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by Mike Masnick


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Where Did All My Comments Go?

from the that-would-be-a-big-oops dept

So.... some of you may have posted some comments on Techdirt this morning and are now noticing that those comments are gone. Kaput. Missing. This is especially ironic, considering the story this morning getting the most comments was about Amazon's "glitch" in deleting reviews. Well, we're not going to blame a glitch. We're going to blame ourselves for screwing up, royally. While doing some ordinary maintenance work, we accidentally blew up the entire comment database. That was fun. And, not only that, but our backup plan didn't quite work as planned, and we were only able to restore comments up through midnight last night. That means, basically, all the comments from the first 11 hours this morning are gone. Yes. This sucks. Yes, all of us here feel completely awful about it. And, yes, guess what we're doing today? That's right: building a better backup system. So, our sincerest, deepest apologies for screwing this one up. But, if you commented earlier, and feel like taking a second chance at saying what you said, get to it. Update: BackType, a comment search engine, actually rescued our comments. So almost all (or perhaps all) of the missing comments are now back! Huge thank you to BackType.

41 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 11:32am
  • If you can read this....

    by Dan

    If you can read this....they must have it fixed. LOL!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 11:41am
  • Shit Happens

    by Jake

    Kudos for the zero-BS explanation, and don't feel too bad; what last-desperate-resort backup plan ever works out as well as you hope it would, particularly when you can't easily test it?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 11:44am
  • by Jesse

    The timing of it is perfect! Loves it.

    Kudos for zero-BS. Who can get upset with that

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 11:46am
  • by Dan

    Thanks for reminding me to back up my OWN site :).

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 11:48am
  • brazenly speaking for others

    by Dosquatch

    If only all companies would be so honest with their mea culpas. Stuff happens, and I think everybody in tech has had a moment or two like this. So, to all y'all up there, know that a bunch of us out here completely understand.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 11:57am
  • Fine by me...

    by Yo ho ho...

    ... most of the comments on this site should be flushed away regularly...

    (yes, including all of mine too).

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 11:59am
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Only if I could say this to my boss when the backups finally die in a horrible way and he'd be so accepting and understanding to my plight... I do try my best at making sure such things never happen but it's always the thing you never planned for is what bites you in the ass.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 12:10pm
  • by Lost in NJ

    well i'm not going to bother with that so let it be a mystery.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 12:11pm
  • Fast Recovery

    by Milan Olofsson

    I’m impressed with the speed of recovery. I clicked on ‘reply to this comment’ in an earlier article, input my comment – ok, it was a long and rambling comment – by the time I’d clicked submit, there was this article already here explaining why the comment I was replying to wasn’t there anymore and what was recoverable of the comments database had been recovered.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 12:14pm
  • by Trevlac

    props for owning up to it and no BS.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 12:14pm
  • Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good

    by Lonnie E. Holder

    I am glad that digital stuff is an inifinite good, otherwise we might have lost something valuable.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 1:21pm
    • Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good

      by icon Killer_Tofu (profile)

      Wow Lonnie.
      Even in an apologetic post by Mike, you manage to not understand how things work.
      Our comments are technically infinite, yes.
      However, that doesn't mean they are not valuable.
      Price != Value.
      It is VERY simple really.
      Our comments do have value as they add to discussion.
      However, they are priceless. (har har har, couldn't resist)

      But, in short, you are still wrong.

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

      • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 1:34pm
      • Re: Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good

        by nasch

        Personally I found his comment hilarious, whether he was joking or not. :-)

        (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

      • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 2:10pm
      • Re: Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good

        by Lonnie E. Holder

        Our comments do have value as they add to discussion.

        Except, of course, when they subtract from the discussion, then deletion of the comments actually gains value.

        (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

        • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 2:58pm
        • Re: Re: Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good

          by Anonymous Coward

          Maybe there could be a "glitch" that would remove everything "angry dude" ever posted.

          (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

          • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 7:22pm
          • Re: Re: Re: Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good

            by Lonnie E. Holder

            Angry Dude, are you going to just lay down and take this or are you going to fight like an infinite good - or is that scarce good? Whatever! Looking for a snappy comeback.

            (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 12:32pm
  • Incipidious Drivelings of a State-of-the-Art Circumvision of the way the WORLD used to be

    by Sir Loins Alot

    This message will self-destruct in 3.........2.........1......Gotcha!!!

    Better luck next time suckas...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 12:34pm
  • by Eeqmcsq

    Well, at least it wasn't an rm -rf / type of mistake.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 12:41pm
  • Backups are important

    by KJ

    I told my parents they should back up their computer - they pushed it out the window....needless to say, it crashed.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 12:56pm
  • aha! a glitch!

    So, it wasn't a glitch in your comment database, it was a glitch in your backup process.

    Still a glitch! (yes, that was a bad joke, if you don't get it, don't worry)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 1:01pm
  • It's no big thing.

    by Anonymous of Course

    But what I want to know is did any comments
    by Dorpus get caught in the glitch?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 1:25pm
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I insist on a refund. I want my money back.

    Oh, right. I haven't spent any money commenting here.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 2:06pm
  • by Anonymous Coward

    First!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 2:17pm
  • No way!

    by Nate

    No way, dude. My comment earlier was pure gold. You can't just duplicate a masterpiece. Shame on you.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 2:50pm
  • If it's a big deal...

    by Not Applicable

    for someone to have a few of their comments accidentally deleted from a blog, they need to get some new priorities.
    As for you, Techdirt, way to own up to your mistake. Though I think some of your writers are just plain crazy sometimes, your admission bought you tons of credibility with me.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 2:58pm
  • by Chunky Vomit

    Somebody must have said something bad about techdirt in the comments.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 3:26pm
  • oh noes!!!1!

    the amazon glitch is spreading, oh shit son!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 4:24pm
  • I'm just sayin'...

    by Senoj Caine

    PEBKAC

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 6:56pm
  • LMAO!

    by Fubar4fun

    BACKUPS!!!!

    ...............WEEE DOH NEEED NO STEENKIN BACKUPS!!!!!"





    What a Maroon....

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 23rd, 2008 @ 8:18pm
  • by Anonymous Coward

    This comment deleted by NSA: America's cryptologic organization.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 24th, 2008 @ 1:40am
  • by Trevlac

    To everyone screaming "backups" it's pretty clear you don't understand how servers work. They backup on a schedule, usually middle of the night. Anything that would happen in the morning (after the backup) wouldn't be saved. It would have to wait for that night.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Oct 24th, 2008 @ 12:25pm
  • two types of IT admins

    by another mike

    I posted this in the follow-up story but it bears repeating:
    There are two types of IT guys.
    Those with comprehensive, tested, validated back-up solutions, and those whose systems haven't crashed yet.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Aug 24th, 2009 @ 9:56am
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I actually went into Yahoo Cache and stored comments on some stuff I wanted before they were gone.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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