The forums seem to be screwing up the read/unread message flags, again.
Am I the only one to notice it so far?
I remember we had this problem quite a few months ago and it was hell tracking new posts, back then there was less to track too.
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The forums seem to be screwing up the read/unread message flags, again.
Am I the only one to notice it so far?
I remember we had this problem quite a few months ago and it was hell tracking new posts, back then there was less to track too.
I haven't noticed it. Everything seems to be working OK for me. Using Firefox at both home & work. I wonder if it's something to do with cookies?
It's done that for me since I signed up. I have to "walk the tree" back up out of each forum in order for it to catch the status change... meaning I have to scroll back to the top of the page, click on the next link up (usually the forum name), then click back to the "straight razor place" top link and then go down into the next area. If I do it any other way it doesn't register as read.
-- Gary F.
I'm lazy. I just click on the New Posts button when I visit the site. In fact, my shortcut takes me directly to the forum. The home page could be eliminated, and I would never know.Quote:
Originally Posted by gfoster
RT
New posts link???!!! You learn something new every day. I got to get out of the basement more often <g>
I never noticed that before.
Thanks,
Tony
Yep. On the menu bar on the top of the forum there's a "Quick Links" drop down. Included there are "New Posts" & "Mark Forums Read". I've been using that for many months now and love it.
Even that is too much work...look to the left of the "Quick Links" button. That's the New Posts button I use.Quote:
Originally Posted by sensei_kyle
RT
Wonder how I've overlooked that for months now?:shrug:Quote:
Originally Posted by rtaylor61
Like I said...I'm lazy!Quote:
Originally Posted by sensei_kyle
RT
I just checked and New Posts looses unread messages also.
I noticed that when I take a too long to compose a reply to a post then unread status disappears eventhough I have not had a chance to read any other posts.
This is exactly what was going on for few months around Dec. The forums look like there is not much traffic until I start going through thread by thread checking for new posts. Lately, I don't have time to do this and wind up missing most posts.
The e-mail notification at the end of the day works fine, so at least I can keep track of those threads that I have already posted to.
It would be nice if the unread status started working again.
vlad et al... sorry you're having a problem.
In general the 'new posts' search works fairly well (regardless of whether you call it from the new post link on the navbar or the search drop-down). I believe it relies on cookies to work, so if you have cookies disabled, set to clear when you exit your browser, or you take too long and your session times out (which appears to be at least partly the cause of the problem you're reporting) the results will be unreliable.
Personally, when I open the forum, the first thing I do is click 'new posts'... that way I capture all the new posts (in that tab of firefox, which is the browser I use). I then open the ones I want to read in new tabs... that way, no matter what, I still have the first tab containing all the new posts. If you're an IE browser user, I guess you could open them in a new window... but that's really cumbersome compared to tabs. (If you havn't tried firefox you should... it's a really nice browser... an it's free.)
FWIW, I believe I read somewhere that newer versions of the forum software can keep track of the read status in the database instead of using cookies... and it supposedly works much more reliably. We'll look into that when we next upgrade the forum. ...joe
**************************************
edit:
I checked the latest version (3.5.4) of the forum software (which we haven't installed -- we are running 3.0.8)... here's a quote for one of the new config items:
This option controls how threads and forums are marked as read.
1. Inactivity/Cookie Based - once a user has been inactive for a certain amount of time (the value of the cookie timeout option [ed. -- default is 900-seconds]) all threads and forums are considered read. Individual threads are marked as read within a session via cookies. This option is how all versions of vBulletin before 3.5 functioned.
2. Database (no automatic forum marking) - this option uses the database to store thread and forum read times. This allows accurate read markers to be kept indefinitely. However, in order for a forum to be marked read when all threads are read, the user must view the list of threads for that forum.
This option is more space and processor intensive than inactivity-based marking.
3. Database (automatic forum marking) - this option is the same as a previous option, but forums are automatically marked as read when the last new thread is read.
This is the most usable option for end users, but most processor intensive.
It is the timeout of the session. I will click on the "new posts" link from now on.
900 seconds is only 15 minutes. If this is increased to 7200 seconds (2 hours) it might be a better setting. It is impossible to read new posts much less respond to some in 15 minutes unless being on SRP is all you do and you catch the posts as they are submitted. :)
Thanks for the quick response.
Remember, its 15-min of "inactivity"... I know I get caught by this when I get interrupted by phone calls, physical needs breaks, etc. (and simply walk away from the PC for an extended period -- sometimes hours :D )Quote:
Originally Posted by vladsch
There must be a downside else the default timeout wouldn't be set so low (but I admittedly don't have the faintest idea what it is at the moment :o ).
azjoe,
Just remember that it is not inactivity of the computer keyboard and mouse but the web application.
