New Since Your Last Visit

[Blowgun]

I've noticed that the new posts/threads since I last visited are getting marked as read before reading them. Out of curiosity, is it possible to extend the time period posts/threads remain unread?

For example, when I click the "Go to first new post" button, sometimes I'm not taken to the first new post in the thread, but instead a more recent post. Somewhere along the line the first new post has move to a more recent post.

Another example has to do with going into a sub-forum and looking at the thread topics. If I do nothing, but come back in awhile and do a refresh, the previously marked threads with new posts are changed to more recently marked threads with new posts, even though I haven't read any of them.

When the "Go to first new post" button is clicked, I often have to scroll up and look at the dates to make sure I've landed in the correct spot. It's correct most of the time, but I still do that anyway, because it's not always correct.

I've seen this behavior before with another vBulletin forum and while I don't know the exact name for the issue, or what's involved, I believe it was fixed by extending the unread period. Perhaps someone else sees this same thing and can further clarify.

Thanks.

[Karen]

Yeah, the time period is a little short for me too. I always have to scroll up to see any that I've missed.

[zkc16]

:imwith: What they said.

[Karen]

:imwith: What they said.Are you calling us stupid? :lol:

[BobaBird]

A week or so ago, a DBSTalk thread came up in Google search results. I accidentally tapped on the preview that popped up and was taken to what I think is the Mobile view of the thread. Less than 5 minutes later I came to the site as I normally do, and everything had been marked as "read."
Yeah, the time period is a little short for me too.30 minutes is a lot too short.

[Blowgun]

A week or so ago, a DBSTalk thread came up in Google search results. I accidentally tapped on the preview that popped up and was taken to what I think is the Mobile view of the thread. Less than 5 minutes later I came to the site as I normally do, and everything had been marked as "read."

Wow, that's bad. I don't think it should do that.

30 minutes is a lot too short.

I agree, it should be much longer than 30 minutes. That brings up the next question, what would be considered a reasonable amount of time?

[Blowgun]

A few minutes ago I clicked the "Go to first new post" button next to a previously read thread and the forum selected a post with a 2011-03-20 @ 04:34 AM time stamp.

The actual first unread post should have been 2011-03-19 @ 07:31 PM, which is a difference of 9 hours or four missed new posts in the thread.

Interestingly, in this particular case once inside the thread the forum correctly identified the new posts with the little yellow box.

It appears that not only is the expiry too short, also the "Go to first new post" function in the thread list isn't working correctly.

[Blowgun]

You can't trust the little boxes to always be correct.

[Chris Blount]

I have extended the time to 45 minutes. Hopefully that will help.

Keep in mind that doing this could increase the server load and if it gets too high during peak load times, I will need to set it back to 30 minutes.

Also, if you are having issues with messages getting marked read, try completely deleting the DBSTalk cookies from your computer and login again. Sometimes the cookies can get corrupted.

[chevyguy559]

Something I do when reading various forums is I'll click the "New Posts" button, then go through the search results and open the threads I want to view in new tabs, then I'm able to read them at my leisure and not have to worry about having the topics marked read....

Also if I just want to look something up quickly without changing my "Last Visit" time, I'll use another browser which I'm not automatically logged into by cookies. Then I can look up what I need to, and not mess up any unread threads I haven't seen. This, of course, doesn't work on sub-forums that require a login, but comes in handy sometimes :)

[BobaBird]

Thank you, Chris. While not much of an extension, it hopefully should be enough to get through the occasional long post that needs extra composition and/or research, and reading a busy thread with lots of lengthy replies and outside interruptions.

[Blowgun]

Thanks Chris, I'd also like to echo BobaBird's comments. I have deleted the DBSTalk cookies, we'll see what happens with that. Thanks again.

[Blowgun]

Still keeping an eye on the New Since Your Last Visit issue and it looks like clearing cookies isn't the total solution. Clicked on a thread that did NOT have the "Go to first new post" button and inside the the thread was a new post. This was done long before the 45 minutes expiry, more like the first 5 minutes.