Talk to the Paw

[Shadowpaw]

So some random account got deleted? Were they real members, or NPCs?

Real members. I don't remember the specifics since it happened so long ago but I remember getting emails and IMs from people asking why so and so couldn't log in (I think "Me" was affected... can't remember the others). The problem was two-fold... threads that the user had posted in were completey messed up (you couldn't open the last page of the thread because all of that users posts simply vanished...) and the other issue is that users couldn't log into their accounts.

I looked into it and found their user entry in the database had completely vanished. Their posts remained in the database but if user "666" (as an example... hehe, Gabriel Dragsack's ID) couldn't be found, the posts couldn't be linked to anyone, so the board counted up the proper number of posts, but when it tried to display the posts, it failed because the database was missing critical data it needed.

I never figured out what caused it... it was just a glitch that couldn't be replicated. It happened 2 or 3 times in the span of a couple months... each time I was able to restore the user data from backups I had of the board so we never actually lost huge chunks of data and to prevent the issue from happening again, I changed the storage engine of the users table from MyISAM to InnoDB... it probably means nothing to most people here, but InnoDB is more reliable and when writing to the table, it actually has the ability to fail... MyISAM was not as stable and my guess at that time (and since it never happened again was probably right...) is that the user table was attempting an update command on that particular user, subsequently failed, and then corrupted that entry. If a similiar instance happened on the InnoDB engine, the original line would be restored and the changes would simply fail... no corruption would occur.

That's probably a more technical answer than you need... but yeah, it was a real bug that occured at random.

[Laura Ingalls]

Yup, I was one of those affected. I remember well that panicked feeling that swept over me when I couldn't log on and all my posts were gone!

[bookworm]

That's probably a more technical answer than you need... but yeah, it was a real bug that occured at random.

Not at all, that was perfect.
Did the affected users need to create new accounts and start all over?

[Oba-rai]

Wow, I just checked this thread. I was actually not paying attention to it forever because I tend to ignore everything that isn't immediately pressing or interesting. But YAY SHADOWPAW. We love you, clearly.

What was your first reaction to Catspaw's ToO Hearts Turning show? Other than realizing that Catspaw was madly in love with you.

(and still is? things never change here)

[bookworm]

Clarified question:

So did the users who lost their accounts need to completely start over (as for join date, post count, etc) or was there some way to return the stats when they recreated their accounts?


And new question:

"May 1: Shadowpaw is de-admined / jailed and renamed 1115100040"

Do those numbers have a significance?

[Shadowpaw]

Clarified question:

So did the users who lost their accounts need to completely start over (as for join date, post count, etc) or was there some way to return the stats when they recreated their accounts?

No one had to start over and their accounts weren't recreated. The best way I can explain it is that the database is like a giant jigsaw puzzle... everything connects to everything else and in this case, the piece that held the user information went missing. Once I got the information from the backups and re-entered it (put the "piece" back in the puzzle) everything continued working like nothing had happened.

And new question:

"May 1: Shadowpaw is de-admined / jailed and renamed 1115100040"

Do those numbers have a significance?

It's been years and years since that happened, so I can't really tell you what it was for, but 11510040 is the UNIX time for Tue, 3 May 2005 06:00:40 UTC. The puzzle probably revolved around that date in some way and using something obscure like a UNIX timestamp was a way to keep people busy until they figured out that's what it was. But no, I don't remember specifically what I had choosen that number for... though I'm sure a quick look around the board around that time we'll show what it was once people figured it out.

[Shadowfax]

Woah. I never noticed you were here.

Well, you never met me, but I'm a big fan. And I just want to shake your hand.

[StrongNChrist]

Shadowpaw's been on!
You've never met me but I've heard tons about you. You're very popular. So it's a pleasure to finally be able to meet you

[bookworm]

Once I got the information from the backups and re-entered it (put the "piece" back in the puzzle) everything continued working like nothing had happened.

That's what I figured.


Do you remember (roughly) what the vote ratio was in the election after the runoff, when Dr. Blackgaard was elected?
Did more of the real votes go to Gabe/Fenix or David O/JesusFreak777 before you made it a tie?
Or was there even a real tally because you knew what the outcome was going to be?

[Shadowpaw]

Nice to meet you Shadowfax and StrongNChrist!

Do you remember (roughly) what the vote ratio was in the election after the runoff, when Dr. Blackgaard was elected?
Did more of the real votes go to Gabe/Fenix or David O/JesusFreak777 before you made it a tie?
Or was there even a real tally because you knew what the outcome was going to be?

I'm afraid I don't remember what the exact tally was. Definitely more real votes went to David O and JesusFreak... but I was still surprised that Gabe and Fenix were hovering around 30 legitimate votes. I think I just halved the difference shortly before the election (so if 30 votes separated the two teams, I added 15 to Gabe and Fenix and removed 15 from David O and JesusFreak).

[bookworm]

I didn’t expect you to remember exactly, I just wanted to know who got more. I figured the other team did.

Could you please briefly recap how the clone users were involved in everything that went on? What exactly was their purpose? What did they do? My understanding was a bit fuzzy on that aspect.

[Shadowpaw]

My memory is a bit fuzzy on that aspect as well. The point of the clone users was two-fold... one, to get more people personally attached to the storylines and two, to plant the seed that cloning was a direction the storyline was going. With the DNA strand being stolen, and "Project D.O.L.L.Y." being on the stock market, I wanted people to start piecing it together that something was happening. The "clones" were poor prototypes that Glossman and Bovril had created in an effort to perfect their cloning technology. But, as the story unfolded, they realized their technology was flawed and they weren't able to create a Blackgaard clone, and instead, settled on creating harvesting the clones for parts to "fix" the real Blackgaard (kind of like an extreme plastic surgery).

It sounds all really silly now but it made sense at the time.

I believe the clones were the ones who planted the bombs throughout the various message boards. They needed to send people to plant these bombs and didn't care what happened to them, as they were useless (and broken) prototypes.

[jelly]

Was there any significance to the Trent DeBlack account, being that it was user number 777 vs Gabe's account being user number 666?

[Shadowpaw]

Was there any significance to the Trent DeBlack account, being that it was user number 777 vs Gabe's account being user number 666?

Haha no, Trent DeBlack just happened to be the 112 user to sign up after Gabriel.

112 you say? 666 + 112 is 778? Well, yes, I changed Gabriel's user id about a week after I created him. Gabriel was the 665 person... I noticed just how close he was to being 666 and he had only made a few posts at that point in time so I manually tweaked the database so that all posts and private messages by user 666 and 665 were swapped). I felt it would add up to a nice clue later on in the arc.

[jelly]

Brilliant, I say.

[bookworm]

I believe the clones were the ones who planted the bombs throughout the various message boards.

Ah, that's right.

Hmm, speaking of the clones I think I have something about that in my archive. Let me check…
Yep! Interesting. I’ll post it in The Fenix Interview.

I noticed just how close he was to being 666 and he had only made a few posts at that point in time so I manually tweaked the database so that all posts and private messages by user 666 and 665 were swapped

Wow, I always assumed it was done on purpose. That was one of the best little clues! I’m glad it worked out that way then.



Was it always planned that Blackgaard would kill Davari?