Recycling board randomly purges/deletes topics

[StarredSkies]

So some time now, I have had users deleted posts be randomly deleted within the recycling board over time. We used to have a 100+ deleted pages and now we're down to TWO PAGES. All that's left are the most recently deleted posts on one page and the next is the first deleted posts we've ever had. Has this been a previously known glitch? I haven't seen anything on this board or through search myself. Along with that, is there any fix?

Using SMF 2.0.15 currently with these packages (I have not added anything new in the six months):
1.   SMF Post Prefix   
2.   Stop Spammer   
3.   Topics Created And Participated In   
4.   Ignore Topics   
5.   Yet Another Spoiler Mod   
6.   Custom Action Mod   
7.   Member Awards   
8.   Bookmarks   
9.   Avatar on Member List   
10.   SubAccounts Mod
11.   Sneaky Editing   
12.   Yet Another YouTube BBCode Tag
13.   Global Headers Footers   
14.   markItUp! for SMF   
15.   SMF Staff Page   
16.   Drafts
17.   Posting Template SMFSimplee ]
18.   BBCode with style   
19.   More Gender
20.   @mention members   
21.   Current Signature Mod   
22.   Ultimate Profile   
23.   Custom Username Color

[Arantor]

I'd be more inclined to check your permissions to see who can see/delete in that board.

There are no known glitches with that feature.

[efk]

I had the same problem on forum where I was administrator till 2 years ago, old forum with oldest deleted topics from 2009/10, and I noticed on 1 page latest deleted and on another oldest deleted posts/topics. Try to physically remove some posts from Recycle bin and see if more from hidden deleted posts inside Recycle bin are popping up?
Still, you should be able to see deleted posts through member profile, and with every deleted post from Recycle bin you will get back hidden deleted posts/topics. Try it and let me know what happens.
I guess you want to keep posts to not reduce post count for your members. And of course, that job around Recycle bin is for administrators, so not many people should have access there because one individual can cause real damage and you won't even know about it and when you finally realize what's going on it can be 2-3 weeks since some action was done or more.

[StarredSkies]

I have already went through logs. No one has deleted these posts.

I had the same problem on forum where I was administrator till 2 years ago, old forum with oldest deleted topics from 2009/10, and I noticed on 1 page latest deleted and on another oldest deleted posts/topics. Try to physically remove some posts from Recycle bin and see if more from hidden deleted posts inside Recycle bin are popping up?

This did occur when I was purging it earlier, strangely enough. When deleting some spam posts, other's filled it's spot .

Also it appears that these threads are hidden(?) since they do show up on the recent posts preview for the recycling bin board, but in the board itself.

[efk]

Not sure if logs will catch deletion from Recycle bin, go test it and let us know, I'm too lazy to try that 

So its exactly the same thing that happened on the forum where I was administrator. The good thing is you can still access to deleted posts/topics through any profile as admin but you will have to invest time since its manually searching for posts/topics - here I can't confirm if you can see only posts from deleted user.

Also it appears that these threads are hidden(?) since they do show up on the recent posts preview for the recycling bin board, but in the board itself.

Appearance should be random, but on 2nd page you should see the very oldest topics from Recycle bin. If this criteria is met, then its 100% the same thing .

This might be a bug with SMF or with some mod, but for some reason mods that you provided are not known to me - I mean I haven't used them, maybe only those I tried:
@mention members
Member Awards   
But I'm not sure about Member Awards if its the same mod that I used for years.

https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?board=137.0

[Kindred]

I'm sorry, but I fail to believe you, as the stated actions contradict logic

[efk]

I'm sorry, but I fail to believe you, as the stated actions contradict logic

The best way to see, understand and believe is directly on forum of topic author if he allows such testing. My first post and reply from topic author described his situation and next was my perception. The main question is what logic makes topics to lost their order by time where 2nd page shows oldest deleted topics and 1st page has completely strange behavior.

We used to have a 100+ deleted pages and now we're down to TWO PAGES. All that's left are the most recently deleted posts on one page and the next is the first deleted posts we've ever had.

I'm questioning this part if all latest deleted posts/topics are on the first page or they cover some part and other random date fill another half of 1st page.

[StarredSkies]

What EFK is explained earlier is what I have going on. This in specific:

I had the same problem on forum where I was administrator till 2 years ago, old forum with oldest deleted topics from 2009/10, and I noticed on 1 page latest deleted and on another oldest deleted posts/topics. Try to physically remove some posts from Recycle bin and see if more from hidden deleted posts inside Recycle bin are popping up?

Thankfully, as EFK made clear, the posts still appear in user profiles. Thank you for this information, as it relieves a lot of weight off my shoulder! Really appreciated. Even so, I would like to make sure I have a spot to see deleted posts and allow my users to not have a depleted post count. Hence why I'm asking about this apparent 'bug.'

The best way to see, understand and believe is directly on forum of topic author if he allows such testing. My first post and reply from topic author described his situation and next was my perception. The main question is what logic makes topics to lost their order by time where 2nd page shows oldest deleted topics and 1st page has completely strange behavior.

