permanently delete vs. "soft delete"

[kellym]

How can I permanently remove messages that were previously "soft deleted"? I have hundreds, maybe thousands of SPAM messages that were "soft deleted" and I'd like to bulk prune these and permanently remove them now. I cannot find any bulk prune tools in the vb5 admin console, and am even willing to look at plugins that give me this functionality.

[Wayne Luke]

There is currently no functionality to bulk delete topics in vBulletin 5. The only method to delete multiple topics at a time is through inline moderation but you're limited to about 50 topics at a time.

[kellym]

Even inline moderation has significant challenges. For example if I have a thread with 12 spam messages that were soft deleted, I have to permanently remove each one individually. The inline tools don't let me delete any more than one at a time.

The options for a "soft deleted" message are "Manage or Show". When I try to select all deleted messages in the inline moderation menu, it just redirects me to the top of the forum instead. Am I missing something here?

[Wayne Luke]

You can check the boxes in the top right corner of each post, then delete them in bulk using the tools at the top of the topic. Paper and pencil icon is inline moderation for posts. Gear icon is inline moderation for the topic itself.

[kellym]

What I'm saying is that deleting messages in bulk, for ones that were previously "soft deleted" just doesn't work. It looks like bug. When I click on the pencil and select deleted posts, it doesn't select anything and takes me up to the main forum level instead. The only way to delete posts that were "soft deleted" is to go through every single one and delete it manually, one-by-one. With hundreds or thousands of posts like this, it isn't realistic.

[Wayne Luke]

What I'm saying is that deleting messages in bulk, for ones that were previously "soft deleted" just doesn't work. It looks like bug. When I click on the pencil and select deleted posts, it doesn't select anything and takes me up to the main forum level instead. The only way to delete posts that were "soft deleted" is to go through every single one and delete it manually, one-by-one. With hundreds or thousands of posts like this, it isn't realistic.

I can't recreate that using 5.2.3 on this site. Please open a support ticket.

[kellym]

I opened a support ticket as you suggested and Lynne confirmed it's a known bug - unable to mass delete a bunch of soft-deleted *posts* inline.

I was given the following tracking information in your bug system: http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBV-7821

[kellym]

It looks like this bug has been known for over 3.5 years! It was opened in the tracker way back on 11/Feb/13. Unbelievable! How I miss the old vb days when things actually worked.

[Mark.B]

I would recommend commenting in the bug and voting on it. Voting can help with prioritisation of bugs.