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Complaint

  • I think it's sort of crappy that my addition yesterday on Hang Son Doong Cave got entirely deleted, and then today it was re-written as an entirely new post. I understand if you wanted to re-write/edit what I wrote, but it seems a little messed up to delete my post entirely...with no explanation.
    Thanks for reading my grievance and for the wonderful site.

  • Also I was hoping for an explanation or response...

  • Hi Joel,

    So sorry about both the lost post, and the delay in our response. Somehow your forum post slipped past me!

    Not sure exactly what happened with the Hang Son Doong Cave post but I can assure you that it must of been an accident. We do indeed edit posts, but we never delete them, if for no other reason than it makes a heck of a lot more work for us.

    What I imagine happened is that somehow your post was accidently deleted, (the first time I know of it happening) and our editor Nick didn't who had written it in the first place and so just rewrote it.

    Once again my sincere apologies, and know that we both need and cherish the incoming entries. I really hope this doesn't discourage you too much from using or adding to the site!

    Dylan
    COO Atlas Obscura

  • Hey Dylan
    Thanks so much for the nice response. This is easily one of my favorite sites - so your response is a relief and much appreciated.
    And thanks for the fantastic site, I hope to contribute more sometime soon.
    Cheers!
    -joel

  • Great to hear that Joel, if you ever have any further trouble, by all means, please email me at dylan@atlasobscura.com. Thanks again for your patience!

  • Joel and Dylan: There is in fact some sort of bug that eats entire posts. I have posted an article with several pictures of the Vienna Love Parade three separate times over the past six months, and have checked to see that it is added under my contributions on my name page. And, since I have editor privileges I also check to see that it is listed under the "unpublished" articles. In every instance, the next day it is gone without a trace, into the twilight zone. I don't think some other jealous editor has "eaten" it - just a hungry bug.

  • Good to know Ken! We are currently doing an audit of our entire codebase, so hopefully it will turn up whatever is causing the error. Obviously a bug that eats posts is a serious problem! Thanks to both of you for the heads up, and let me know if it happens again, as that may help us find the problem!

  • Dylan: The blog is being overrun by spammers (like PoPot). Can't we delete some of this obvious spam and maybe warn spammers the first time they post something that's obviously off-topic and self-serving? The second time we should ban them from the forum. I'm willing to volunteer for the Spam police force.

  • Hey Ken! Yeah, we are aware. We are going to be relaunching the site in a couple of months with some new UI and design. We are also going to be culling the users of obvious spammers, and putting in some more stringent spam filters and captcha's. In the meantime we would love your help! I can't currently give your the admin privileges to directly delete spammers/spam but if you could email info@atlas.com with the usernames you see putting up spam we will go check on them and either give a warning or delete the account, depending. Thanks again for your long running support and concern, it means a ton to all of us at the Atlas and to me personally!

  • Hey Ken! Yeah, we are aware. We are going to be relaunching the site in a couple of months with some new UI and design. We are also going to be culling the users of obvious spammers, and putting in some more stringent spam filters and captcha's. In the meantime we would love your help! I can't currently give your the admin privileges to directly delete spammers/spam but if you could email info@atlasobscura.com with the usernames you see putting up spam we will go check on them and either give a warning or delete the account, depending. Thanks again for your long running support and concern, it means a ton to all of us at the Atlas and to me personally!

  • Oh important note! The forums are going to be removed, at least for the beginning of the relaunch (should be around March) and probably for a little while after, so we can do some work on them and clean them. Do not be alarmed when we relaunch without them!

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Obscura Day is April 28, 20120
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