Mystery of the Secret Room...why is it rather unpopular?

[Anita Bensoussane]

... that mysterious 2007/2008 EBS thread about the streets and houses in Bourne End that supposedly inspired Blyton when she created Peterswood (which my husband and I printed out and used as preparation/inspiration for our trip to Marlow & Bourne End in the summer of 2008) which I could not find again. It had more than 100 pages when we printed it out.
...
Then I realized that the thread no longer exists (only a much shorter one with 40+ pages which was created after 2008 if I remember it right).

     So what threads are these? And do threads on the forum disappear after some time? I thought they stayed for ever, unless a moderator had some specific reason for believing it should disappear.

As far as I know threads are only deleted if they are spam or overly argumentative, so the thread in question should still be here.

I'm afraid it disappeared for good, Michael.
All my searching and asking for it at EBS didn't help. It's gone. Maybe due to a computer glitch?
There are similar Peterswood threads still on EBS, but not the long one from 2007/2008 with more than 100 pages where a few members tried to prove that Blyton might have been inspired for her FFO & Dog series by certain streets and old houses in Bourne End.

Now I print out everything that's important to me, just in case it might be gone in a few years.

My husband can confirm that this long thread existed in 2008 when he printed it out at his office while we lived in England. He printed out more than 100 pages.
We prepared our trip to Bourne End and Marlow with these print outs, but did not have enough time (it was a day trip) to follow all the leads from the thread...

...So I swear this extensive thread did exist way back in 2008, but it's definitely gone.
Anita gave me a link for a similar thread which was initiated later and is much shorter. Our thread was still active in April 2008, maybe even in June. We went to Marlow & Bourne End some time in September 2008.

Chrissie, I explained to you in another thread in May that the topic was not deleted and all the posts are still there. As Fiona said, all threads remain on the forums except for topics which have degenerated into an argument, and even then it's usually possible to remove the argumentative posts and retain the rest. The only exception is the Word Association Game, which is pruned every so often as it gets very long and just consists of lists of words.

The thread you remember is probably "Looking for Fatty & co in Peterswood/Bourne End" (in "The Books"). If it seems shorter when read on the computer screen, don't forget that one page on the forums will take up several pages when printed out.

[Enikyoga]

What page in the anecdotage Stephen? I will check that out in my Kobo version.

ps "wily similitude"....you been chompin' on a thesaurus old chum????

The quotation is on page 112 of the printed version.
Stephen I.

[Chrissie777]

The thread you remember is probably "Looking for Fatty & co in Peterswood/Bourne End" (in "The Books"). If it seems shorter when read on the computer screen, don't forget that one page on the forums will take up several pages when printed out.

Hi Anita,

Thanks, I was able to find it in "search forums".
Made a test and acted as if I want to print out one of those 7 pages and it equates/equals (right term?) to 10 printed out pages, so maybe it really had only 70 pages in 2008. I will read it and see if I can recognize parts of it.

[Fiona1986]

It was up to six pages by the end of 2008, so that would be 60 pages printed. Of course if you were using a different computer or different settings four years ago it could have been nearer 100 pages.

[pete9012S]

Thank you for the page number Stephen.

Actually though,in my adobe digital edition the section you refer to is to be found on page 247.I found it by doing a search for Robert Arthur.

I must say ,I think you have handled this part of your book particularly well and it is interesting to read that Robert Arthur's Three Investigators actually came along over a decade and a half after Enid Blyton's Five Find-outers.

It was also interesting to note that The Mystery of the Silver Spider published in 1967 included a certain 'Prince Paul from the 'Kingdom of Varania', who was being kept against his will as a hostage in England! Shades of Spiggy Holes there,what!
Another similarity was found in the stocky,clever leader of the Three Investigators Jupe (Jupiter) who could be said to resemble Fatty in a number of ways!

Regards

Pete

[Chrissie777]

It was up to six pages by the end of 2008, so that would be 60 pages printed. Of course if you were using a different computer or different settings four years ago it could have been nearer 100 pages.

Hi Fiona,

It was probably a British printer as my husband was working for British Raytheon in Uxbridge in 2008.

[Enikyoga]

Thank you for the page number Stephen.

Actually though,in my adobe digital edition the section you refer to is to be found on page 247.I found it by doing a search for Robert Arthur.

I must say ,I think you have handled this part of your book particularly well and it is interesting to read that Robert Arthur's Three Investigators actually came along over a decade and a half after Enid Blyton's Five Find-outers.

It was also interesting to note that The Mystery of the Silver Spider published in 1967 included a certain 'Prince Paul from the 'Kingdom of Varania', who was being kept against his will as a hostage in England! Shades of Spiggy Holes there,what!
Another similarity was found in the stocky,clever leader of the Three Investigators Jupe (Jupiter) who could be said to resemble Fatty in a number of ways!

Regards

Pete

A million thanks for your compliments, Pete.
Stephen I.

[Enikyoga]

Thank you for the page number Stephen.

Actually though,in my adobe digital edition the section you refer to is to be found on page 247.I found it by doing a search for Robert Arthur.

I must say ,I think you have handled this part of your book particularly well and it is interesting to read that Robert Arthur's Three Investigators actually came along over a decade and a half after Enid Blyton's Five Find-outers.

It was also interesting to note that The Mystery of the Silver Spider published in 1967 included a certain 'Prince Paul from the 'Kingdom of Varania', who was being kept against his will as a hostage in England! Shades of Spiggy Holes there,what!
Another similarity was found in the stocky,clever leader of the Three Investigators Jupe (Jupiter) who could be said to resemble Fatty in a number of ways!

Regards

Pete

A million thanks for your compliments, Pete.
Stephen I.

[Fiona1986]

Does that make it two million thanks?

[pete9012S]

Fiona,886,425 thanks to you for your grammatical encouragement.

Pete9012S.

[Fiona1986]

Pete, you are 300,000 times welcome

[Anita Bensoussane]

Made a test and acted as if I want to print out one of those 7 pages and it equates/equals (right term?) to 10 printed out pages...

A good idea to test it like that.

You can say "it equates to 10 printed pages" or "it equals 10 printed pages".

I will read it and see if I can recognize parts of it.

I hope it's the right thread!

[Chrissie777]

I hope it's the right thread!

Yes, it is the thread I was looking for. Somehow I was under the impression it had already been started in 2007, but it had been started in early 2008. I read several of Duncan's long posts and recognized them.
Thanks!!!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm glad it's the thread you were searching for!

[Fiona1986]

Another mystery solved by the Friendly Forumites.