This thread has somehow been lost. SLPx had asked what people might think if this board's administrator began editing and deleting posts to the advantage of his own opinions.
Frank then asked if administrators had the power to change things without leaving any tracks behind. I then did exactly that in Frank's post.
Moose added an informative post about what powers an administrator has (he can delete posts, which then leave gaps in the message numbers, and he can delete entire threads without a trace, but if he edits a message he leaves behind an "edited by" note, just like everyone else). Moose also guessed that I have the power as site manager to do pretty much as I want, which is true, but that's true of any site manager.
Frank then posted, "Thanks Moose. Terry came immediately to mind when I saw this topic. I have seen posts deleted over there and wondered just what might have been said. Clear Skies! Frank"
And then the data file became corrupted. I have no concrete idea why, but I can think of a couple possibilities. One is that the bulletin board software isn't perfect, and it's also contrained by process and virtual memory limits imposed by the webhosting company. These factors acting either alone or in concert can corrupt files, and as some old-timers might recall, this used to happen all the time before I switched webhosts back in May.
The other possibility is that the bulletin board software for this site does not provide perfect security. It's UBB software from Infopop and is very popular, so lots and lots of people are very familiar with it and its security shortcomings. Perhaps someone saw my cute little demonstration of power in Frank's post and decided to demonstrate that, administrator or not, he had some powers of his own, but somehow things went awry and the file got corrupted instead of edited.
Anyway, I apologize for whatever role I might have played in losing this thread.
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--EvC Forum Administrator
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