How to change post to thread starter

[arob42]

After merging two threads the post I wanted as thread starter of the merged thread is now in the middle of the thread since its date was not the earliest. What is the best way to turn this post into the thread starter? For example, could I go into the database and change the date of the starter wannabe post to the earliest post of the thread? Thanks.

[Steve Machol]

You can try editing the thread table for that thread and changing the firstpostid, then rebuilding the thread counters. If that doesn't work then you'll also need to change the date for that post in the database.

[arob42]

Changing the firstpostid didn't work so I'm going to change the post date. However, looks like the data is stored as milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970. Is there an easy way, such as online tool, to convert a date into the format required for vBulletin's date field? Do I need to write a java/javascript function to do this?

[arob42]

I got it updated

The time format is the number of seconds since 1/1/1970 so I calculated the number of seconds in three days and subtracted that value from the current date of the post to give me a date three days earlier. Worked great. Thanks for your help.

[Steve Machol]

For future reference you can use this online tool to convert dates and times to Unix Timestamps:

http://www.onlineconversion.com/unix_time.htm