What happened to my “Difference between men and women” thread?
It was intended purely in fun, started getting little bumped in the direction of TEH BOARD, at which time I tried to re-rail it. Did something happen in the wee hours of my morning that got the entire thread deleted?
Inquiring minds want to know (at least this one).
Feel free to delete this thread and respond via PM.
The last thing I saw in it was that the difference was a hyperbole, how did it go from that to TEH BOARD territory? 
Well there were some friendly disagreements about the definition of gender, and I think I used the word “horny” in one post. Does that qualify for deleteration?
Hmmmmm… and I was rather enjoying it…
Perhaps glitch, similar to the Minnesota renaissance fair thread that disappeared for a week and then re-appeared.
the database has been wonky for quite some time…I wouldn’t jump to conclusions too quickly…
I don’t know anything about it.
And, what Denny said.
Didn’t mean to sound accusatory. I’m not one to incite a riot. Unless it’s the funny kind, such as, “you’re a riot!”. So, what happens to these threads that disappear into the ether, just out of curiosity?
No worries, I know you were just curious. As for what happens, the knowledgeable might have an idea. But as Denny said, the database has been wonky for a while, and lately some more dramatic things have been manifesting, like threads disappearing for a time. The first thread anniemcu posted about the MN RenFest is the most outstanding; it went poof for a few days, I think it was, and then reappeared. There was a thread recently in the Whistle Forum that did the same thing, only its absence lasted maybe a couple of hours. My most likely tieup is when I submit or edit posts. Although it’s spotty, things frequently get hung up and won’t move; I’ll try again and again, and after what seems like a lot of time, something finally works. I’m actually expecting a freeze/tie/hang-up when I hit “submit” with this post. We’ll see.
Okay, that took about 40 seconds. Not bad, considering.'spose ya want that in 25 words or less, eh?
maybe later 
I gotta go feed horses 
Dang! I had a well researched fourteen paragraph in-depth analysis, complete with graphs and photos, footnotes and off-site links all entered and hit ‘submit’. Wonder where it got to? 
I’ve actually been copying my post before I submit it in case something happens—I know, I know, maybe it would be better if they got lost . Quite a lot of the time, once I copy it and I have waited for a bit I then click to go to the index and to the thread and my post is there. So I copy it and then don’t wait for that orange thing to go all the way over (I do wait for a bit though) and for the “Do you want to see your message?” thing to come up, because it just takes too long. But be sure to copy it before you go check the thread! My computer is also very slow, so I never know where the problem lies really. Except I’m sure the men and women thread has accidentally disappeared—there was nothing controversial there, all in good fun.
Yep. As soon as I see things have got hung up, I do just that. Very useful for PMs.
d’uh…me too
as well as starting C&F in a different tab to watch it…
so…
ya click “Post Reply”, type some witty repartee in the text box and click “Submit”
this causes a 3x5 card to be filled out with the witty repartee and placed at the back of the deck
this deck contains one 3x5 card for every post with places on it for what: user, forum; date, time & thread (etc.) and the witty repartee.
In order for this mess to be usable the database needs to be able to find these cards in the correct order.
If you are on the main page the forums are presented with info regarding the total threads, post & the latest post
If you are on a forum page then the threads are presented in latest post order…
If you are on a thread page…
(yes, Ma…these can all be done with the same index.)
So somewhere there are index files (or views) to facilitate the retrieval of the information in the appropriate order. These suckers are updated every time someone posts a witty repartee.
When the index update burps things are lost, to us (the 3x5 card is still there but the index entry is not or the index is hosed so bad that it will not be seen).
Rich might schedule jobs that will rebuild the indexes when traffic is light.
This would cause the lost to reappear.
I’m not sure posts are filed separately like that (though I certainly could be wrong). As I understand it, each thread is one long file. Each separate post within a thread is, I think, virtual in that the whole thread is parsed and presented as if they were separate, but really, that’s just the presentation software making them appear to be separate. And that is where I think the problem may lie: the server can’t always handle the number of threads being read, written to, and and re-opened to be parsed. If a post is not saved completely, the software can’t parse the thread again because it can’t see the end of the file properly. Another possibility is that the thread index file may be getting corrupted, or not updated properly. That, too, could cause threads to vanish until some sort of clean-up routine is run by the appladmin.
Just ramblin’, folks. Don’t mind me.
djm
That’d make “Find all posts by User” & search a pain. Not that they didn’t do it that way.
Wouldn’t be much fun with three people posting, at the same time, to the same thread, much fun either!
FWIW that was just the way I’d have done it…