Where Did All My Comments Go?

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

Thu, Oct 23rd 2008 11:27am — Mike Masnick

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.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: comments

41 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Dan, 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:32am

If you can read this....
If you can read this....they must have it fixed. LOL!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Jake, 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:41am

Shit Happens
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?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Jesse, 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:44am

The timing of it is perfect! Loves it.

Kudos for zero-BS. Who can get upset with that
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dan, 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:46am

Thanks for reminding me to back up my OWN site :).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dosquatch, 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:48am

brazenly speaking for others
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yo ho ho..., 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:57am

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

(yes, including all of mine too).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 11:59am

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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lost in NJ, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:10pm

well i'm not going to bother with that so let it be a mystery.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Milan Olofsson, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:11pm

Fast Recovery
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Trevlac, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:14pm

props for owning up to it and no BS.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lonnie E. Holder, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:14pm

Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good
I am glad that digital stuff is an inifinite good, otherwise we might have lost something valuable.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Killer_Tofu (profile), 23 Oct 2008 @ 1:21pm
  
  Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good
  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.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - nasch, 23 Oct 2008 @ 1:34pm
    
    Re: Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good
    Personally I found his comment hilarious, whether he was joking or not. :-)
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Lonnie E. Holder, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:07pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good
      Well, at least one person recognizes a joke when they see it.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Lonnie E. Holder, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:10pm
    
    Re: Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good
    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.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:58pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good
      Maybe there could be a "glitch" that would remove everything "angry dude" ever posted.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Lonnie E. Holder, 23 Oct 2008 @ 7:22pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Good Thing It's an Inifinite Good
        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.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sir Loins Alot, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:32pm

Incipidious Drivelings of a State-of-the-Art Circumvision of the way the WORLD used to be
This message will self-destruct in 3.........2.........1......Gotcha!!!

Better luck next time suckas...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Eeqmcsq, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:34pm

Well, at least it wasn't an rm -rf / type of mistake.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Jon, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:43pm
  
  Re:
  One of my favorites is "chown -R root.root /" While not entirely destructive, will cause you endless grief as you sort out access problems.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Tevlac, 24 Oct 2008 @ 1:37am
    
    Re: Re:
    My personal favorite:
    cd/usr/bin && chmod 000 *
    
    Headaches.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
KJ, 23 Oct 2008 @ 12:41pm

Backups are important
I told my parents they should back up their computer - they pushed it out the window....needless to say, it crashed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
some old guy, 23 Oct 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)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous of Course, 23 Oct 2008 @ 1:01pm

It's no big thing.
But what I want to know is did any comments
by Dorpus get caught in the glitch?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Mischa, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:45pm
  
  Re: It's no big thing.
  Yes.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 1:25pm

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

Oh, right. I haven't spent any money commenting here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:06pm

First!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nate, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:17pm

No way!
No way, dude. My comment earlier was pure gold. You can't just duplicate a masterpiece. Shame on you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Lonnie E. Holder, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:22pm
  
  Re: No way!
  I do not see another comment by you earlier.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not Applicable, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:50pm

If it's a big deal...
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Chunky Vomit, 23 Oct 2008 @ 2:58pm

Somebody must have said something bad about techdirt in the comments.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
chris (profile), 23 Oct 2008 @ 3:26pm

oh noes!!!1!
the amazon glitch is spreading, oh shit son!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Senoj Caine, 23 Oct 2008 @ 4:24pm

I'm just sayin'...
PEBKAC
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Fubar4fun, 23 Oct 2008 @ 6:56pm

LMAO!
BACKUPS!!!!

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

What a Maroon....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2008 @ 8:18pm

This comment deleted by NSA: America's cryptologic organization.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- thomas, 23 Oct 2008 @ 8:28pm
  
  Re:
  NSA? I thought they were part of the Gestapo.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Trevlac, 24 Oct 2008 @ 1:40am

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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2008 @ 5:23am
  
  Re:
  Trevlac...it would appear that you don't understand how Techdirt backups work...
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
another mike, 24 Oct 2008 @ 12:25pm

two types of IT admins
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2009 @ 9:56am

I actually went into Yahoo Cache and stored comments on some stuff I wanted before they were gone.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2009 @ 10:06am
  
  Re:
  Oh wait, this was an older thread. I thought it was newer. N/M.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]