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Hi everyone, it has come to my attention that Howard's name has been deleted from almost all of his sticky threads. Whats going on? Is TS now denying his existence. He wrote those threads after all.

I mean, credit where credit is due!!

Anyone feel it's wrong as I do?

I agree with you, mate, it should be left there.

It's his work and for all the things he did for us over the 4 years he was here it's only fair that we leave the one thing in that thread that give him the credit.

Have the names been deleted so it is just blank or just changed?
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic93156-2.html
I thought he left and took the threads with him? And they all had to be re-written?

Thought everyone knew the story by now.

Howard made the threads, Howard deleted the threads, they have been re-instated, but his name has been deleted from them.

Some of the threads have been re-posted via a copy and paste from the Google cache but Julio has re-posted some in some crazy magical Admin way so that the original thread number stays intact

Thta's right, and when Julio restored them they did still have Howards name at the bottom, now they don't.

I think that's crazy, it's the least we could do for him, really. It's not like it takes any effort to leave it there. I admit it looks kind of strange having "Regards Howard " at the end when somebody other than Howard has posted it but it should still be left IMHO

I have to admit,I did notice the legendary spyware thread has a new author.

I just remembered, me and someone else (sorry, forgotten your name ) tried to repost a couple of Howard's threads, ending the thread title in "by howard_hpokinso" and they didn't get stickied, however i reposted mine again without that suffix and they were stickied.

Why did Howard leave? I must have missed something in not posting recently.

This - http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic93462.html explains a little.

Ah, thanks Rik. Hope he is able to recover and enjoy himself again.

If Howard deleted his posts when he left, is it possible he's been back deleting his name from them when he saw them back up? I'm just suggesting a possible explanation. If that is not the case.....I would prefer his name remains intact (for what little my opinion is worth, but each drop helps fill a glass)

I suspect there is a reason for it and it's between Howard and Julio or at least it's Julio's call. Anyway, it's likely on a need-to-know basis and you and I don't need to know.

If Howard had deleted his name from the threads himself then it would say "Edited by Howard_Hopkinso" at the bottom of the threads but it doesn't which seems to prove that it wasnt Howard that removed his name from them, and that it was someone else.

that hits me deep that his threads and posts are being deleted. there's all kinds of helpful information in them. it's not even the fact that it's disrespectful towards howard, but it's disrespectful to everyone else. deleting something that's helping others is wrong on so many levels, especially when it's from someone loved by everyone.

if it WAS howard, and he feels they need to be taken down, then by all means. that is his decision, not ours and it would be disrespectful towards him to suggest otherwise. that's a whole other scenario.

but as it is, and with respect to what Rik suggests, i'm stunned and appalled by the deletions.

howard's departure was almost symbolic of him passing away. those threads are there as a momento. a monument to his achievements and his gift of kindness and information to others. the least that should be done is create a collection of all the posts he has made, and put them somewhere in memory of him.

perhaps even a forum dedicated to posts about howard. and we could even write a sort of...eulogy of sorts.

but really...i can't help but reiterate how wrong the deletion of his posts feels. it's like they're desecrating holy ground. maybe some of you might feel that description to be extreme, but understand this is out of pure and utmost respect for howard. he's sick after all.

link590o, i think you may have the wrong end of the stick, Howard is very much alive. This - http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic93462.html explains a little.

i know he only left. and he was mentally unstable. i've read that thread. most of what i've written is meant figuratively, not literally.

I know Rik's already said this, but another thing is that Howard couldn't edit the posts because he has left the forum and his account will be deactivated, effectively deleted.

On the threads without his name on, I don't think it said that they've been edited at all so that would mean that it was either taken off before the Submit Post button was pressed, or edited within a minute or so of posting.

Edit: I may have been wrong about Howard's account being effectively deleted, because i just found this post: http://www.techspot.com/vb/post546786-26.html

There seems to be some misinformation here.

As far as I know there was no magical resurrecting of Howard's threads. They had to be painstakingly done by hand. In order to get the original Howard written threads back Per Hasson would have had to load up the backup database from the day before Howard went on his rampage. This would wipe out all new members and new posts and threads since then. We (TS) could not let 1 guy cause that much trouble for the boards. So as far as I know they were hand written from the google cache (something any of you guys did but no one stepped up) and formatted manually.

Regardless of how fine of a member Howard was when he was here, his departing actions were completely unacceptable. I understand your concern for him but his actions on leaving hurt the forums just about as bad as he could have. If he would have done any more damage, the forums would have been restored from a backup, the way he left was silent and only taking out his threads, which went unnoticed by the mods until it was too late to do any restoration without further damage. From a distructive standpoint, it was about the most beautiful thing he could have done.

Instead of letting this thread turn into more of a rally against the TS Staff and Mods I'm going to close it.