I Screwed Up: Comments Deleted

from the sorry dept

Like plenty of other blogs, we get a fair amount of comment spam, averaging about 1,000 spam messages a day (and going as high as 4,000). We have a decent spam filter that manages to catch the vast majority of them, but a few get through every day. I was just going through today’s comments in our comment admin tool, and was trying to delete the 10 or so spams that had gotten through this morning. In doing so, I clicked on the wrong button, and ended up deleting all of the legitimate comments since about 4am this morning. That was about 400 comments. Yes, it’s ridiculous that our comment admin tool would let me do such thing. Yes, it’s ridiculous that we don’t have a way to go back and retrieve them once deleted. We’re now in the process of changing the comment admin tool to make it so my fat fingers/slow brain won’t be able to make the same mistake again. Apologies all around…


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Comments on “I Screwed Up: Comments Deleted”

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37 Comments
Just Another Joe says:

Mike, It’s completely unAmerican of you to simply admit your mistake. Nothing short of suing the manufacturer of the admin software will do, after all shouldn’t they have created a “oops I F’d it up tool” to recover the lost data. Maybe you could go after the HD manufacturers as well since we all know the data is really there, just not there (awaiting over write). its all a big conspiracy and we have to get the bad guys.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Database with no way to restore to a point in

A Point In Time Restore of an entire database to undo the work of one transaction would not be the best approach.
While SQL Server may be considered an “upgrade” of some sort, it wouldn’t provide any outstanding recovery features. To get that, you need Oracle – then you can undo the effects of one transaction.

Dan says:

Bummer

Eh, I write mostly pointless crap anyway.

But I will say that I wrote a fairly pointless (as usual) post once, and it was flagged as SPAM… system said it would be reviewed and posted (if it wasn’t completely pointless)… but my comment never showed up! So there’s a fairly fine line between offhand comments and SPAM.

Wait… what was my point, again?

Spam King says:

Here's the solution...

Hi Mike,

Just wanted to swing by and let you know about a new solution from Sanders Enterprises called Comment Save. All you do is load our software on your machine and you’ll be able to backtrack and save data in the unfortunate event of lost comments on your board. We can discuss pricing offline if you prefer, but I wanted you to know I am prepared to offer you a significant discount – along the line of 25 percent – should you decide to purchase our products.

Thanks

Steve Sanders

CEO

Alan MadLeese (user link) says:

Transparency has a lovely shine to it ...

What is most remarkable about Mike’s all-too human error is his admission, no bullshit, no alibis, no evasions, just, well, I screwed up. That, to me, a recent arrival in the world of bloggers, although I am not a blogger, is the magic of the Internet, the thing that will make it bigger and better and more empowering. Yeah, we all fuck up, and you do not have to demand a retraction, clarification or admission. Wow. holyfuckingwow, almacleese from hallowell, maine, where life is as it oughta be.

DV Henkel-Wallace says:

You'll be hearing from my lawyers

I am shocked and disappointed that you have infringed my human rights. Help, I’m being repressed! My attorneys will be sending you a demand letter for $2,048,000 and if you do not make good within 24 hours I will go to the feds!

You have been warned. After the feds are done with you I will dig up the landscaping around your (by then former) offices for the platinum bars.

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