Inactivity for web applications means that you are not interactiong with the application: browsing, downloading or uploading. So if you take 20 min to type a response without clicking preview or submit your session will time out. This will cause all threads to be marked as read.
This is exactly what I have been noticing.
Another scenario is walking away before finishing reading all the posts in one sitting. Which happens often during the day.
Of course. Here's a quote from the forum software's support forum:Quote:
Originally Posted by vladsch
Do you have "remember me" checked? If not, try it to see if it makes a difference.Quote:
When you log in, vBulletin writes a cookie with an expiration equal to the cookie timeout unless the "Remember Me" checkbox is checked. This cookie gets updated every time you load a page, because you essentially login on every page load. So you can have your cookie set to the default (15 minutes) and browse the board for an hour without issue. Then you read a long page, get up and get a drink, and as time elapses the cookie expires. Bam you were "randomly" logged out.
As to changing the timeout value... based on what I was able to find it appears there are two camps; one group pushes for short (15-min or less) and the other for 1-hour. Seems that once it gets below 15-min/larger than 1-hour the user complaint level goes exponential. How busy the forum is and your personal browsing style tend to drive your desire to have it one way or the other. Unfortunately, there's only one timeout value per site, not one per member.
BTW, I'm going to move this to the "Site Comments and Suggestions" forum... the nature of this discussion seems to better fit there than in general razor discussions. Hope that's ok?
What about a compromise, somewhere around 1800? I've experienced the same trouble Vlad has a few times and the extra time may save a little heartache.Quote:
Originally Posted by azjoe
X
1800 = 30-min... :hmmm: that essentailly means that threads you've read would show up as unread for the next 30-min.
If there's general agreement that's ok w/me... or we can switch to option 3 (see quote in my earlier post) when we upgrade the forum and have it work the way it really should... ie, if it's read it's marked read w/o being affected by a cookie timeout value. Personally, I recommend we live w/what we have right now and wait for the upgrade, but I will go with the wishes of the majority. ;)
I'm easy to wait since it's affected me only rarely.
Me too! That's how I find new threads. Once I'm in a thread I get notifications by e-mail when there are new posts.Quote:
Originally Posted by rtaylor61
I seem to hve a timeout problem when I do long responses. The program locks up and never saves the message. The bad thing is I loose the response because there's no way to block and copy once it locks up.Quote:
Originally Posted by azjoe
Joe,Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Lerch
This happened to me about three times before I started copying and pasting to a word document before hitting "send".
RT
I've had that happen to me on a couple occasions, too. In most, if not all, of the cases I had previously logged out and forgotten to check "remember me" when I logged in prior to the long edit session. Since I started paying attention to that (keeping it checked) I can't recall having the problem. I've also noticed similar issues when I open several incidences of the browser and inadvertently close/let timeout one of them. I promise we're going to upgrade the forum to the latest version in the very near future... hopefully many of these issues will go away when we do that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Lerch
FYI... Speaking of Word, I personally have gotten in the habit of composing long responses in Word (I need the spell checker :o ) and then cut/past them into the forum edit box when I'm essentially ready to send. Okay... so we need an integrated spell checker, too... :rolleyes:
Ha! I checked on spell checkers and found that vBulletin does not recommend an integrated spell checker due to the increased load it places on the server sending spellcheck data back and forth to your computer. Instead they recommend a client-based (ie, the browser on your PC) solution. I installed the one for Firefox (which is the primary browser I use) and it works VERY well... you can find it [here]. I'm sure there are similar solutions for IE, Opera, etc. if you look for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by azjoe
That can't be the reason why it happens to me. I always keep it checked.Quote:
Originally Posted by azjoe
Also, I'm on several other boards that use the same software. THis is the only one where I hav that problem.
Joe, could you PM me the links to those sites so I can check their settings for a couple things?Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Lerch
Okay... as a followup, now that we've upgraded to the new version of the forum and are tracking read status via actual reads instead of cookies, how's it working?
Vlad, Joe, X, Gary, Randy... has this solved the problem?
Yep, works a treat!
-- Gary F.
Things seem on the up and up. Your advice with regards to inserting links seems to work too.
X
Not only does the read status work better, I find the rest of the improvements great. I really like the new editor.
Thanks for the upgrade.
Just from a brief try-out the system seems faster and more responsive.Quote:
Originally Posted by azjoe