I just recieved a reply notification but it does not exist

[Lavene]

If you receive a topic reply notification e-mail containing a link to post that does not exist it's because the reply generating the e-mail has since been removed. This can be due to a couple of things:

- The person posting the reply changes his/ her mind and deletes the reply (a post can be deleted by the poster if it has not received a reply).

- The reply is spam and has been removed by a moderator (this is the most likely scenario)

This is not a bug in the forum software! The reply notification, if requested, is sent out the moment a reply is posted. And since there are no way to retract an e-mail message you will still get it even if the reply is immediately deleted.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

[bkline]

This is not a bug in the forum software ...

Seems difficult to justify that conclusion, in light of the fact that the information provided in the error message ("You are not authorized to read this forum.") is incorrect.

[Tadeas]

Seems difficult to justify that conclusion, in light of the fact that the information provided in the error message ("You are not authorized to read this forum.") is incorrect.

It's perfectly correct. The forum moderators and admins don't delete spam immediately. Instead they move it to a private forum, where regular users cannot see it. So if you try to view some "deleted" thread, you try to access a private forum that you are not authorized to read.

[bkline]

Well, let's look at it for a moment through the eyes of the unsuspecting forum user who gets the email message which implies that if he clicks on the link provided in that message he'll be taken to the thread referred to by the message. The error message doesn't give him any clue that the message is no longer in that forum, so he's very likely to come to the conclusion that the error message is telling him he is barred from access to the forum to which he originally posted. How hard would it be to be a little more informative?

[Randicus]

How about adding Lavene's message to the registration page when a new member returns after clicking the link included in the confirmation e-mail? It is a short and well-worded explanation. The registration page could also include basic forum guide-lines.