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felix · 2012-12-08, 21:37

Technically speaking this sort of thing is a limitation on how the underlying software works rather then how the database engine works. To put it simply, the database couldn't care less.

It's very easy to set constraints on all tables so that if an account is deleted they will act appropriately (ie. delete themselves or set themselves to null, as in nothing). Obviously a post with no author is a post that's anonymous. I haven't used vB in a long time, but as I recall they refer to said user as "Guest" which I assume is because it's linked to their "posting with out login" features. When you delete a user from the system their posts become "Guest" posts.

There is also no issue with records missing, ie. having only 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 (note missing 4 and 5) and so on; unless again the way the software is using the database makes it into a problem. So your profile data and so forth just getting pruned out, is really not an issue either.

Is it bad if a post loses the original author? Well, no. Let's say a post message was a mathematical theorem, and the author was well the author of said theorem. Does knowing the author matter? Who's the author of the number i, do you know? How about another abstract number like 0? I believe most people here will be inclined towards thinking it's wrong, simply because there's all this reply and quoting going on. However, if you think of it, if I take a back and forth discussion, and blank out all the messages from the posts, what I am left with is garbage. It's really fancy garbage because we got fancy pictures, pointy-text and a big green dong, among other things, but in the end it's all just a name, and the name means little to the post; other then a signature. On the other hand if I have the messages I can still read everything just fine; even if say I'm not following it for the connection between ideas, I can still follow it fine because the order doesn't change, just like in a book you can tell who's talking even if every line of dialog doesn't explicitly mention the character who's talking (every time).

2012-12-08, 21:37	Link #6512
felix sleepyhead Author Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: event horizon	Technically speaking this sort of thing is a limitation on how the underlying software works rather then how the database engine works. To put it simply, the database couldn't care less. It's very easy to set constraints on all tables so that if an account is deleted they will act appropriately (ie. delete themselves or set themselves to null, as in nothing). Obviously a post with no author is a post that's anonymous. I haven't used vB in a long time, but as I recall they refer to said user as "Guest" which I assume is because it's linked to their "posting with out login" features. When you delete a user from the system their posts become "Guest" posts. There is also no issue with records missing, ie. having only 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 (note missing 4 and 5) and so on; unless again the way the software is using the database makes it into a problem. So your profile data and so forth just getting pruned out, is really not an issue either. Is it bad if a post loses the original author? Well, no. Let's say a post message was a mathematical theorem, and the author was well the author of said theorem. Does knowing the author matter? Who's the author of the number i, do you know? How about another abstract number like 0? I believe most people here will be inclined towards thinking it's wrong, simply because there's all this reply and quoting going on. However, if you think of it, if I take a back and forth discussion, and blank out all the messages from the posts, what I am left with is garbage. It's really fancy garbage because we got fancy pictures, pointy-text and a big green dong, among other things, but in the end it's all just a name, and the name means little to the post; other then a signature. On the other hand if I have the messages I can still read everything just fine; even if say I'm not following it for the connection between ideas, I can still follow it fine because the order doesn't change, just like in a book you can tell who's talking even if every line of dialog doesn't explicitly mention the character who's talking (every time). __________________ Last edited by felix; 2012-12-08 at 21:49.