Deleting 1st Post in Thread

[tsptom]

On more than one occasion either myself or one of my moderators goes through the motions of deleting a post and clicking the permanatly delete button when asked, only to see that we just deleted the whole thread because we deleted the 1st post.

I like that option but could that warning possibly be made in red to emphesize that the thread is about to be deleted, and not just a post?

Thanks for your consideration.

[feldon23]

I consider this a huge bug.

The next reply in the thread should become the originating post in the thread.

[tsptom]

Exactly. That would be a better plan, rather than the red warning I suggested.

[---MAD---]

I consider this a huge bug.

The next reply in the thread should become the originating post in the thread.
Yeah maybe also have the red warning thing the thread starter suggested as well incase it was a mistake.

[feldon23]

If deleting the first post did only one thing -- delete the first post -- we wouldn't have this problem. Unfortunately, it also does an unannounced, unexpected, undesired task: It deletes the thread.

[Psionic Vision]

I consider this a huge bug.

The next reply in the thread should become the originating post in the thread.

It's not necessarily a bug because since 2.3.x, deletion of first post in any thread caused deletion of the entire thread. So Jelsoft probably expected you to be aware of that (why would they make the behavior inconsistant?). But yeah, I do agree that there should be some sort of warning.

[Simetrical]

I consider this a huge bug.

The next reply in the thread should become the originating post in the thread.
I agree. It's totally unexpected and I can't see that it serves any purpose, although maybe I'm just not thinking hard enough.

[cbiweb]

Why would you delete the first post of a thread and leave the rest there? The whole context of the thread would/could be lost. It would probably be nice to have the option of doing so, but I have no idea why anyone would jumble up their forums like that.

[sabret00the]

actually i agree it's a bug, deleting a post is not and should never equate to deleting a thread unless it's the only post in a thread. however i may retract this comment when my brain is in gear and i think about the right way to code it.

[Grover]

If deleting the first post did only one thing -- delete the first post -- we wouldn't have this problem. Unfortunately, it also does an unannounced, unexpected, undesired task: It deletes the thread.

Like most of the times I completely agree with you. When I first started using vB I also found it a bit odd/tricky that deleting a first post deletes the whole thread actually. Although I understand the logic behind it more or less, it's still a bit tricky and not intuïtive in the end.

I can't remember what the vB 2.0 series gave as a warning, but with vB 3.6.5 it is indeed not very admin-friendly to say the least, just like tsptom pointed out. With inline-moderation you select the first posting and then 'Delete posts' in the dropdown. You then click 'Physically remove' and the button [Delete Posts].

The ONLY information you as an admin are given is the following text in tiny little font:

Notes
Deleting 1 post(s) from 1 thread(s) in 1 forum(s).
Deleting the first post of a thread will result in the deletion of the thread.

That is indeed ALL, and you lost the WHOLE thread. Nobody reads those tiny little notes and which such a destructive result, a warning should indeed be given. In fact, I think this functionality should not even be in, because it is tricky/not intuïtive. If I want to delete a whole thread, I do it in forumdisplay and choose 'Delete Thread' : that is the most logical and intuitive way. Why would one want to go to showthread, click on the first posting and delete the whole thread subsequently that way? I do not understand this extra 'functionality'. Maybe someone can explain the benefits : I fail to see/comprehend it?

[Simetrical]

Why would you delete the first post of a thread and leave the rest there? The whole context of the thread would/could be lost. It would probably be nice to have the option of doing so, but I have no idea why anyone would jumble up their forums like that.
It depends completely on the thread. But in the odd event that you should want to delete the first post but not the thread, the behavior remains totally unexpected and potentially destructive, although it will come up rarely.

[Elenna]

I just had this happen to me. There are certainly times that you delete the first post in a thread, like if you split a thread, and then clean up the original thread, you may want to delete the first several posts.

When a moderator is used to doing the clicking, they usually don't read the messages anymore, especially when you are using the "posts" drop-down, not the "thread" drop-down.

I lost a large amount of valuable data due to this (I guess due to me not reading). It would be very helpful to have another prompt in there, or a pop-up, to confirm that the person knows that, although they are using the "post moderation" drop-down, that they will be performing an action that affects the whole thread.

[antiekeradio]

happened to me once, too.

luckily it was not a very important thread, but it got lost against my wishes.

if you want to remove the entire thread, there are 2 different alternatives to do so. why this third 'hidden' way??

[ThorstenA]

Think, it's better to solve this problem rather than mark the "workaround text" bold and red. There's no need that deleting the first post is deleting whole thread. There are improvements made in vbulletin that make a workaround *that* easy. Instead vbulletin software should do this if deleting first post:

#1 Move all posts except first post to new topic having same title
#2 delete topic

[ThorstenA]

Think, it's better to solve this problem rather than mark the "workaround text" bold and red. There's no need that deleting the first post is deleting whole thread. There are improvements made in vbulletin that make a workaround *that* easy. Instead vbulletin software should do this if deleting first post:

#1 Move all posts except first post to new topic having same title
#2 delete topic

Maybe it's even possible to accomplish that with a product on vb.org.

[feldon23]

It requires a couple of SQL queries to reassign the next post in the thread as the originating post of the thread. Depending on what extra stuff is stored in the thread table, you might need to update the thread creation date, etc. to match the newer first post. There is NO documentation of the SQL schema used by vBulletin 3.6.x so it's all guesswork.

[Wayne Luke]

Far from being guesswork but whatever. You have full access to the database and a copy of MySQL Workbench will give you want you need. It is free at MySQL's website.

As far as the current implementation. It is more of a design decision, then a technical one. Personally, I agree with the current implementation.

[feldon23]

MySQL Workbench can read the PHP code and figure out why table A is important to table b?

[Wayne Luke]

No.. It can give you an entity diagram of the database. Not hard looking at field names to tell where the relationships are made.

[nexialys]

what i see as the best solution for this...

1 - first post is called to be deleted
2 - system check as firstpost is not to be deleted the hardway
3 - system make the firstpost moderated
4 - system reassign the firstpostid of the thread to the second post, so it will display as firstpost...

... nothing fancy, nothing complicated... it is already working on my site because i had to check that feature when building the points system...

[tsptom]

On more than one occasion either myself or one of my moderators goes through the motions of deleting a post and clicking the permanatly delete button when asked, only to see that we just deleted the whole thread because we deleted the 1st post.

I like that option but could that warning possibly be made in red to emphesize that the thread is about to be deleted, and not just a post?

Thanks for your consideration.
Not even a red font warning in one of the new updates? Rats! :rolleyes: