How Far Back Are Posts Kept
 

how far back are posts kept? I was trying to dredge up some old ones about Herb and Clara and it appears that anything older than 2001 is gone. True or false? Anyone know?

I have found some posts that go back to 1998. I didn't know about Fodors then, but others did and some of them are still posting here.<BR>lynlor

The indexing seems all shot to hell, so that some old posts can no longer be located, even though they may pre-date certain time periods where there are "holes" in the indexing files of the database.<BR><BR>But old posts are still there. Except for those not readily retrieved in the "indexing holes" time periods (for example, Jul 22 to Aug 19, 2002), I can locate posts that I have contributed (5,400 of them as of now) back to late 1999.<BR><BR>Oddly enough, you can go "back in time" more readily with a search than without.<BR><BR>For example, here are the first threads posted under "United Kingdom"<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgTopics.jsp?fid=2&keyword=157&start=9650<BR><BR>d ating back to 1996.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR><BR>

I can't believe you keep track of how many posts you've made.

I don't keep track - - but it's easy to check at anyone time by simply popping in the approximate number.<BR><BR>If this was one of your primary hobbies, wouldn't you have some rough idea?<BR><BR>Here's how easy it is:<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgTopics.jsp?fid=2&searchText=rbmd&start=5350<BR>

Just in case Fodors does go, is it possible to copy all posts for a specific country faster, other than clicking one at a time and cut/paste. I have plans to travel maybe in a year or two to some of these countries ( can only do one Europe trip a year) and would hate to lose some valuable specific information.

Does anyone know how to do this?

In theory, a good &quot;webcrawler&quot; or &quot;spider&quot; software package could do this, but it would be a lot of work, and it would not readily preserve the &quot;database structure&quot; of this forum.<BR>

topping<BR>

Rex, <BR>again, how'd you do that?

Elaine:<BR><BR>How did I do what? see &quot;start=&quot; at the end of the URL? Is that what you're asking about?<BR><BR>Like this, for example:<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgTopics.jsp?fid=2&amp;searchText=elavine1051&amp; start=1900<BR><BR>I'm not sure how many different e-mail addresses you have used over the years.<BR><BR>there are 16 listings for &quot;elavine and mountsinai&quot;<BR><BR><BR>

Ok Rex, here's your challenge. Can you find my Brittany/Normandy posts of around August 12 (can't remember exact dates I posted four reports). I left for Paris 7/24 and returned 8/8, and the only posts under my address are before 7/22 and 8/19. Do you think they are gone forever? (sniff, sniff, sob, sob)

No, amy, I do not think that they are gone forever. I will try my best to find them (knowing the message header would help).<BR><BR>and an e-mail message to Danny Mangin about this problem - - citing your exact dilemma would go a long way. They wrote to me about 3 or 4 weeks ago, saying that they would have &quot;the producers of the forum&quot; look into it - - but so far, nothing has happened.<BR><BR>This is where I will start:<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgTopics.jsp?fid=2&amp;start=8100<BR><BR>...where you can find the last post on Aug 12.<BR><BR>It would help to know if you &quot;filed&quot; it under France (or not) as well.<BR><BR>Here is the start page for that week for France (only).<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgTopics.jsp?fid=2&amp;keyword=129&amp;start=1100< BR>

Rex--Bless you! I found them! It took about an hour. I used your URL stuff to start. No luck in that area for the trip reports, but found at least five other posts that had not been indexed. And some of them had stuff I forgot I had ever known (yes, am nearing 50 yrs).<BR><BR>Anyway, then using your procedure as my guide, I went through one full month of the full Europe forum URL. They were there. So happy. Hey, it's my fault--I posted three of them directly to the site without first doing them in Word.<BR><BR>Now I have them saved. I'm thinking about reposting the darn things to see if the censors will take them off again. Am still wondering what in the heck was so darn offensive--regulars seemed to like them. Maybe it was just the reindexing that did them in, but... Oh, and I've emailed Danny, at least three weeks ago. No response.<BR><BR>Thank you, thank you, thank you, Rex. I'm sure others will thank you 'cause I'll stop whining about lost posts now.

Yikes Amy! Wish I had read your post earlier. I saved your reports and could have sent them to you; however, I only have three of the four. I loved your reports and found absolutely nothing offensive about them. So glad you were able to find them.<BR><BR>If you ever lose any more messages, why don't you originate a post asking if anyone saved them?

You're very welcome. Since you have now found them, why not post the URLs to access them directly here on this thread. I really don't think that the censor/delete process has anything to do with the &quot;indexing holes&quot;. As far as I know, EVERY post that had a last post during the two previously named time periods (Jul 22 to Aug 19, and Jun something to to July something) - - they are ALL &quot;lost&quot; to the search engine.<BR><BR>I used to do some database management, and it is not easy to find the kind of bug that is causing this, but it can be done, and I ahope that hearing from you and me and many others will motivate them to fix the problem.<BR>

Many thanks to the monitors for the clean-up of this thread.<BR>

to the top. <BR><BR>I guess that Fodors keeps what it considers appropriate and useful. <BR><BR>And removes other slop.<BR>