I went into the "History" tab of my library to find a story I had read in the past. It was not listed, but I remembered the author name and went via the author link to access, and it appears he/she has pulled the story. Is this my user error or does the removal of a story by an author mean that the link will be cleared from the history listings as well?
My expectation is that this is simply the consequence of the SOL database structure (history just points to stories' metadata) and story deletion not retaining even story metadata
does the removal of a story by an author mean that the link will be cleared from the history listings as well?
Yes, for the reason curiousvisitor gave. I read some stories recently which were subsequently withdrawn and only my browser knows where they were (it saves the links).
The 'other' solution is that you read the story elsewhere and that record is not part of your 'local' history. i.e. if you read it on a different 'device' that history would not be in your local record. I've found this moving between 'backups' of machines after data loss
You mean browser history? The History maintained by the site (for premier members) is keyed on User-id and will be the same over multiple devices.
ok, It's just that I have premier and when I toasted my primary machine I went back to an older one and the 'history' ended at the point I changed from one to the other, a gap of nearly 2 years or so. Perhaps I found a bug