Along with this, why hide the threads in the middle or hide them at all? The recycling bins purpose is to be collective board of deleted threads and by having them disappear, it contradicts the purpose.

I'm questioning this part if all latest deleted posts/topics are on the first page or they cover some part and other random date fill another half of 1st page.

The first page is *ALL* of the the recently deleted posts. The next is our oldest threads that have been deleted, dating back to early 2018.



Additional information:
More recently, a new predicament occurred. When clearing the board (see 'The Garbage Bin'), the board comes up as empty. The recent posts preview shows otherwise. Here's a GIF one of my admins made to show off what's occurring in this situation. This is from 7PM today. Earlier, around 2PM, there WAS posts in the board. This can also be seen from the mobile screenshot below. I believe this issue coincides with the hidden threads mentioned previously.



When threads do show up again, I will get an example of the hidden threads popping up when the ones previous are deleted. After all, the total wipe of the board happened yesterday too and yet they came back this morning (after I deleted rejected more spam). Needless to say, this problem is convoluted and I really hope for a fix or any clarification.

[StarredSkies]

bump

[Deaks]

the only real way this can happen is if someone is deleting them from forum or database, their is no way the software can do this without human intervention.  Change your passwords to cpanel and database (remember run repair_settings.php to update the password) also I would suggest updating to 2.0.17 as a few bugs were fixed since 2.0.15.

[Arantor]

Honestly I've never seen the behaviour described in the last 10 years. But I've not followed development of 2.0 since 2.0.14 so if it changed then, I guess it's possibly a bug introduced then?

[Kindred]

I've been running a recycle board for 10 years, including up to 2.0.17 -- and i have never seen that behavior.

So, since StarredSkies and EFK are the only two people to ever have seen this, I would guess that they have to consult with each other and figure out what combination of edits ended up breaking the recycle board.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Haven't witnessed anything like this at least up to 2.0.15 - I haven't had much time to get familiar with 2.0.16 or .17 yet, but somehow I doubt it would have introduced something like this.
What I think this could possibly be, not very likely but possible, is actually a hosting issue... Either the DB is misbehaving, or the server is giving badly cached results, or a combination of these etc... ?

[LiroyvH]

Haven't witnessed anything like this at least up to 2.0.15 - I haven't had much time to get familiar with 2.0.16 or .17 yet, but somehow I doubt it would have introduced something like this.
What I think this could possibly be, not very likely but possible, is actually a hosting issue... Either the DB is misbehaving, or the server is giving badly cached results, or a combination of these etc... ?

It'd be pretty bizarre if that only affects the recycle board though. What'd be interesting to see is whether or not they're actually gone from the database or just hidden due to a quirk in one of those many mods. I mean:

Still, you should be able to see deleted posts through member profile, and with every deleted post from Recycle bin you will get back hidden deleted posts/topics

Unless I misunderstood, that suggests they're actually still there. That behaviour, in my mind, can only occur due to a mod doing something it shouldn't be doing. Maybe like the Ignore Topics mod, but looking at its customisation page that does something else than I thought it'd do. In which case, it should be as simple as eliminating the mods one by one to see after the de-activation of which one the board is suddenly populated with *all* the topics again? Surely a tedious job, but then at least you'll know the cause.

[Shambles]

What happens to the recycle bin view if the number of messages per page is altered to, say, 50 (in the theme settings)?

[StarredSkies]

Thanks. I'll look into updating to 2.0.17 and testing it, seeing that I do have some older mods. I tried 2.1 but that broke a lot, but that's besides the point here.

EFK, what mods did you have installed at the time? Perhaps it's something in common causing this issue. As of right now, I'm not having problems with my host (presumably) and no new access to my CPanels. Nevertheless, I'll take a peek because these topics are in the system but they're just hidden.

Unless I misunderstood, that suggests they're actually still there. That behaviour, in my mind, can only occur due to a mod doing something it shouldn't be doing. Maybe like the Ignore Topics mod, but looking at its customisation page that does something else than I thought it'd do. In which case, it should be as simple as eliminating the mods one by one to see after the de-activation of which one the board is suddenly populated with *all* the topics again? Surely a tedious job, but then at least you'll know the cause.

You understood correctly. You are correct though, this could be correlated to the ignore topics mod.
edit// I have tested this and it is not ignore topics. Will try others.

What happens to the recycle bin view if the number of messages per page is altered to, say, 50 (in the theme settings)?

I went from 20 to 50 and it revealed the hidden topics. Here is our 20th topic:



And then when I upped it to 50 in the theme settings, it revealed more of the hidden topics. Notice how there are posts underneath the 20th. (excuse the dirty spam)

[Shambles]

So, as I suspected, it seems to be a pagination fault. I trust there are no errors docked in your error log, regarding this?

[StarredSkies]

Yep. There are no errors docked in my error log.

[Shambles]

Do you suffer the same pagination issue for the topics in your board indexes?

[StarredSkies]

I do not, thankfully.