Deletion Notification

June 14, 2005 11:38 AM

I don't know about you, but I'd certainly be interested in knowing why my posts have been deleted. Is there ever going to be some auto-notify feature?
posted by mystyk to Feature Requests at 11:38 AM (26 comments total)

More specifically, I'm talking about this AskMe thread. I've heard time & again that jess sends an e-mail if one's been provided, so I'm guessing it's #1's doing. It's just a bit inconsiderate to feel like you've contributed something only to come back and find it's disappeared for no apparent reason.

And don't give me the "it was some sort of sensitive information or trade secret that was revealed" line. Other posts in the same thread went farther than I and yet remain.
posted by mystyk at 11:42 AM on June 14, 2005

That AskMe thread looks not-deleted to me. Maybe that's why you didn't get an email?
posted by Plutor at 11:48 AM on June 14, 2005

Do you have a local copy of your answer or could you describe it?
posted by mlis at 11:48 AM on June 14, 2005

Plus it wasn't posted by you. Or do you mean a comment in that thread got deleted? (I assumed you meant the thread itself, but re-reading the post I guess I had no reason to suppose that..)
posted by Plutor at 11:50 AM on June 14, 2005

It was a comment, technically. I guess I should have specified.

Still, my incident aside, the feature would be greatly appreciated.
posted by mystyk at 11:52 AM on June 14, 2005

mystyk writes "And don't give me the 'it was some sort of sensitive information or trade secret that was revealed' line. Other posts in the same thread went farther than I and yet remain."

Wait, I'm confused. Do you want an explanation, or not?

Also, are you sure you pressed post after preview? Sometimes if you forget your answer is lost.
posted by OmieWise at 12:11 PM on June 14, 2005

Hello, and welcome to your automagically generated AskMe Comment Deletion message.

One of your messages was deleted today. It was due to one or more of the following reasons :

1. Your answer wasn't funny.
2. Your answer wasn't helpful.
3. Your answer wasn't helpful or funny.
4. Matt was feeling grumpy, and his delete finger was itchy.
5. It's all a vast conspiracy to silence you.
6. It was a technical glitch.
7. You suck.

Thank you for your support. Please continue to leave your banal and pointless blather on Metafilter. We look forward to deleting your messages in the future.

Virtually yours,
The Metafilter Staff.
posted by crunchland at 12:13 PM on June 14, 2005

Anyone else think its a intresting how many AskMe posts relate to security clearance, and that several members seem to have it?
posted by delmoi at 12:57 PM on June 14, 2005

These aren't the MeFites you're looking for, delmoi. Move along.
posted by Floydd at 1:01 PM on June 14, 2005

Infiltration or infestation?
posted by peacay at 1:05 PM on June 14, 2005

It was probably a posting SNAFU, and not a deletion. I always make a habit of CTRL-C'ing any large responses I write before I hit preview/submit, just in case.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:23 PM on June 14, 2005

Jrun is a hungry god, and requires the sacrifice of several comments per day in return for easing up on the site-killing errors.
posted by quonsar at 1:30 PM on June 14, 2005

quonsar: Now that I can believe.

C_D: It was on there when I refreshed about 10 minutes later, so you tell me...
posted by mystyk at 1:45 PM on June 14, 2005

But as I said before, mine is only an example, and the one that made me think about it enough to inquire. I still think the feature would be useful, rather than just have comments disappearing into the ether.
posted by mystyk at 1:47 PM on June 14, 2005

I, for one, bow before our hungry god JRun and offer up this comment as sacrifice.
posted by caddis at 1:57 PM on June 14, 2005

There's no record of a deleted comment in that thread. You sure you didn't just leave it previewed and not posted?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:27 PM on June 14, 2005

Just to be clear, nothing was deleted by me or jessamyn in that thread.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:30 PM on June 14, 2005

correct, I deleted nothing.
posted by jessamyn at 2:36 PM on June 14, 2005

Oh well...strike it up to the Jrun god. I just thought about how useful a feature it would be because of this incident.

As for the Jrun issue, either crack those whips or call in the exorcists. I can't wait to see how many new bugs we get to point out when you finally pull the new version out of alpha.
posted by mystyk at 3:23 PM on June 14, 2005

I just thought about how useful a feature it would be because of this incident

From the look of things on the server side, there was no deletion, so there would have been no email.

I can't wait to see how many new bugs we get to point out when you finally pull the new version out of alpha.

There's no magical new version in the works. I've just been updating the pages that get the majority of traffic on the site, to make the server run faster. There's no grand plan to start over from scratch at this point.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:32 PM on June 14, 2005

I just did a double-check, to see if there were any missing records between the first comment and the last comment on that thread in the main comment database and I see no gaps and no deletions, so there was definitely no record of the comment ever reaching the database server today.

I suspect you hit preview, tabbed to something new (perhaps while waiting for the long slow metafilter server) saw it later, and moved on, before you clicked post.

I've actually done it several times in the past month. At the end of the day I'll close a bunch of tabs and find I left a comment in preview in my browser from 12 hours earlier that day.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:50 PM on June 14, 2005

"It's not my fault you're an idiot."
posted by puke & cry at 5:10 PM on June 14, 2005

Well, don't look at me, it's not my fault either.
posted by OmieWise at 6:38 AM on June 15, 2005

I know this question may not directly appy to the topic at hand...but would it be difficult to have a bit of code that stuck a "comment deleted" box/text where comments are deleted?

No other info like who made the comment or why the comment was deleted, just an annotation at that message number?

I've got no clue what's involved in doing that, but it seems like it would solve a fair number of the "hey! where's my comment?"
posted by dejah420 at 10:48 AM on June 15, 2005

mathowie writes "At the end of the day I'll close a bunch of tabs and find I left a comment in preview in my browser from 12 hours earlier that day."

The only draw back to tabbed browsing I've come across.

It would be nice if email providers could be emailed that there comment was deleted. I hate wondering was the post deleted or did I just not hit post.
posted by Mitheral at 10:57 AM on June 15, 2005

First they came for the comments but I did not speak out because I was not a comment. Then they came for the FPPs but I didn't speak out because I was not an FPP. Then they came for The Gravy and there was no one left to speak out for me.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 1:26 PM on June 15, 2005