Posts mysteriously disappearing?

Hello!

I'm a co-admin of the Cutting Edge forum and we seem to be losing posts. All of them appear to have been lost from the same topic header, but other than that, there isn't any rhyme or reason to it. What I was wondering is: Does Forumotion have a self-cleaning feature, i.e. posts in older threads or older posts in threads with many posts will be deleted automatically to save on bandwidth?

We're a bit concerned because we have had issues with hackers in the past and would like to make sure that we are not, once again, being hacked. We know none of our moderators went around randomly deleting posts willy-nilly so either it's a big glitch, a hacker, or a self-cleaning feature. Hopefully this problem can be rectified and a suitable explanation for this anomaly can be found.

Thanks in advance,
~Lorissa

The auto prune feature, are you aware of it?

General>Categories and Forums
Click on a forum name.
At the bottom, the auto prune thingy.

Check that.

As Lorissa's co-administrator at Cutting Edge, I can confirm that the problem is not because of auto-pruning, since that facility has never been switched on.

Strangely enough, the problem appears to be limited to one thread ('Evidence for the existence of God') on our religion board. The missing posts have reappeared in a locked thread, but it isn't possible to do the obvious thing and merge them with the later posts:
http://cuttingedge2.forumotion.co.uk/f1-religion-and-related-issues

You may recall that we recently had a glitch which was banning members with certain IPs. As we don't know what caused this problem, I don't think we should mark it 'solved' just yet, if that's okay with you.

There is a limit on how many messages there can be in a thread: https://help.forumotion.com/t1709-some-limits-of-forumotion-forum .

Messages in a subject: 990 messages (once the limit reached, the subject is locked and splitted)

Hello,

This seem's to be a technical problem! we are checking to see if someting don't turn around.

Thank's for this report. i'll back soon with the news

SLGray. Many thanks for that information. Yes, our ‘Evidence for the existence of God’ thread and our five-word game both locked and split after 990 replies, but this one – ‘Can God love?’ – has 1,015 replies and hasn't locked:-
http://cuttingedge2.forumotion.co.uk/t481-can-god-love

Ivan White wrote:SLGray. Many thanks for that information. Yes, our ‘Evidence for the existence of God’ thread and our five-word game both locked and split after 990 replies, but this one – ‘Can God love?’ – has 1,015 replies and hasn't locked:-
http://cuttingedge2.forumotion.co.uk/t481-can-god-love

I was going to suggest checking the forums logs to see if any staff has been deleting them moving etc..
But since the godfather has replied, lets wait and see what the techs come up with, i am sure they will have it sorted asap

I can confirm that there is nothing in the Cutting Edge security log to indicate that staff have deleted and/or moved posts.

We are grateful for the speedy response to our plea for help and for the various suggestions, and we look forward to reading what the techs discover. Thank you.

I'd like to report this disappearing post issue as well on my forum: http://physicalculture.canadian-forum.com/forum

So far two members have reported the issue:
http://physicalculture.canadian-forum.com/t152p135-older-brokener-and-stubborner-one-greek-forges-ahead#15144
http://physicalculture.canadian-forum.com/t11p150-powered-by-sushi#15302

Looking forward to the solution. Thanks.

Hello,

The source of this problem was found and fixed. Therefore, you simply have to make a backup of the forum on a date before this disappearance to retrieve all your missing messages.

We apologize for this inconvenience

Many thanks for your assistance.

Solved.

I for one would appreciate knowing HOW to what Godfather said before somebody comes along and locks this thread (and how can I know for sure when the first messages disappeared?). Thanks.

Dave.cyco wrote:I for one would appreciate knowing HOW to what Godfather said before somebody comes along and locks this thread (and how can I know for sure when the first messages disappeared?). Thanks.

Here is a tutorial on how you backup
https://help.forumotion.com/t9692-the-utilities-backup-and-restore

Sanket you are always more than helpful. Thanks.

But wait a sec, will this restore the forum to that state, and thus remove all message since that date?

Yes, i am afraid thats what will happen.

Thank you. And there is no other known way to resolve this problem, except by erasing the entire community's doings within that time frame?

Yes, there is no way. It would be better if you do the backup sooner than waiting so that you don't lose anymore data.

Well, I guess it's time to make a poll on my forum. Thanks for the info. I no longer object to locking this thread.

Final post! (yes I'm a dweeb )

Sanket, you forgot to lock and archive.


Thread Locked & Archive.

Edit: By Sanket: I did not forget to lock or archive, my laptop crashed. Using my other Laptop now