the thread, and then using the example above, the reader of the thread would see:

#4 Post by melonfool » January 13th, 2019, 7:25 pm
....

and

#6 Post by tjh290633 » January 13th, 2019, 9:43 pm 
....

then it is more obvious that a hypothetical earlier orphaned notification, is due to post #5 being deleted.

It's just an idea........and I don't expect that people run off and implement it! Merely that it indicates a little more clearly that a post was removed.

Another possibility, of course, is that when a user/mod hard deletes a post, a "Deleted" notification is flagged into the Notification queue of any users who were notified by the original "Reply/Quote".

I'm sorry if all the above seems rather pedantic, I am a bit of a perfectionist given half the chance!!. But I just wondered if there was an easy (and automatic) way to reconcile the post's disappearance in a manner most helpful to subscribers.

thanks Matt

TheMotorcycleBoy wrote:I wondered how easy...

I wouldn't be surprised if the phpBB software would have to be re-written almost in its entirety to achieve the first of your changes*. As to the second: I doubt that a list of notification recipients is maintained for each post because the list would rapidly become gigantic. A post could conceivably be deleted years after it was posted.

We are basically users of the phpBB software (with some tailoring) rather than developers of it.

Regards,
Chris

* It might be though that phpBB has implemented sequential post numbers on each topic but it has not been set up to display them.