Hi!

I hope I'm throwing this thread into a correct (sub)forum, at least I think this should be the correct one. If it's wrong, please, make sure the tar is warm, and don't use chicken's feathers as they make my nose tickle inside, thanks.

I have a suggestion, sort of request for a change to a certain page I've hit few times. It's that Oops!-page, where reads the same text as title of this thread: "You don't have access to this post, most likely because it's been deleted." Or either a change to an email, which merely indicates that following article(s) have recently been updated and which contains links that may lead to said page.

A little background-story which led to this writing:

When I did first hit to this abovementioned page thru a link in email, I thought that the original thread was deleted. I was rather happy about it, as it offered a bad advice without a clear warning. Person who would ignore the replies, would be horribly misguided. (No, I'm not exaggerating. I never do such a thing.)

Second time when I yet again hit that page, from a link in email which pointed to a thread (as I earlier thought) same as earlier, I was baffled. Why I couldn't see the thread, yet I get informed that there's an update on it? Was I somehow blocked from it?

At third time, I was getting frustrated and annoyed: If there's an update on a certain thread, why I'm not allowed to see it? If I'm not allowed to see it, why I'm getting these notifies? Bah!

I'm not sure whether today was a fourth, or tenth time. Twentieth? I doubt that. But this time, I stopped to think about it a bit. What if I'm misunderstanding something? What if the URL is pointing to a certain reply itself, not a thread? I decided to test my theory with a search, and vóila, there it was; the haunting thread I was receiving notifies about really is there. And the bloody links in those emails do point to a new post, which in this case was most likely deleted, propably for being spam.

During writing this (I'm a slow writer), I've been also thinking about easiest way to produce a useful change, without a terrible amount of redesign and rewrite. I'd guess it would be adding another link, below the link in email which points to the reply, but this one points to the thread instead. Something similar to this:

The following article(s) have recently been updated:

99.9 Replies ; Last updated 20 Minutes Ago by Somefunnyguy
Read whole thread

Or original thread's ID could be embedded into the link URL, which in return can be used to produce a link on the Oops!-page pointing to the original thread, in case user ends up there.

Third, which might cause increase of "unnecessary" data (depending on how innards of this forum works), could be a "placeholder" in the database for a deleted post - just like any other entry for a post, with exception that this one contains only the most necessary data. Could also be produced from original entry, of course. This placeholder could also contain a flag that indicates that this specific post is actually deleted, removing a possibility for a reader to gain suspect that Daniweb's hiding something because of this obscure message claiming that said post is most likely deleted. Plus it could still contain an ID to the original thread, thus making it easier to reach the actual thread, when user is accessing the site with direct link to a deleted post. This would nullify a need for modifying abovementioned email template in any way, while doing otherwise (visually) same job as second option.

Cheers!

Ps. Where in the World Is "preview post"?!

Looks like the replies you got the updates for have subsequently by a moderator (me) because they are spam (or otherwise in violation of our rules). Unfortunately, they are deleted after you have been notified that there was an update.

I agree that the "Oops" page is not very user-friendly. Am sure Dani will reply in a while with something more specific.

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