Resetting latest/activity after a post deletion?

feature
#1

Hi, everyone!
One of my admins had a question that I think might be a feature request:

Something that’s been annoying me since forever, is the fact that discourse doesn’t reset a thread’s activity time after deleting a post. Like right now there’s that 7 year old thread at the top of the forums because some spammer posted something in it, which itself was deleted. So really as far as the public can tell, the last activity was 7 years ago, not a couple of hours ago. So it shouldn’t be visible in the forums list.

What do you all think? If this is indeed a new feature request, do you all run into this as well?

Thanks,
Kirupa

#2

This is how 99% of forum software works. It is useful to see the bounce so you know spammers are targeting that topic and can take further action.

1 Like
#3

I completely agree with the topic making it to the top when a spammer replies to it. Once we delete the spammer’s response, do you still feel that the topic needs to still appear at the top?

I checked in vBulletin, and the behavior isn’t the same. When I delete the last response, the threads are ordered again by the last post date. That ensures ancient topics return back into their deep slumber once the spam post that bumped it up is deleted :stuck_out_tongue:

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#4

So…I deleted a spam post today that bumped up an ancient thread, and that post disappeared from the front page after deleting the spam. That’s the behavior I would expect. In another thread, I did the same exact thing but the result was different. The spam response was deleted, but the thread remained at the top. That’s not the behavior I want.

Could I be running into some sort of a bug? What is the expected behavior?

:slight_smile:

#5

Where did you delete the spam post from Akismet, Needs Approval Queue, or directly from the topic?

1 Like
#6

Directly from the topic.

#7

This keeps happening:

  1. Spammer posts on ancient thread.
  2. Ancient thread is on top of the forum.
  3. (This is all normal, expected behavior)
  4. Delete spam post.
  5. Ancient thread remains at the top of the forum.
  6. (This is inconsistent with other forum software, and only happens about 50% of the time. All of these posts are deleted directly from the topic. My expectation is that the ancient post returns to where it was before the now-gone spam activity bumped it up)

Just wanted to bump this up in-case I’ve stumbled on a bug. In that case, it probably isn’t a feature request :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
#8

Are you not running Akismet? Have you changed default Discourse settings related to trust levels? It is just not that common to get spam replies.

#9

I need to go through our recent Akismet posts but I believe those still bump the last post date on a topic. Needs Approval, on the other hand, does not.

Akismet would because the post is actually on the topic in the flow when being dealt with. Needs Approval isn’t because the post isn’t actually on the topic until approved.

Auto reset topic bump date when deleting last post
#10

No, Akismet gets posts blocked before stuff is posted. So that’s not true.

#11

I just proved it on my sandbox. It bumped the topic to the top. Deleted/hide the post, as staff I did confirm and delete user, topic remained bumped.

Very easy to repro.

  1. Create new account
  2. Find old topic
  3. Reply with “bamwar” copied and pasted 30-40 times
  4. Watch Akismet pick up post immediately and PM you about it
  5. Login as staff
  6. Note bumped topic at top of latest
  7. Handle spam post
  8. Topic is still at top of latest

Edit: updated as I suck at mobile posting.

4 Likes
#12

Aha so I was wrong, Akismet wouldn’t help you in this case.

Sorry @kirupa, this isn’t on our roadmap for the forseeable future, as we don’t have (any, that I can receall) paying customers complaining about it. On top of that, I think ghost bumps are correct and proper as they highlight problem topics that tend to attract spam. You could sponsor someone in #marketplace to work on it if you wish.

#13

So I am bumping this. I was just super annoyed as well that a topic stayed bumped even though the spam comment that bumped it was deleted…

1 Like
#14

I keep running into this issue and it’d be awesome to have a setting where deleted spam posts get bumped. @sebastianh, did you ever find a good workaround?

#15

nope, but not sure if still occurs

#16

There is a Reset Bump staff action available now via the topic wrench.

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