Popular Thread (Topic) Suddenly Disappeared

Technical Details

Forum version : #phpBB3
Position : Administrator
Concerned browser(s) : Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari
Screenshot of problem : https://i.servimg.com/u/f58/19/57/55/52/screen26.png
Who the problem concerns : All members
When the problem appeared : This morning at 8AM
Forum link : http://reylo.skyforum.net/f6-the-last-jedi-and-episode-ix-speculation

Description of problem

Hello, I'm an admin at Reylo Skyforum, link attached.

We have a popular ongoing discussion topic called "Discussion: Spoilers/Rumors", which is in our "The Last Jedi" sub-forum. We've had 17 iterations of this topic, and the latest one suddenly disappeared at some point between 4am and 8am today. I went through the AP and looked at the "Last Actions" tool and none of the moderators or admins deleted it or moved it.

To provide some context, when the topic gets full at page 40, it automatically locks and splits itself into a new version. It usually takes a month for the topic to get full and split. I or the mods at our forum then rename the old version of the topic to "Archive: Discussion: Spoilers/Rumors - #", and then move it into an archive sub-forum called Niima Outpost. I am including a screenshot of the archive sub-forum so that you can see what the previous versions of this topic look like. The most recent auto-split was of # 16, and it happened on 5/20/17, so the new topic (# 17) should have had at least 2 more weeks before getting full, but now it has abruptly disappeared.

We are wondering what happened to it and if the posts can be recovered?

Thanks for your help!

Hi there,

Once a topic is removed from the database, the only way to get it back is via a Backup.

Draxion wrote:Hi there,

Once a topic is removed from the database, the only way to get it back is via a Backup.

@Draxion: we'd like to get the topic back if possible, but honestly the main thing we are wondering is what happened/why did it happen/how can we get it to not happen again?

And how do we get the topic back via backup?

Thanks!

Could it be that someone renamed the thread?

hello

you can read these
forum back up...  https://help.forumotion.com/t131122-backup-of-your-forum and 
how does a back up work...  https://help.forumotion.com/t64905-how-does-a-backup-work#421179

SLGray wrote:Could it be that someone renamed the thread?

No, the thread is gone. We looked at our post history to see if we could locate the thread that way, and everyone's posts in the thread disappeared from their history. It's the most popular thread in the forum, where people spend the majority of their time so everyone noticed it was gone. We have a disgruntled member that was permabanned who swore revenge (insert eye roll) so a lot of people are also worried that we were hacked somehow, but looking at the Last Actions tool in the AP I don't see any deleting/moving activity for that thread. Is it possible it was a server error or something on Forumotion's end?

I looked up the topic before posting and someone back in 2013 had a bunch of posts disappear from their forum randomly. At that time the issue was referred to the pro admins so they could determine what the issue was. Is that an option in this situation?

ETA:
Thanks, @skouliki.