Introduction thread error?

True Wind Bearer · Post by **True Wind Bearer** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:14 am

I've just noticed that in the General Discussion section of the forums, there are 23 pages of the Introduction thread (sticky). When I click on the number 23, it comes up with a message saying, "No posts exist for this topic". I'm assuming this is an error?

Jowy Atreides · Post by **Jowy Atreides** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:42 am

It's an unfixable error.

Post by **Vextor** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 10:21 am

This error occurs when an old account with many posts is deleted from the database without using the proper method of deletion (through the admin panel). Each post is assigned to a user's userid within a database separate from the user database (where all your personal data is stored). When a user's information is deleted directly from the database, the infornmation stored inside the posts database will remain. Because of this, when the forum tries to load the post information, it gets confused because when it tries to access the user database for the userid's information, they can't find anything. phpBB doesn't have a script to handle that sort of situation gracefully, which results in this situation.

When users are deleted from the admin panel though, it makes sure all post data is deleted as well (and the username for all of those posts gets written over).

Edit: Fixed