Account on the site has been nuked - um, what? Why?

[Sage of Discord]

Exactly what it says on the tin.  I haven’t actually logged into the site for a while (I’d usually have to try a few times for some reason, so I typically didn’t bother if I was just browsing), but tried to follow a direct link to my profile – https://members.adult-fanfiction.org/profile.php?no=1296784739 – which now says “Invalid Profile!”.  Searching for my name returns “No Results found”, and I’m no longer in the Member Directory either.  Have – have I been uncreated? O_O

[WillowDarkling]

Whoops!   I’m pretty sure that this should not be the case, but hang tight @BronxWench  will be online (hopefully) a little later, and she can check the records since I don’t have access to those. But as far as I can see there’s been no action by the staff that would cause your profile to be removed. 

I’m tagging @DemonGoddess and @manta2g  here too, so they can check on the Archive, in case there’s been another attack. 

I really hope we’ll have this sorted very soon for you. 

Willow Darkling, forum moderator. 

[BronxWench]

Do you use the same email address on the archive as you do on the forum?

The reason I ask is that we’ve been doing a clean-up of duplicate accounts as prep for (hopefully!) unlocking the site. Prior to the last major code revision, the database allowed the same email address to be used to create multiple accounts, and we’ve been going back and merging all data from those duplicate accounts into the initial account, and then removing the now-empty duplicates so that there is only one account per email address.

The email address you have on the forum account isn’t showing up in my archive database, nor is it on the duplicates we have not yet processed. But, if you’re using a different email address in the archive, it would both explain why I can’t find you and help me locate you again. If you do use a different address, you can PM me with that information, since posting email addresses on an open forum is an invitation to spammers. If yo use the same address, I’ll need either @DemonGoddess or @manta2g to dig deeper, since I don’t have their level of access to information in the database.

Edited December 31, 2022 by BronxWench

[Sage of Discord]

I actually have two accounts, the other one is fine (seperate browsers though).  Using what should  be the address tied to this account (I PMed you) gets me "The e-mail you provided may not be registred or is registerd multiple times, please contact support or try registering", while trying the one from my other browser gets “Your password reset could not be completed due to a systems error, please contact the site admins.”

FWIW, using Google to search reviews I know I’ve left has them under the name ANON.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Sage of Discord

[DemonGoddess]

Link to the account that still shows, and I can find out what exactly the email address is for that one.  

[BronxWench]

I found the other account:  https://members.adult-fanfiction.org/profile.php?no=1296861287

[Sage of Discord]

Yep

[Sage of Discord]

I mean, this is almost the very definition of a first world problem, but it kinda stings, y’know?  I actually had the first published Mass Effect  fic on the site, and now that’s gone.

[DemonGoddess]

Different yahoo email for that account, than what you show for forum

[Sage of Discord]

Um, yes?  That  account is working fine (or at least is still there).  But the one with this name (and I can’t believe I just thought to do this), the ID number for the now-missing account is 1296784739.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Sage of Discord

[DemonGoddess]

Well, having searched where I’ve had to delete minors, plagues and trolls; I ruled that out.  So, that means that somehow it showed as duplicate accounts (whether by birthday and real name, or whatever tied them together) and the accounts were then merged.

[Sage of Discord]

Not sure why that would have happened, the ‘other’ account was part of a short-lived experiment in creating a second digital identity, with a different name, DOB, etc.

[Sage of Discord]

I’m also pretty sure this was way before the ‘no alts’ rule. 

[DemonGoddess]

The no alts rule has been in place for many, many years.

[Sage of Discord]

That would have been around 07, 08 (when the ‘other’ account was created).  I’m sorry to say I had a bad habit back then of just skimming most TOS.

[Sage of Discord]

Any news?  I’m guessing not, but didn’t want to bug anyone over the holiday.

[GeorgeGlass]

22 hours ago, Sage of Discord said:

Any news?  I’m guessing not, but didn’t want to bug anyone over the holiday.

Just so we’re clear: Did one or more stories of yours get deleted, or were they just moved to a different account?

In case it helps you to know this, here is the process we’ve been using to deal with duplicate accounts (ie, accounts associated with the same email address as the original account):

1. The username of the original account is changed to that of the most recent duplicate account.
2. Stories and reviews from all duplicate accounts are merged into the original account.
3. The duplicate accounts are deleted.

[BronxWench]

The email addresses were different, so we wouldn’t have merged the accounts as part of the cleanup.

That’s not to say that the account wasn’t flagged as an alt account, which isn’t allowed, but I didn’t process that as far as I can tell from our records. The last one I processed was a couple of years ago, when someone decided to create 9 different accounts using 9 different emails. All those stories under the 9 accounts were merged into one account and 8 of the alts were deleted. So even if the account had been flagged as an alt, the stories should have been merged, which is not the case here.

I’m hoping someone with full access to the database can help, because I’m not able to do more than check the active member profiles, and I’m getting the same “Invalid Profile” response.

[Sage of Discord]

On 1/7/2023 at 11:15 AM, GeorgeGlass said:

Just so we’re clear: Did one or more stories of yours get deleted, or were they just moved to a different account?

In case it helps you to know this, here is the process we’ve been using to deal with duplicate accounts (ie, accounts associated with the same email address as the original account):

1. The username of the original account is changed to that of the most recent duplicate account.
2. Stories and reviews from all duplicate accounts are merged into the original account.
3. The duplicate accounts are deleted.

The stories and account were both deleted as far as I can tell.  The profile is gone (attempting to log in does nothing), and searching for the stories through Google returns the ‘The dragons running the back end of the site can not seem to find the story you are looking for.’ message.

 

 

[Sage of Discord]

So  suppose there’s no solution?  Somewhat disheartening, but as I’ve said before, very much a first world problem. 😕

[BronxWench]

At the moment, since we’ve finally managed to finish that massive cleanup, our coder is focused on getting the first phase of unlocking the site ready to go. Hopefully, after that process is underway, she might be able to tell us more from her perspective.

[Sage of Discord]

Grazi.

[Sage of Discord]

So I got an “AFF E-Mail Validation and Password Reset” email, text of

 

“AFF is gearing up to come out of read only mode. For our valued members this means re-verifying your e-mail adress and resetting your password. We know this is a bit of a hassle but we want to make sure all user accounts are secure.”

 

with some links.  Would using this/these help at all, or only add more confusion to the system?

[BronxWench]

1 hour ago, Sage of Discord said:

So I got an “AFF E-Mail Validation and Password Reset” email, text of

 

“AFF is gearing up to come out of read only mode. For our valued members this means re-verifying your e-mail adress and resetting your password. We know this is a bit of a hassle but we want to make sure all user accounts are secure.”

 

with some links.  Would using this/these help at all, or only add more confusion to the system?

Honestly, I’m baffled. I don’t think it could hurt to try, especially since you identified the account as gone before we sent out those emails. I just wouldn’t hold out too much hope.

 

[Sage of Discord]

Sadly, you were right.