Please validate the fix

The posts in my blog…(B&H)

Have buggered timestamps, I think. But may still be sequenced properly. The way the dates are stored though, they likely won’t be after the conversion.

Not sure it has worked 100%

HI Joe,

I'm not sure it has worked cleanly if the times beside the poster's name are supposed to be sequential 

Some background chronology 

After the first upload - February? I noticed the heading #s were missing in the new version of the forum. Between 12th April and 25th April all my posts in this topic were edited to add a topic heading into the text panel. These topic headings were carried over an appeared successfully in my posts in the new version after the April upload. 

All of my posts added to this current forum version after April had the topic heading copied and inserted into each post before posting to the server. 

When the full extent of the posting miss-ordering in this topic after the April upload was determined in about August, I was given permission for and attempted a forced reordering of the topic by manually editing ALL posts in this thread. This commenced in early September and was completed by the 14th September, prior to the last aborted upload. 

What I am not seeing is a whole lot of September update time stamps on other peoples posts in this topic from when I went through sequentially and added topic headings to their posts. But I am seeing a whole lot of April updates timestamps. 

I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like the update facility that resets the time stamps in this current forum could be broken?   Probably sometime between April and September of this year. 

For my Corrimal thread on Page 1  https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/corrimal-colliery-and-its-incline-a-different-slant-on-rails-12206968

Page 1 by post time, post # with comments 

0 = Mon, 2017-05-29 00:36 (Initial post)

1 = Mon, 2017-05-29 09:46 #comment-286139 - edited in July? 2021 timestamp not altered - header added

2 = Mon, 2017-05-29 10:33 #comment-286140 - edited in July? 2021 timestamp not altered - header added

3 = Mon, 2017-05-29 12:56 #comment-286149 - edited in July? 2021 timestamp not altered - header added

4 = Mon, 2017-05-29 22:21 #comment-286169 - edited in July? 2021 timestamp not altered - header added

5 =  Tue, 2021-04-13 05:47 correct time for edit for topic heading addition

6 = Tue, 2021-04-13 05:47 fix worked

7 = Tue, 2017-05-30 10:53 #comment-286234 edited in July? 2021 timestamp not altered - header added

8 = Mon, 2021-04-12 14:04 #comment-286236 edit time correct but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6

9 = Mon, 2021-04-12 14:06 #comment-286251 edit time correct but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6

10 = Mon, 2021-04-12 14:06  #comment-286261 Fix worked but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6

Suggestion - Posting dates of 13/04/2021 start on page 8 - manually doctor the time codes for posts #5,#6,#7 to earlier than 14:04 on 12 April 2021 - This would fix most of the the timestamp problems listed below for pages 2, 3 below and for and most post times up to the end of Page 7. 

Page 2 

Posts 11 to 16 inclusive all time stamped 12 April - but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6 (13th April)

17 = Sun, 2017-06-04 16:59 #comment-286827 edited in July? 2021 timestamp not altered - header added

Posts 18 to 20 inclusive all time stamped 12 April - #18 has been timefixed and all display a correct time ordering, but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6 (13th April)

Page 3

21 = Mon, 2021-04-12 14:21 #comment-288018, but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6 (13th April)

22 = Mon, 2021-04-12 14:21 #comment-#comment-288076, time fixed, but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6 (13th April)

23 = Wed, 2017-06-14 09:56 #comment-288091, unedited post, I missed putting the topic heading on this one,

24 to 30 inclusive - some have been timefixed and all display a correct time ordering, but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6 (13th April)

Page 4 

31 =  Mon, 2021-04-12 14:54 - #comment-291040 post time is later than last post time previous page

32 = Mon, 2021-04-12 14:54 - #comment-291041 - time fixed  

33 = Tue, 2017-07-11 23:19 - #comment-291044 - topic heading added as an edit, time stamp not updated.

Post 34 to 40 - some have been timefixed and all display a correct time ordering, but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6 (13th April)

Page 5 

Posts  41 to 50 - 2 have been timefixed and all display a correct time ordering, but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6 (13th April)

Page 6 

Posts 51 to 60 - 1 has been timefixed and all display a correct time ordering, but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6 (13th April)

Page 7

Posts 61 to 70 - 3 have been timefixed and all display a correct time ordering, but time stamp is earlier than posts #5 & #6 (13th April)

Page 8 

has problems with one 2017 timestamp in there. #comment-310225 This was one of the posts I updated in September that didn't update the timestamp after a post heading was added. 

Daft suggestion for a fudge for this thread - subtract the value of the first posting time away from the latest posting time and divide this by the number of posts in the topic to get an average posting interval. For an extract sorted by comment #, start at the first post and increment the posting time by the average posting interval.   

Yes it will shoot the chronological correctness but at least the posts might have some chance of being in the correct order after the next upload. 

