# Completely Blank Posts?



## lowkey13 (May 21, 2019)

*Deleted by user*


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## acpitz 1 (May 21, 2019)

No glitch.

If you are not meaning by "glitch" that our mod squad man shoots stuff down.

He no like, he censor.

It's the glitch for you.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

acpitz 1 said:


> No glitch.
> 
> If you are not meaning by "glitch" that our mod squad man shoots stuff down.
> 
> ...




Blanking out posts isn’t the style of any mod I know.  If a post is going to be completely eliminated, it will be completely eliminated- including the poster ID and positive.  It would be as if the post never occurred (except for any quotes of it).

If text were simply being removed, there would be a Mod note telling everyone WHY...typically in red text.


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## acpitz 1 (May 22, 2019)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Blanking out posts isn’t the style of any mod I know.  If a post is going to be completely eliminated, it will be completely eliminated- including the poster ID and positive.  It would be as if the post never occurred (except for any quotes of it).
> 
> If text were simply being removed, there would be a Mod note telling everyone WHY...typically in red text.




Things change.

And some people can't handle the powers ...

EDIT: can -> can't


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

Trust me, that is NOT what is happening.

There are only a few mods, and that isn’t the procedure this site has operated under for years.

In addition, I can tell you _personally _ that it is not the case because I have recently found 2 spam reports that also directed to blanked out posts.  The anti-spam controls would completely erase the post, as described and ban the poster, not leave a blank post.  Just blanking the post leaves the spammer free to continue making spam posts.  That’s nonsense from a mod’s perspective.

And the spammer has no motivation to remove their own spam.

That leaves some kind of glitch as the most probable cause. Occam’s Razor.


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## acpitz 1 (May 22, 2019)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Trust me, that is NOT what is happening.




No. Not really.



Dannyalcatraz said:


> Occam’s Razor.




Someone is butthurt and has the powers.

see below:


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

Dude, I don’t know where you come from or where else you post/lurk, but what you _think_ is going on here simply isn’t happening.

Here’s another way I can tell you it’s a glitch, not an intention act: if a mod goes into a post to edit it, the system automatically leaves a note saying who edited it and when, just like you will find at the bottom of the note I copypasted from the bottom of your post you recently restored:



> Last edited by acpitz 1; Today at 12:03 AM.




Or the note that just appeared in your response above, or now in my post. Those notes won’t appear in an edit screen, either, so cannot be removed.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION] [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION]

As I noted above, I’ve personally encountered two blacked out posts by spammers (whom I subsequently banned).  The text wasn’t merely color matched to the back, because the reported text didn’t show even when I quoted it to check.  What had been there was simply gone. 

Something odd is going on.


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## acpitz 1 (May 22, 2019)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Dude, I don’t know where you come from or where else you post/lurk, but what you _think_ is going on here simply isn’t happening.
> 
> Here’s another way I can tell you it’s a glitch, not an intention act: if a mod goes into a post to edit it, the system automatically leaves a note saying who edited it and when, just like you will find at the bottom of the note I copypasted from the bottom of your post you recently restored:
> 
> ...




And those doesn't appear when admins or mods don't want them to appear. Also why was my post up for ~10mins before it went down? About the same time one needs to read it through and make delete.

Yes. Those edit notes come up when us mere mortals do something ... but moderation can be done with out trace. You can just wipe the content and that's it.

I've been around and seen this thing happen not only nowadays but back in 90's as well. Decades online teaches something about people and how they waltz you know ...

EDIT: I do wish I could share your trust ... but I don't seen too much. Been through too much. Unfortunately.

EDIT #2 13min later: Let's see if this shows.


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## acpitz 1 (May 22, 2019)

Hmm.. I see no edit notification on the post above. do you?

EDIT 1013 It seems that if you edit immediately it doesn't show. Test it yourself.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

Yes, an immediate or reasonably quick (a few minutes, I know, but I haven’t tested the limits) *self*-edit will not trigger the notification.  A mod edit will, regardless of timing.

No, we can’t turn those notifications off, AFAIK.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION] [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION]

I think I may have discovered the _trigger_ for the posts disappearing: every one I know of that got blacked out was reported.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

[No message]


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> This post is a test.




Quoted for posterity before reporting.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

Hypothesis confirmed.  

Post #13 quoted Post #12, and then I reported it.  Everything got wiped.


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## CapnZapp (May 22, 2019)

Thank you for going the extra mile, Alcatraz. That conspiracy theory started to really itch.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

Oh yeah, in case anyone gets any bright ideas: anyone caught abusing the report button while this bug is roaming free WILL be dealt with.


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## Morrus (May 22, 2019)

acpitz 1 said:


> Things change.
> 
> And some people can't handle the powers ...
> 
> EDIT: can -> can't




What is this about, [MENTION=6994407]acpitz 1[/MENTION]? You appear to be a new member who has decided to start insulting us. Something up?


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## Morrus (May 22, 2019)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION] [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION]
> 
> I think I may have discovered the _trigger_ for the posts disappearing: every one I know of that got blacked out was reported.




