the delphic expanse

Panyasan's, a long time member, account has gone poof! Disappeared. She can't log on and I can't find it in the ACP. I looked in the tables, but not too carefully and it's a long list.

But any ideas? Anyone?

The account table is usually a primary table, meaning that if the account is gone (which it looks like according to the member list) the whole record is gone, meaning that a lot of foreign key entries are now orphaned. I tried to find some of her posts, but nada, confirming that a primary key entry is missing.

Since she's a long time member, an overwrite with an obsolete backup appears unlikely, which leaves an accidental DELETE or a corruption of the users table as the likely culprit.

Honeybee, does it help at all that when you count how many members you can see on the member list, you get 110, but the member table itself says there are 111? Or is that what you just said?

I looked in one place where I knew she had posts because she fixed my Japanese in a drabble. Her original posts are gone, but where I've quoted them, the quote is still visible.

That's very helpful Glory! I will look into that.

If you can access the database, try running a query to see if you can pull up her account name that way. Also, you can sometimes search the table by email address and not username. Sometimes during a re-install of forum software usernames can be corrupted, so searching by email is a good backup.

That's all I got without physically looking at it.

She's back!

This was another symptom of the previously mentioned mySQL server crashes. A table was corrupted and the "repair table" function that was used to fix it, deleted that record. Her record's been restored from the backups I have. All her posts are back and she's visible in the ACP too. She should be able to login again.

EntAllat wrote:She's back!

I am! It was weird to log in and get the message "this login name doesn't exist" (like standing in front of the window of a house and seeing all the fun and shouting "I want in, I want in"). But I am back now.
Thanks everyone for your efforts!

Glad you're back, Panyasan! Your experience reminds me of a fic (which I can't find at the moment) where Malcolm goes through the tortures of the damned trying to prove to Starfleet that, contrary to popular belief and HR's computer, he isn't dead yet.

Glory1863, I think that this is what you were referring to: Written Off by Exploded Pen and The Libran Iniquity http://fiction.entstcommunity.org/views ... p?sid=3918

Yep, that's the one, Hummingbird2. Thanks! Hope everyone gets a chuckle out of it.