After about 4 hours worth of sorting, I'm done  - There is stuff happening in here that shouldn't ought to be happening. I can't have screwed up several days worth of individual post edits in September that apparently never happened according to the time stamps. I was getting successful "edit saved" messages back on my screen.  

Further thoughts on my previous post

Hi Joe/admins

Nasty thoughts:

1. IF the timestamp update from any edits is broken, this could be why the last upload misfired so badly across so many topics?
2. Anyone who has been adding links to an initial post to keep track of their progress in that topic in the post 0 position could be in trouble with that initial post 0. It should have been updating the timestamp every time a link was added to Post 0. Unless there is some other "anchor" that maintains Post 0 as Post 0, then At the last upload, the initial post 0 will probably try to load after many of the unedited posts earlier in the thread if loading to the new forum is controlled by timestamp alone. 
3. If you can find a case 2 then how Post 0 loaded in the last aborted upload, this might give an indication of the date where the timestamp update for any edits broke.    

Further analysis from above on Page 1

Posts 1-4 were by others, These had the additional bold text header line added in September. All 4 are showing their original 2017 timestamps and are in correct chronological timestamp sequence with their original 2017 times and dates.. The September edits to these posts did not update the time stamp.

Post 5 was one of my posts but was missed by me when I started the heading line edits on the 12th April. I caught the missed heading line the sometime the next day - Hence its 13th April date. It was updated in September but that edit was not shown by the timestamp. I know I did that edit because there is a space in front of "Some answers" heading in the text area. That was how I manually edited my posts in the September run of edits.   

Post 6 was by someone else that had its timestamp fixed yesterday by the timestamp run. It was moved from 2017 to April 2021 by the timestamp run. This post should have had a September timestamp against it because the heading line in the text panel was added in September.

Post 7 was by someone else. It still carries its 2017 timestamp because it was 3rd in the sequence 4> 5> 6 . It had a heading line added in September that didn't update the time stamp and still shows its original 2017 time stamp. 

That's why I think the timestamp is broken in this forum.   

The timestamp

The timestamp that’s used to establish the sort order on the new forum is the timestamp of the initial post, and it’s called the “authored on” timestamp.

The authored on timestamp is established when you save the post for the first time and it never changes after that. Those of us who have a higher powered login can edit the authored on timestamp, but that’s the only way to change it. Doing edits to your post later does not change authored on.

You can see the authored on timestamp just below the post title. Ordinarily, once that date has been established with the first time you save the post, it never changes no matter how much you edit the post.

If those of us with the power to edit the authored on timestamp change it, however, that’s going to mess with the sort order on the new forum. With my backend timestamp update process, I can bulk update timestamps to be anything we need them to be.

P.S. Because of the way a comment id is established when you start typing in the comment box but the authored on date isn’t set until you save the post, it’s possible to get the comment id and the authored on date be drastically different in extreme cases. For example, if you start a post in a new tab, but don’t get back to it for several days, you may have an authored on date that’s way later than many posts below it.

It’s also possible to manually edit the authored on date if you have the power and that likewise will totally hose the sort order on the new forum. My backend timestamp process makes it possible to find and bulk update out of sync timestamps … once I perfect the logic.

For now it has fixed some dates but not all of them. I will keep refining it until we get them all fixed. 

I'm sorry but...

HI Joe I'm sorry but your last reply doesn't quite make sense to me. Please verify from the Page 1 of my Corrimal thread at 

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/corrimal-colliery-and-its-incline-a-different-slant-on-rails-12206968 that the times I've quoted above are the  correct "authored on" time and not some "other" time from somewhere else in drupal.  The times I quoted appeared below the post topic and are the ONLY time I can see in each of those posts.

If that time is the "authored on" time stamp and is not supposed to change, then how come I have a whole lot of April 2021 timestamps?? Like Post 5  - It clearly shows a timestamp of Tue, 2021-04-13 05:47. If this is the "authored on" time and it should not have changed since the post was first saved, then the correct "authored on time" should be somewhere between that of post 4  showing Mon, 2017-05-29 22:21 and post 7 showing Tue, 2017-05-30 10:53 AND NOT the Tue, 2021-04-13 05:47 timestamp that is currently displayed. 

It appears to me that something broke in drupal before April 2021 that allowed the "authored on" time stamp to be overridden sometimes?/anytime? a post was edited.  Remember I didn't have all that high an access level back in April 2021. I did have a "serious level" access when I made all the September edits that didn't change the "authored on" times.

If I somehow managed to change the "authored on" time, then perhaps anyone with a similar access level also might have been able to do the same thing? Maybe anyone with even the lowest level access might have been able to trip up the "authored on" time and not ring any alarm bells. Especially if no-one was expecting the "authored on" time to be changeable? This would badly screw up the "authored on" time values and this may be why a lot of posts are displaying badly out of sequence after the last upload.  

For your consideration, 

Possible way forward

Hi Joe,

can you pm me or set up a Zoom meeting with me please.

I have an idea to float past you on a possible fix using a modified version of your timestamp fix