Am I losing my marbles or is my sight failing... 23 January 2018 at 12:21AM in Over 50s MoneySaving 41 replies 7.6K views

chesky

Now, I don’t come onto this section very often, but I pop in from time to time to catch up on the ‘everyday man approaching retirement’ thread and the thread devoted to and supporting widows. Can’t remember its proper title.

But, having caught up with the first, I can’t find the second one. Has it been moved? I think I even posted on it once and I can’t even find that.

I’m sure it was here. Am I going mad?

jamesperrett

This has happened to other long threads too - and the management blame too many people accidentally clicking on the spam button. According to MSE Andrea they will not be restored. Personally, I wonder whether these large threads are slowing the system down so they're deliberately being removed.

Pollycat

Neither of those, chesky.
Sadly, the thread has gone.

Several long threads on the OS board have gone too.

Here's what MSE say about it:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5680765
and specifically from MSE Andrea:

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Hi everyone!

Firstly a huge thanks to zippychick for flagging the disappearing threads up to us

Secondly, don't worry, there isn't a technical reason for these long running threads being removed.

Simply put, the "spam button" was clicked on them enough times that they were automatically deleted.

In the two instances we're aware of we believe this was just down to forum members accidentally clicking the button. These things do happen sadly.

As zippychick explained, we very sadly can't reinstate the threads but it's best to look on the bright side - often a shiny brand new thread can give us a fresh start and help our motivation.

Thanks for your patience with this everyone, it really is appreciated.

Andrea

It's very sad to see this very supportive thread disappear with no hope of it being reinstated.

dunroving

I wonder, is it possible to download a long thread in some readable format, in case it disappears one day? Other than low-tech solutions (e.g., printing each page to pdf), I can't think of one.

bugslet

If you click on your name and go into bring up threads that bugslet etc has posted on, will that show your posting history on a thread? Might be talking drivel there, but worth a look to see?

chesky

bugslet wrote: »

If you click on your name and go into bring up threads that bugslet etc has posted on, will that show your posting history on a thread? Might be talking drivel there, but worth a look to see?

Tried that, as I’d posted on it - just once - but no, it’s disappeared from my own postings too.

Thanks to you all for enlightening me. At least I’m not going mad.

Pollycat

I think there'll be more comments when the regular posters start looking for the thread (I'm just a lurker on there).

We had a fabulous, chatty 'what are you having for dinner tonight' thread on the OS board which went the same way.
And a 'love food, hate waste' thread.
Lots of recipes and links lost forever.

I can't quite get my head round how a thread can't be brought back but maybe I'm just not techie enough to understand.

It's quite easy to hit the :spam: button by mistake when you're scrolling up and down on your phone.
I always go back and mark the post as 'not :spam:' but I guess some other posters didn't think it was that important or maybe didn't even notice.

bugslet

chesky wrote: »

Tried that, as I’d posted on it - just once - but no, it’s disappeared from my own postings too.

Thanks to you all for enlightening me. At least I’m not going mad.

Well we couldn't authoratively say that chesky:p, just not as regards the disappearing thread:D.

bob_a_builder

Surely the Spam button would only refer to a specific Post not a whole Thread

Pollycat

bob_a_builder wrote: »

Surely the Spam button would only refer to a specific Post not a whole Thread

Read post #3.
I think that the system must be set so that a certain number of people marking a post - any post, not a specific post - as :spam: results in the whole thread being deleted for ever.

I know TripAdvisor has a similar system but deleted threads can be reinstated.

chesky

Pollycat wrote: »

It's quite easy to hit the :spam: button by mistake when you're scrolling up and down on your phone.
I always go back and mark the post as 'not :spam:' but I guess some other posters didn't think it was that important or maybe didn't even notice.

I thought I was the only one this happened to. I always mark it not spam also.

But there are even longer threads surely - must admit I haven’t checked, but the widows thread hadn’t been going as long as some others.