A whole Topic in Evernote disappearing?

[Frank.dg 1,385]

The topic, entitled, "I see in the news today (Nov 4, 2014) Evernote Premium price may change", has just disappeared from the forums. I noticed this after I received an email notification of a new post made in that specific thread.  

 

I haven't seen a whole topic disappear like this before and there be no trace of the actual posts I've made under the section, "Posts I've made". Is this temporary? Was it deleted for some specific reason? Perhaps accidentally by a moderator?

 

There was some invaluable information contained therein that I would like to have at least clipped to Evernote before it disappeared. Normally, one would be able to access one's own posts under their own profile... or at least assume that it is there, so that anything of value that one contributes - and might want to access at a later date, without necessarily clipping to Evernote every time one makes a post - is accessible if and when desired. The exception, I understand, is if a moderator sees fit to delete individual posts because they do not comply with the community guidelines. Multiple users will have lost valuable information, advice and opinions in that topic alone.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/74517-an-active-thread-appears-to-have-been-deleted/

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Thanks BnF... are you able to merge the two or have this one deleted? Not sure how moderators go about doing that.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

AFAIK, non-employee mods can no longer merge threads, All we can do is change topic, move topic or remove spam. It would also be difficult for a non-employee mod to accidentally do this since the move topic and remove spam options require multiple taps/clicks.

[jefito 5,589]

That's weird. If it was intentional, that would be a first, in terms of censoring a topic like that. Evernote have been pretty tolerant of stuff like this in the past. I'm hoping it was a fat-fingered mass spam removal error, and that it'll get restored.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

The URL of one of the pages of the now-missing-thread is this:

 

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/73373-i-see-in-the-news-today-nov-4-2014-evernote-premium-price-may-change/page-3#entry319459

 

Below is a screen cap taken from my iPad immediately after I realized the thread was gone.  The screen cap shows a forum search on the word 'news' and 'today' with the first two results being the missing thread.  If you click on either link, you get the page-not-found page.

 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Well... the "Me vs Market" thread is still up the last time I checked. It deals with practically the same topic... But perhaps because of the title it doesn't get much visibility on Google. It would be nice to get to the bottom of this, though. 

 

Interesting to note that the thread disappeared way before any of the conspicuously visible spam was dealt with. In other words, I don't believe anyone was doing the regular routine spam flushing, thereby accidentally deleting the thread. 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Interesting to note that the thread disappeared way before any of the conspicuously visible spam was dealt with. In other words, I don't believe anyone was doing the regular routine spam flushing, thereby accidentally deleting the thread.

I noticed that too. 

 

 

Since I had just been in that thread, my first thought was perhaps I had accidentally hidden it b/c I was using my iPad & sometimes taps are slow & may get 'buffered'.  (Evangelists used to be able to 'hide' threads.)  But I have checked & double checked & when a thread is called up, we can no longer hide or delete threads.  Options are to change subject, move or delete spam.  But these all require multiple taps in the right spot.  So very doubtful it was done by anyone by accident.

 

I also checked the forum for any employees online.  This was several minutes after I figured out the thread had gone missing.  There were no employees I saw at the time.  But they could have left or have been in "invisible" mode. 

 

It would be nice to find out what happened here...

[jefito 5,589]

Since I had just been in that thread, my first thought was perhaps I had accidentally hidden it b/c I was using my iPad & sometimes taps are slow & may get 'buffered'.  (Evangelists used to be able to 'hide' threads.)  But I have checked & double checked & when a thread is called up, we can no longer hide or delete threads.  Options are to change subject, move or delete spam.  But these all require multiple taps in the right spot.  So very doubtful it was done by anyone by accident.

 

Actually, it's pretty easy to do, if you're using the right-hand side checkboxes to tick off a big bunch of spam posts. If you accidentally check on one that's not spam, you may not notice it when you do the mass Hide thing which applies to all selected posts.

 

We'll find out.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

But... no spam had been deleted at the time of that topic disappearing.

 

Personally I think it was orchestrated to unnecessarily set me back a couple of posts in my quest to become a moderator, (as a certain user felt the need to mention in that thread). 

 

What the thread did contain, as some might know, was a lot of Web Beta bashing, which is not the kind of publicity one wants for their new baby. There was a little back and forth between myself and JohnDM... but nothing out of the ordinary, and not out of hand. It had already wound down by that stage and we were moving on to greener pastures. Also, for the most part, the posts were off topic as related to a Premium price hike. 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Since I had just been in that thread, my first thought was perhaps I had accidentally hidden it b/c I was using my iPad & sometimes taps are slow & may get 'buffered'. (Evangelists used to be able to 'hide' threads.) But I have checked & double checked & when a thread is called up, we can no longer hide or delete threads. Options are to change subject, move or delete spam. But these all require multiple taps in the right spot. So very doubtful it was done by anyone by accident.

Actually, it's pretty easy to do, if you're using the right-hand side checkboxes to tick off a big bunch of spam posts. If you accidentally check on one that's not spam, you may not notice it when you do the mass Hide thing which applies to all selected posts.

We'll find out.