Huh. Now that IS odd. What on Earth could cause that all of a sudden? The software hasn’t changed recently. 

I’m away until tomorrow night, but we might have to disable the post report button if it’s suddenly doing that. 

The software technically shouldn’t even *allow* a blank post, or one with less than (I think 3?) characters.


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## Nagol (May 22, 2019)

acpitz 1 said:


> Hmm.. I see no edit notification on the post above. do you?
> 
> EDIT 1013 It seems that if you edit immediately it doesn't show. Test it yourself.




If you edit before it is read by someone else, no notification appears.


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## Nagol (May 22, 2019)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Oh yeah, in case anyone gets any bright ideas: anyone caught abusing the report button while this bug is roaming free WILL be dealt with.




I can see both advantage and disadvantages to my suggestion, but perhaps putting up one of those yellow alert everyone gets may be appropriate to both warn people about the problem and the repercussions of abusing it?


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## lowkey13 (May 22, 2019)

*Deleted by user*


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## Umbran (May 22, 2019)

acpitz 1 said:


> No glitch.
> 
> If you are not meaning by "glitch" that our mod squad man shoots stuff down.
> 
> ...




Nope.  Perhaps in other places on the internet, that'd be a reasonable assumption, but not so much here. That's not how our moderation staff, or I, or the board software works.  

We rarely edit posts - generally only to add a note or to cut out a bit that is in flagrant violation of The Rules.  If something you've written gets official moderation attention, you will generally leave a post in the thread (usually in red text or orange text), or issue a warning or infraction (which you'd see in your private messages) informing you that you've gone over a line, so that you can adjust your approach. 

Next time, if you have an issue with a mod, you might want to try talking to us, rather than making accusations.  Around here, we prefer trying to work things out, rather than butting heads.  Not that we promise to always let you have your way, or agree that what you've said is allowable, but we are generally willing to at least talk things through.


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## Gradine (May 22, 2019)

I liked it better when that post was erased, personally.

BTW I did report that post again before reading this thread. It doesn't appear to have been blanked out this time.

Edit: By again I did not mean to imply that I reported the post in the first place; I did not.


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## acpitz 1 (May 22, 2019)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> No, we can’t turn those notifications off, AFAIK.


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## acpitz 1 (May 22, 2019)

Umbran said:


> Nope.  Perhaps in other places on the internet, that'd be a reasonable assumption, but not so much here. That's not how our moderation staff, or I, or the board software works.
> 
> We rarely edit posts - generally only to add a note or to cut out a bit that is in flagrant violation of The Rules.  If something you've written gets official moderation attention, you will generally leave a post in the thread (usually in red text or orange text), or issue a warning or infraction (which you'd see in your private messages) informing you that you've gone over a line, so that you can adjust your approach.
> 
> Next time, if you have an issue with a mod, you might want to try talking to us, rather than making accusations.  Around here, we prefer trying to work things out, rather than butting heads.  Not that we promise to always let you have your way, or agree that what you've said is allowable, but we are generally willing to at least talk things through.




I stand corrected!

It's just very very suspicious when posts just disappear like that when it's possible to edit them with out any trace ...

My bad for pointing finger to the sky!


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## acpitz 1 (May 22, 2019)

Morrus said:


> What is this about, [MENTION=6994407]acpitz 1[/MENTION]? You appear to be a new member who has decided to start insulting us. Something up?




As I said in reply to [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION]

I stand corrected. But in these times of shadow banning is a norm it's just very suspicious that posts disappear like that.


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## Gradine (May 22, 2019)

Huh, this time reporting did blank out the post.

Any ETA on when this will be fixed? As nice as it is to have the power to erase literal garbage transphobia (but I repeat myself) off the internet I don't want to be seen as blatantly abusing anything. Is there alternative method I can use to report posts in the mean time? Because I'm not going to just let that nonsense fly.


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## Sacrosanct (May 22, 2019)

I just wanted to say Kudos to Danny.  The fact that they did the extra research and being proactive to find root causes rather than just go through the motions shows it was a good choice to make them a mod.


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## Gradine (May 22, 2019)

I agree. I especially appreciate the work that our mods to make this site inclusive and safe.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

Hey, I learned something!


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 22, 2019)

Gradine said:


> Any ETA on when this will be fixed?...I don't want to be seen as blatantly abusing anything. Is there alternative method I can use to report posts in the mean time?




No timetable as yet, AFAIK.

Perhaps  [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] could make a glitch announcement and ask that reports be PMed to The Mod Squad?*





Or, for those unconcerned with anonymous reporting, posting it in Meta?






* not pictured: any actual ENWorld Mods.


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## Ancalagon (May 23, 2019)

Sacrosanct said:


> I just wanted to say Kudos to Danny.  The fact that they did the extra research and being proactive to find root causes rather than just go through the motions shows it was a good choice to make them a mod.



Yes, that was a good piece of investigation!


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## Morrus (May 23, 2019)

We think this is fixed now (thanks to [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION]). Please let us know if it happens again.


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