Missing topic hidden?

by Ghost Leader Sun 15 Dec - 4:06

So, a couple weeks ago we had a troll get outed on my forum, but I went back to check something in the thread where it happened and found the thread is gone. I went through involved members' post histories and found nothing. It hasn't been deleted because I checked the admin action log and none of them are noted as deleting a topic. Furthermore, one member who was involved in the thread has a post count of eight, but yet his post history only shows one post.

Is it possible this thread could have been hidden somehow, and if so, how can I unhide it?

by **skouliki** Sun 15 Dec - 4:13

hello

do you have the auto prune option on ? https://help.forumotion.com/t8323-auto-pruning?highlight=auto

by Ghost Leader Sun 15 Dec - 4:17

I'm not finding an auto pruning option.

Edit: I've found an option for "Pruning in Garbage" which is set to "No," but no option to enable or disable auto pruning. I don't think any such function is enabled because I can still go back and find threads from 5-plus years ago and the one in question is nowhere near that age.

by **skouliki** Sun 15 Dec - 6:19

how many pages the thread had ?
because when the messages in a subject reach the 990 messages the subject is locked and splitted

by Ghost Leader Sun 15 Dec - 8:53

It was only about four pages long. It didn't have that many posts.

by **skouliki** Sun 15 Dec - 9:50

do you remember the title of that topic ?

by Ghost Leader Sun 15 Dec - 9:57

Not exactly, but it included was something along the lines of "I'm constantly being harassed by trolls on youtube." I tried using the search function, but nothing came up.

by **Ape** Sun 15 Dec - 11:52

The best way to deal with this is to do a message / post backup.

It will restore all posts made and then you will see them again.

Helpful topic's:
How does a backup work ?
The Utilities - Backup and Restore

by **SLGray** Sun 15 Dec - 12:18

So it is the whole topic that is missing or just certain posts from that topic?

by Ghost Leader Sun 15 Dec - 15:36

It's the whole thing. It's just gone.

by **brandon_g** Mon 16 Dec - 7:38

Do you have this option enabled: ACP(Admin Panel) -> General -> Messages and e-mails -> Configuration -> Topics -> Hide messages from banned members?

If so, try disabling it as this might be what is causing the problem.

-Brandon

by **Ape** Mon 16 Dec - 7:40

Did you do a restore like i said ?

by Ghost Leader Tue 17 Dec - 9:08

brandon_g wrote:Do you have this option enabled: ACP(Admin Panel) -> General -> Messages and e-mails -> Configuration -> Topics -> Hide messages from banned members?

If so, try disabling it as this might be what is causing the problem.

-Brandon

It was enabled, but deactivating it didn't help. But it's just this one thread, as others made in the past by now-banned members are still present and accounted for.

APE wrote:Did you do a restore like i said ?

I can't, I'm not the founder. But I can talk to him about it.

On another note, I've just now noticed something that doesn't look right in the admin log.
Missing topic hidden? CjMhqKU

Can someone tell me why a moderation action is logged to me, but the description says someone else did it? I erased it in the screengrab for privacy reasons, but the IP address listed for the action is my current one, so I'm pretty sure my account hasn't been hacked. There are a number of instances of this in the log. Is it something I should be concerned about?

I'm going to change my password just in case, considering Steroplast was an account made by the troll I mentioned in the OP and he used it to spam up the forum. Regular members can delete their own posts, but AFAIK only if the thread in question hasn't been replied to since they last posted (I may change this). Even then, the action is logged to that user's account, not an administrator's.

by **Ape** Tue 17 Dec - 11:08

I don't think it is anything to worry about but if the tools are saying that you was the one to delete and it's your IP address then maybe you did delete the post or it was the member them self and if you banned the member or deleted the member then it will say you deleted it as the members name will no longer be listed

by Ghost Leader Fri 20 Dec - 14:40

So, I managed to track down a link to the thread in question that I'd emailed a friend. Clicking it brings me to a page that says the thread or post doesn't exist, so it must have been deleted even though there's no entry in the moderation log saying who did it or when. It all has me really confused.

by **brandon_g** Fri 20 Dec - 17:01

Ghost Leader wrote:So, I managed to track down a link to the thread in question that I'd emailed a friend. Clicking it brings me to a page that says the thread or post doesn't exist, so it must have been deleted even though there's no entry in the moderation log saying who did it or when. It all has me really confused.

Perhaps the member deleted it? I don't think that always shows up in the moderation logs.

by Ghost Leader Fri 20 Dec - 18:09

brandon_g wrote:Perhaps the member deleted it? I don't think that always shows up in the moderation logs.

No, he was banned before the thread disappeared.

by **brandon_g** Fri 20 Dec - 18:16

Hmm I don't know then. Have you asked other staff members if they deleted it?

by Ghost Leader Fri 20 Dec - 18:17

Yeah, they were as stumped as I am.

by **brandon_g** Fri 20 Dec - 18:20

The only thing I could think of then would be some weird system glitch that somehow deleted the topic. I can't really think of any other explanation.

None the less, restoring the forum using the founder tools should bring the topic back. Wink