I was not using that screen. I have not deleted any spam posts since they made it harder. As I said, I had the thread called up. Then when I went back to "new contents", it was gone. From what I can see, it's pretty hard to accidentally delete a thread from within the thread itself.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I admit that Evernote rarely ever (if ever) deleted topics b/c they didn't like them. AFAIK, several threads still exist that are not favorable to EN. So if they are going to start censoring, there are better threads to delete. But something definitely happened to this one.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Here is another thread that has been removed:

 

Switching accounts on yosemite

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/73868-switching-accounts-on-yosemite/

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

I have to admit, I think that some mistake has been made (likely by a user-mod), rather than a deliberate attempt from Evernote staff to censor discussion. 

1) Evernote Staff have been fairly committed, for years, to allowing as open and free discussion here as is reasonable. Short of some dramatic change in philosophy deleting posts would be extremely out of the ordinary. 

2) The posts being deleted are odd in that they are far from the lowest hanging fruit. Indeed the reneged posts are relatively benign compared to, say, the "Power User Discontent" thread which is still kicking around. 

[logandb 227]

 

Since I had just been in that thread, my first thought was perhaps I had accidentally hidden it b/c I was using my iPad & sometimes taps are slow & may get 'buffered'.  (Evangelists used to be able to 'hide' threads.)  But I have checked & double checked & when a thread is called up, we can no longer hide or delete threads.  Options are to change subject, move or delete spam.  But these all require multiple taps in the right spot.  So very doubtful it was done by anyone by accident.

 

Actually, it's pretty easy to do, if you're using the right-hand side checkboxes to tick off a big bunch of spam posts. If you accidentally check on one that's not spam, you may not notice it when you do the mass Hide thing which applies to all selected posts.

 

We'll find out.

 

 

I won't admit to it with certainty, but there is a slight possibility it might have been me that inadvertently hid this one along with a quite vigorous batch of spam that came in last night my time (around 12:00 UTC).      It has since been 'unhidden'.  Incidentally, using the 'show hidden' setting in a forum doesn't work for me, which would be a way to check for accidental removals like this one.

 

If it was, then I apologise, if only to stop the conspiracy theories coming!

 

Oh, I had nothing to do with the 'Yosemite' thread mentioned elsewhere that remains inaccessible.

 

Again, sorry to everyone for any inconvenience!

[jefito 5,589]

I won't admit to it with certainty, but there is a slight possibility it might have been me that inadvertently hid this one along with a quite vigorous batch of spam that came in last night my time (around 12:00 UTC).      It has since been 'unhidden'.  Incidentally, using the 'show hidden' setting in a forum doesn't work for me, which would be a way to check for accidental removals like this one.

No problem. A whoopsie is what it felt like, and it's good to know that Evernote isn't censoring content that may not reflect well on them. And good to know that you're on the anti-spam patrol, too.

 

The "show hidden" doesn't work for me, either. 

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Ah, that's bound to happen from time to time. No harm done, easily fixed, etc etc.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Yes, it's back now.

[Metrodon 2,184]

I'm going to keep my tin foil hat handy just in case.

[charboyd 272]

Here is another thread that has been removed:

 

Switching accounts on yosemite

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/73868-switching-accounts-on-yosemite/

No need for tin foil hats. No one is being censored except for spam. This issue was posted 5 times by the user. You can find it here: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/73867-switching-accounts-on-yosemite/#entry318307

[gbarry 2,658]

It was accidentally hidden and we reverted it, no biggie, it happens.

 

I'll see about show hidden working, I had tweaked some options based on SPGScott's feedback, but looks like it's not working.

 

As for that Yosemite thread, it was probably merged with another--we occasionally move through and merge similar topics so that they're easier to find--the one side effect of a merge is that it kills one of the topic links. If you have some notifications that you wouldn't mind forwarding to me, I can try to find it on the forum. We don't delete threads unless they are completely filled with inflammatory nonsense, and even in those cases we try to excise and remove the bad content while leaving the original conversation that was on rails. The last time we did a mass removal of topics, some of you may remember, was for Evernote Windows 2.0.

[gbarry 2,658]

Welp, Charlotte dropped in and proved me wrong on the Yosemite thread

 

It happens.

[spg SCOTT 736]

 

I'll see about show hidden working, I had tweaked some options based on SPGScott's feedback, but looks like it's not working.

 

 

 

I will expand on this just a little, if Geoff is ok with it.

 

Effectively, in an effort to try and make this all work a little better, I have been pestering him for more options

I was (am) quite aware of how an accidentally hidden post can cause a lot of noise, with various "reasons" being thrown around. At the end of the day though, if someone is hiding multiple posts and accidentally ticks one too many, then it can happen. Seriously, it can be rather easy to do!

 

I had asked for a way to revert mistakes if we had made them (assuming we realised that is) rather than have to have a thread like this, where speculation can get a little out of hand if we are not careful.

 

The show hidden, is a tough one, because it is one of the options that skews that line we are all trying to work out here, as it is a little more powerful than just that. Also, I think the way the forum software works, this option includes a few others, which are not ideal.

 

 

 

So, it is still a changing area with regards to moderation and we are all trying to get it right.

 

Might not be necessary to point out for most, if not all, but currently, the best thing to do should this happen is to send a message to either Geoff or Charlotte above. They are the ones who can delve into it and work out what happened, fixing any mistakes or what have you. If a thread does show up like this, then you can report it to them too, so that they see it.

 

Scott