[sparky2]

The following is PARTIALLY
code excerpted from v2.2.9 admin/misc.php
and
PARTIALLY code I added (remove EMPTY thread routine)
based on a suggestion offered by "Sadler"
which has apparently been ignored
by the vBulletin developers
----------------------------------v

PHP Code:

// ###################### Start remove EMPTY threads #######################
        // (EMPTY threads  are the buggered thread that show header/footer table cells w/ just a slice of whitespace b/t them)
if ($action=="removeemptythreads") {
  if (isset($perpage)==0 or $perpage=="") {
    $perpage=50;
  }
  if (isset($startat)==0 or $startat=="") {
    $startat=0;
  }
  $finishat=$startat+$perpage;

  $threads = $DB_site->query("SELECT thread.threadid FROM thread AS thread LEFT JOIN post AS post USING(threadid) WHERE post.threadid IS NULL AND thread.open<>10 LIMIT $startat, $perpage");
  while ($thread = $DB_site->fetch_array($threads)) {
    $deleting++;
    deletethread($thread['threadid']);
    echo "<p>Deleting thread $thread[threadid]</p>\n";
    flush();
  }
  if($deleting) {
    cpredirect("misc.php?s=$session[sessionhash]&action=removeemptythreads&startat=$finishat&perpage=$perpage");
  } else {
    echo '<p>No -=EMPTY=- threads were found</p>';
    cpredirect("misc.php?s=$session[sessionhash]",1);
  }

}


// ###################### Start remove orphan threads #######################
if ($action=="removeorphanthreads") {
  if (isset($perpage)==0 or $perpage=="") {
    $perpage=50;
  }
  if (isset($startat)==0 or $startat=="") {
    $startat=0;
  }
  $finishat=$startat+$perpage;
  $threads = $DB_site->query("SELECT thread.threadid FROM thread AS thread LEFT JOIN forum AS forum USING(forumid) WHERE forum.forumid IS NULL LIMIT $startat, $perpage");
  while ($thread = $DB_site->fetch_array($threads)) {
    $deleting++;
    deletethread($thread['threadid']);
    echo "<p>Deleting thread $thread[threadid]</p>\n";
    flush();
  }
  if($deleting) {
    cpredirect("misc.php?s=$session[sessionhash]&action=removeorphanthreads&startat=$finishat&perpage=$perpage");
  } else {
    echo '<p>No orphan threads were found</p>';
    cpredirect("misc.php?s=$session[sessionhash]",1);
  }

}
// ###################### Start remove orphan posts #######################
if ($action=="removeorphanposts") {
  if (isset($perpage)==0 or $perpage=="") {
    $perpage=50;
  }
  if (isset($startat)==0 or $startat=="") {
    $startat=0;
  }
  $finishat=$startat+$perpage;

  $posts = $DB_site->query("SELECT post.threadid, post.postid FROM post AS post LEFT JOIN thread AS thread USING(threadid) WHERE thread.threadid IS NULL LIMIT $startat, $perpage");
  while ($post = $DB_site->fetch_array($posts)) {
    $deleting++;
    deletepost($post['postid']);
    echo "<p>Deleting post $post[postid]</p>\n";
    flush();
  }
  if($deleting) {
    cpredirect("misc.php?s=$session[sessionhash]&action=removeorphanposts&startat=$finishat&perpage=$perpage");
  } else {
    echo '<p>No orphan posts were found</p>';
    cpredirect("misc.php?s=$session[sessionhash]",1);
  } 


I'm still not convinced that the "remove orphaned posts" routine is quite right, though.
Heck of a lot faster to do it from the commandline
(DELETE instead of SELECT in the query and leave out the limit clause)
...and when I ran it from the v2.2.9 AdminCP (misc.php) several times consecutively, it "keep finding" (?) additional orphans with each pass. (Shouldn't be so ~~ it should have whacked all the orphans in one run.)



I'm open to additional thoughts on handling orphans.
A related problem is that a number of posts mysteriously
(continually) have post.visible='0' ~~ mysterious because users have no way of choosing this & it seems to happen at random.