The Wrong Folder Event was a data loss event that occurred on or about February 1, 2012, resulting in loss of VaultWiki development progress.
Background
During the development of VaultWiki v4.0.x, it was typical for VaultWiki Team to maintain different versions of code in similarly named directories side-by-side, as a way of emulating branching. Branch emulation was used in lieu of traditional version control software, due to prior unsuccessful attempts at implementing such software. Development was performed both online and offline, as needed, with online versions often containing both live and development directories. Combining changes across versions was a painstaking process of manually merging code to the live directory, testing, and finally deleting the unmerged copies of code.
It was typical for VaultWiki Team to switch between copies of code by modifying the targets of symbolic links on the server. However, file transfer clients tended to label an open directory or file as though the symbolic link was the actual location.
It was typical for VaultWiki Team to switch between copies of code by modifying the targets of symbolic links on the server. However, file transfer clients tended to label an open directory or file as though the symbolic link was the actual location.
Data Loss
On or about February 1, 2012, something went wrong during this process, likely stemming from confusion of the labelling of the symbolic link. During the event, code was merged from the normally live code to the development code, rather than vice verse. Afterwards, the development code copy was deleted.
It is unclear how much development progress was lost. There are few development notes between November 2011 and February 2012. For years, Ted Phillips remembered this event being related to months of upgrade system or content fetching code, but there is no record or other evidence that. It is more likely that those recollections are related to displeasure of evolving program requirements that might have led to rewriting large portions of code that had already been recently rewritten.
On July 7, 2012, Ted responds to his own development progress notes from November 2011:[1]
A later blog post by Ted on May 29, 2014, detailing VaultWiki Team's eventual implementation of version control, mentions the event:[2]
It is unclear how much development progress was lost. There are few development notes between November 2011 and February 2012. For years, Ted Phillips remembered this event being related to months of upgrade system or content fetching code, but there is no record or other evidence that. It is more likely that those recollections are related to displeasure of evolving program requirements that might have led to rewriting large portions of code that had already been recently rewritten.
On July 7, 2012, Ted responds to his own development progress notes from November 2011:[1]
It is most likely that February 1 refers to timestamp metadata on directories or files that managed to survive the event. According to this one reply, the only known loss was an Admin Panel interface that allowed for changing the attachment storage method, location, and converting attachments based on those changes.Ted Phillips said:
A later blog post by Ted on May 29, 2014, detailing VaultWiki Team's eventual implementation of version control, mentions the event:[2]
For a time, this post had led to the interpretation that the Wrong Folder Event occurred more recently in 2013, and was related to a refactor of Admin Panel code to improve XenForo 1.x integration. That interpretation caused Ted to question the veracity of his memories about where he was sitting during the event, since his workstation was in a different building in 2013 than in 2011. But considering other evidence and the surrounding context in the blog, Ted must have been discussing practices and events throughout the VaultWiki 4.x development period, which began in 2010, rather than referencing a particularly recent occurrence.Ted Phillips said: