Is there a black hole for missing threads?
 

In the past week or so, posters have mentioned threads from pre-registration days that can't be found. Earlier today someone mentioned an Elvira trip report that can't be found and last week on the U.S. board there was a bed and breakfast thread that is missing. I remember reading both threads (along with others) so I know I'm not making it up.

Any suggestions for a better search strategy?

A great many threads went away just before or right around the time Fodors instituted registration. Up to then, there was a fair amount of thread deletion by the editors because of abusive language, spamming, attacks against posters, off-topic rants, incessant anonymous posts, all that. Elvira herself was a victim of some of these attacks, which may have contributed to her leaving the community. Sadly, many of the great threads were deleted because of subsequent replies that broke the rules, and rather than deleting the reply the editors simply ditched the whole thread. I believe there was also an extended server crash and changeover around the same time, which probably resulted in any backups going away too. Pity.

Have you guys noticed: for some time after registration Fodor's would delete rude comments only, now they're back to deleting the whole post?

Does anybody actually communicated with "Wizard Of fodOrZ" ever ?
Why not to ask them ?

Some threads get deleted but also, some can't be found through the search so unfortunately sometimes you never know if a thread has been deleted or is buried somewhere. For example, the "small world" thread I started in 1998 could NEVER found via the search function. However, a few times it was revived and had at least 70 great stories on there. The last time I saw it come back someone made some stupid comment and then POOF - the entire thread was gone.

As active as these boards are, I am surprised at how long some threads stay available. I doubt that Fodor's has unlimited storage, and we are fortunate at the extent of good free information they allow us to share.

Doubleday is making money off this site. "good free information they allow us to share" is a profitable venture. Revenue and advertising income is determined by how many hits this site receives. Don't feel like you are getting something for nothing. Its all about profits.

"Don't feel like you are getting something for nothing."

As a matter of fact, that's exactly how I DO feel! It hasn't cost me a thing to get unbelievable amounts of information here. And I also get an enormous amount of enjoyment following the posts here, offering my ideas, and chatting about travel topics. Maybe someone is making money, but it isn't costing me a penny, so I could care less. If someone walked up to me and handed me a hundred dollars with no strings attached, I'd also feel like I was getting something for nothing, no matter who was paying or making a profit somehow by that action.

I think they have maintained threads all the way back to 1996 or so, when the forum was first started. Deleting the first four years would only reduce their storage requirements by 5 or 10% most likely. Storage is so cheap that I think they are not likely to ever be constrained by the cost of storage. Priced a 240 GB hard drive lately?

There were two periods in the summer and early fall of 2002 - - of indexing "black hole disease" that defy every explanation I can think of. It didn't matter if a thread "popped out" of this period (by topping), they still got lost to the indexing process if they even got one post during the affected periods. They are discussed somewhat at length in the thread http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34449236

Right now, you can actively see one of these "holes" with this URL (note: this will inherently not be good in a week or so because I continue to add new posts - - but just add another 50 to the 2850)

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgTopic...amp;start=2850

You will note that there are no posts for me (i.e., "rbmd" my e-mail address) between 6/13/02 and 7/14/02 - - it's not because I didn't post for a month - - it's because searching "rbmd" does not work for that period; in fact, searching ANYthing for that period does not work. It has nothing to do with searching "rbmd" per se.

The key thing is that there ARE posts during that period.

Here's one, just picking a "tid" out of the air from that relevant period: http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...mp;tid=1385000

But try using the search engine for "Hepburn" or "Drury" or "Phantom" and you will NOT retrieve this thread.

So, I suspect that the Elvira gem is in one of the black holes, and not actually removed. But it is oh so tedious to find it. Not worth the effort to me.

Best wishes,

Rex