a strange PM from 12-31-1969 that I cannot read

[ivoy]

Somehow this message appeared in my mailbox dated 12-31-1969 and impossible to open. I used RJ's "unread message reset" link I found on someone's elses post, which zeroed my Unread status. I then deleted the message and everything appears fine.
No big deal, but I just wanted to bring this to the admins attention in case there is some bigger server issue to be looked into.

 

[BrandonG]

I think that's what happens when you import a DB, but I doubt that happened. I've seen this happen here before but I can't remember when and to who, nor the thread ID.

 

[James]

not sure why it happens but afew members have said this and i've always just given them the link and its been fine.

I don't think its a big deal :tu:

 

[Peter]

It was suggested that it could be caused by someone sending out spam and the reason you can't read it is the actual message has been deleted.

The date on the PM is actually 1 second before the UNIX epoch.

 

[Daniel]

The date on the PM is actually 1 second before the UNIX epoch.

That's exactly what I was thinking, sounds just like database corruption. I'm surprised vBulletin could hand the pre-epoch date.

 

[Peter]

That's exactly what I was thinking, sounds just like database corruption. I'm surprised vBulletin could hand the pre-epoch date.

Any PHP script can handle a time from before the UNIX epoch. simply enter a negative number into for example the date function such as:-

echo date('d-M-Y',-387964864)

will return

15-Sep-1957

And if you do the math you will see that the negative timestamp does in fact work out a couple of months longer than 12 years hence the date is correct.