Phffft - gone!

[ribbert]

I received this PM today.

.......I was reading through your lever servicing thread while on my phone. I accidentally tapped the wrong place and deleted your thread. As soon as I realized what had happened. I sent Randy a PM to see if he would be able to recover it. Sadly he responded that it can not be recovered.again.........


No biggie, but troubling to think an entire thread can be deleted so easily. There are threads here that have continued on for years and chart the entire ownership of some bikes and contain some great information. To many owners, like myself, this is the only record they have.

Perhaps a two step confirmation box, like when you delete photos from your camera, would be good, or, you could auction off the button that deletes my posts.  

Makes me wonder if an entire account could disappear into the ether so easily.

Randy?

Noel

[Flynt]

I was reading through your lever servicing thread while on my phone. I accidentally tapped the wrong place and deleted your thread.

Did you get the phone model? Got to get me one of those... 

Frank

[ribbert]

I was reading through your lever servicing thread while on my phone. I accidentally tapped the wrong place and deleted your thread.

Did you get the phone model? Got to get me one of those...  

Frank

Very good Frank, I would have been proud of that one myself.  

Noel

[ribbert]

I'm genuinely surprised that no one cares about this, admin or membership. I would have thought an unforeseen circumstance that allows a thread (or maybe even an account) to be wiped with something as simple as a misplaced finger on a phone screen would have been of concern.

Over the years there have been a lot of people who have gone to a lot of trouble to produce on-line tutorials on a range of subjects from which we all benefit. In this instance it didn't matter but these could also be lost under the same circumstances, let alone those that have chosen to document their entire ownership experience in one continuing thread.

It did give Frank an opportunity to post a good one liner, I suppose that's something.

IMO

Noel

[Pat Conlon]

Noel, it is unfortunate what happened. To err is human, mistakes happen, etc, etc...

FYI, the 'delete topic' function key is a two step process. When selected, a large window opens with the message: ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DELETE THIS TOPIC? CONFIRM or CANCEL

Please keep this mistake in perspective. This is the only time this has happened in the 8 years this forum has been in operation with over 153,072 posts in over 13,817 topics.

On behalf of all the moderators, we are sorry for the lost information. Your lost topic on Maintence of clutch levers and all the replies was good stuff.

Regardless of the back and forth banter and jibes thru the years, I do enjoy your posts.

Respectfully,

Pat

[ribbert]

Thanks Pat, there is no chance of getting it out of perspective, I was not having a go at the moderator and I was not fussed about losing the content of the post (but I was concerned about the potential loss of more important information)

It just occurred to me that it might have revealed a weakness in the system and someone might like to address it, that's all.

You have adequately explained the procedure and all's good.

Thanks again.

Noel.

[racerrad8]

Makes me wonder if an entire account could disappear into the ether so easily.

Randy?

Noel

Noel,

Sorry in the delay of responding. All of this took place during my work days and I really do not have the time to be an active participant. I get to look once in a while, but it is a quick scan.

As Pat has already advised, it is a two step process to delete anything from the forum. Unfortunately, there was not a pause long enough to read the advisement box before clicking it.

This has already been addressed with the moderation team and a change was made to the moderation layout to prevent this from accidentally happening in the future. The buttons used be be laid out alphabetically and "reply" and "remove" were right next to each other. The remove button has been moved away from the reply butting to prevent this from ever happening again.

Now as far as an entire account being able to be removed, you with a couple of clicks that can happen. I cannot ever see a reason why that would ever happen as we have never deleted an account to date, only placed several out of control accounts on a "banned" status.

All of the above actions are only available to the moderation team and not to members, so there is zero chance one member can delete another members account.

The forum is secure and is backed-up regularly to preserve the content. In the event the software crashed, or we get hacked there is back up files to allow us to rebuild.

I'm genuinely surprised that no one cares about this, admin or membership. I would have thought an unforeseen circumstance that allows a thread (or maybe even an account) to be wiped with something as simple as a misplaced finger on a phone screen would have been of concern.

IMO

Noel

Have no fear, I care.

The issue was handled behind the scenes before you decided to post the question/statement to the general membership.

The moderator explained the situation and how it occurred. Since we have a policy of not deleting posts, I had to look at why and how this happened. Once I saw the button location I noted the issued. There has been several times I have hit the button and received the notification of deleting the content. When I have seen this, the action has always been canceled and the reply button is then used.

Since I re-located the button, there will not be anymore accidents like this.

Randy - RPM

[Earl Svorks]

  Hey Noel,
It took me a while to understand just where the PM you received came from. I'm thinking, who the heck has the ability to do something like this, by accident no less? Not until I saw Randy's last post did I realize a moderator was even involved. OK, now I get it!  Could have been worse I guess but it doesn't seem to have been a malicious act.
  Simon

[red]

Over the years there have been a lot of people who have gone to a lot of trouble to produce on-line tutorials on a range of subjects from which we all benefit. In this instance it didn't matter but these could also be lost under the same circumstances, let alone those that have chosen to document their entire ownership experience in one continuing thread.
Noel

Noel,

A forum should be making regularly scheduled back-ups.  A day of posts might get lost now and then, but most of the history should be available to be restored.

Sometimes an entire forum can vanish, just at the whim of the owner or ISP.  I suggest making backup copies of anything that may be important, on your equipment.  Make backup copies of all your stuff, also.  A terabyte USB disk drive, with a backup program, is easy and cheap.  Leave the USB drive unconnected, unless making a new (or updated) backup.

Have you tried the Wayback Machine?     They regularly scan and record websites, and earlier copies of a web site may have what went missing.