Totally collaped topics with no new posts

[rworange]

This is the second time this happened. Here's one post
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/585981

This showed as "NEW" with a poster called "the googler" posting 9 hours ago.

I don't see that post, which I'm guessing the mods deleted.

In the past, if a post was deleted, the topic didn't show up as new.

[Engineering]

Yeah, something there is definitely wrong on several fronts. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

[Midlife]

I just reported one like that and then found another one: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/82120 - supposed to have a 12/9/11 post but it doesn't show. Humbug!! ....... or some other kind of bug???
;o)

[nsxtasy]

Definitely SOME kind of bug. When I do a search of the Los Angeles forum for "Maine lobsters", that topic shows as being updated by username Norm on 12/9/11. When I look at the topic, the most recent post is by username Norm, with a date of 5/22/06. That user could not possibly have updated the topic on 12/9/11, because that user does not have a profile. Every Chowhound who has posted in the past 3-4 years has a profile (username shown in blue with a link to their profile).

Also, since when do Chowhound topics have five-digit numbers in their website address? I thought they're all six digits...

[rworange]

The new software was not installed until June 2006. So Norm would not have a profile.

This topic is new to you if you have never read it. So the new flag is valid.

Topics prior to the new software install had five digits

[nsxtasy]

Thanks.

However, there's still a bug, because the search should be showing the topic as updated on 5/22/06, not on 12/9/11.

[Melanie Wong]

Two more examples:

"Calories in a bowl of PHO in this area [moved from DC/Baltimoreboard]"
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/512188

"Pho in Gastronomica Magazine"
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/288754

[Midlife]

Interesting. When I reported a situation like this a couple of days ago I got a mod response saying that the current post to the topic had been there but was removed. Sounds like there's more to it than that.

[Engineering]

Nope, the moderator was right on. We have the problem in hand and hope to have a fix out this week.

[Midlife]

Nope? Just curious from a tech perspective if you mean that the new posts get deleted somehow other than intentionally? The message I got just said that there had been a new post but that post was deleted. Sounds like the system is deleting them. I have no horse imn this race. I'm just fascinated by the weird things systems do.

[Engineering]

Sorry, my meaning was "No, there's nothing more to it". No posts are being unintentionally / automatically removed.

[Midlife]

OK....... but "More to it" is not meant as any kind of pejorative suggestion here. I'm not suggesting that mods are removing posts. But................... we now see several regular posters saying that a 'new' post causes these topics to show up as recent, but that post "goes away" somehow. I have no reason to question you other than that either there never were any such posts to "go away" and regular posters are seeing things........ or we've suddenly got a rash of people requesting that their posts be removed................ or ???????

Still just curious, but now more wondering if this is now a semantic discussion.

[The Chowhound Team]

We remove posts for a variety of reasons -- because they're shills, off-topic for the site or better suited for another board, at poster request (assuming the request is reasonable and the post has no replies) and a host of other reasons. There's no bug causing posts to be removed, the bug is merely making it obvious where we've intentionally removed posts.

[Midlife]

Wow! Something new all the time I guess. Thanks for the explanation.