Plots2: Deleting a spam comment or answer might be deleting the question

[Fastie]

I deleted a spam comment (or answer) on a question posted at publiclab.org and then I could not find the question.

I noticed that another question that had a spam answer had disappeared, maybe because another administrator had deleted the answer.

I don't have very good evidence that this is happening, but it is a serious enough issue that I thought I would bring it up just in case it is really happening.

Here is a question that I can't find:

https://publiclab.org/questions/qdominus/08-07-2017/could-this-720nm-ir-filter-from-ebay-be-used-for-ndvi-infragram

There was a spam answer posted to this question.

[grvsachdeva]

hi @Fastie , I have found the bug and have raised a PR for the same. Although, I have detected the problem with answers only i.e. while deleting answer corresponding question is also deleted. I am still working on verifying if comments are also deleting the node. I will advise you not to delete any comment or answer until this issue is resolved as I found this problem is deleting the node.Thanks.

[ebarry]

Thank you @Gauravano ! Really, really appreciate your insight and sleuthing on this!!!!!!!!! 🚀

[jywarren]

oh wow this is quite serious. I wonder if we can work backwards to
determine if other questions have been deleted from the system, and recover
them from backups.

@gauravano are you filing a fix for this? Given that it involves potential
data loss, we should fast-track this. I'll notify other moderators to hold
off on answer deletions for now.

Any moderator or admin can do this:

https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/blob/master/app/controllers/answers_controller.rb#L40-L42

Probably we need to remove "dependent: destroy" from this line:
https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/blob/master/app/models/answer.rb#L6

On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 3:01 PM, Liz Barry [e-mail] wrote:

Thank you @Gauravano https://github.com/gauravano ! Really, really
appreciate your insight and sleuthing on this!!!!!!!!! 🚀

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[grvsachdeva]

hi @jywarren , I have raised a PR at #2450 solving this issue and have also added some tests so that no such issue arises in future. Please have a look.

[jywarren]

Super. Thanks.

https://stable.publiclab.org/questions/qdominus/08-07-2017/could-this-720nm-ir-filter-from-ebay-be-used-for-ndvi-infragram

can be used to recover this record and re-instantiate it in the db (i'll do this)

However, @Fastie are there others you could definitively find that have been deleted and we should fish into our backups for?

If this has been happening for some time, we could run a search on our logs and try to find all instances of answers being deleted, using a regex pattern matcher. Would it have been more than once or twice?

[jywarren]

Thank you @Fastie for reporting and @Gauravano for submitting a fix!!!

[Fastie]

I think there is at least one other question that was deleted when I deleted a spam answer about one to two weeks ago. I am not sure how I became aware of the spam answer but I think it was a question that I had answered some time ago. I think it was about infrared stuff.

I think there might be one other case in which I was suspicious that something weird had happened. Then I noticed the most recent one about the infrared filter. The two or three similar cases made me suspicious that something was broken.

So there might be two or three cases of deleted questions, but I guess any answer that was deleted in the last (2 to ?) weeks would have deleted the question. If any moderators remember deleting a spam answer (or any answer), there could be more. If moderators have not deleted answers, there might not be more cases.

[jywarren]

Was it this one? https://publiclab.org/questions/warren/11-14-2017/what-s-one-thing-that-could-be-better-for-newcomers-about-the-public-lab-website

[Fastie]

Hah! I just found that one too. I don't know if that was one of the ones I had run into.

[jywarren]

and https://publiclab.org/questions/warren/08-16-2016/does-the-new-question-feature-work

[Fastie]

Here a couple of missing questions:

https://publiclab.org/questions/J_tanna/01-30-2017/difference-between-image-calibration-and-camera-calibration

https://publiclab.org/questions/warren/12-13-2017/is-anyone-studying-or-writing-about-the-rise-in-codes-of-conduct-in-open-source-projects#a806

[jywarren]

https://publiclab.org/questions/gretchengehrke/08-02-2017/what-is-the-best-low-cost-or-diy-microscope-to-use-with-a-group#a839

https://publiclab.org/questions/warren/10-27-2017/what-sessions-would-people-like-to-have-at-the-2017-barnraising#a840

[jywarren]

OK -- we're probably going to have to recover the answers too, but I'm not sure about that. We'll see!