Posted by Rick [Rick] on November 22, 1999 at 17:33:58 {k/.KBikg62OL4VPHgCQsFMFBt36Xyc}:
In Reply to: Forum Director posted by OneGlove on November 22, 1999 at 13:50:33:
Although I'm not the same person as the Forum Director (who is a volunteer like our moderators are), just the same thanks for the words of appreciation.
I was able to restore those posts from the vault. What is disturbing is that people comment on these posts as if at one point, they were legible. Then, they are turned to illegible garbage or files of zero file length. This occurred within several hours of the 4 day server crash. Sometime within the few hours before the crash, it appears someone gained access at root level and wiped out those posts. Why, I cannot speculate, as they seem innocuous enough, don't reveal damaging information that I'm aware, and don't seem to have any connection between one another.
If you find other corrupted posts please alert me, as I'm limited on time to go hunting. One hint as to which posts are corrupted, is any posts that either are stamped on the afternoon or evening of 11/18/99, and posts above these (regardless of their original time stamp). (When the server write operation goes bad, not only are new posts affected but also posts above these, because the internal threads inside and at bottom of the entire string of posts are updated. When you post a reply, you not only cause your file to get written, but all posts above yours are written with your name, date and time of reply at the bottom of each post above yours.)
Rick