"New Post" Issue

[aud19]

Hey Kev :later:

I've noticed a problem lately that after viewing say 5-10 threads all of a sudden neither the main pages or the areas highlight the areas or threads that have "New Posts" anymore...? For example I'll open the main page and go look at a few threads in A/V Chalet and Home theatre and all of a sudden Tower of Power and Club Rotel which just seconds before were highlighted as having new posts are back to normal.. I go in to the areas and the specific threads aren't highlighted either. So then I have to look at what time they were last replied to and try to remember when I last viewed that section... What's going on there?

Jason

[Lex]

We had the same problem with the other board, this could be an issue for the VBulletin folks and a future upgrade. Kevin?

Lex

[Kevin P]

I did some hunting around on the vBulletin site and from what I gathered, it seems it has to do with the method vBulletin uses to identify which posts are "new". Since keeping track of read/unread posts for every member on a persistant basis is resource intensive, instead it just compares a session datestamp (last time the member logged in/accessed the site, kept in a cookie) with the post dates. During a session, it flags read posts as read as you read them, but this information isn't stored permanently in the database. When that session expires (currently it times out after 15 minutes--I'm not sure if that's 15 minutes of inactivity or 15 minutes since start of session), or you close your browser, all posts made as of that time will then be considered "read".

Jason, when this happens to you, are you closing your browser and opening another one, or is it happening after a certain amount of time of reading posts?

The way I hit new threads is I hit the "New Posts" link at the top of the page, then I get a list of just new/updated threads and then I hit the ones that interest me.

[aud19]

This happens when I either refresh the main page or click the "HTGuide Forum" link at the top of the page. Not in a new window I like to just browse through section by section and view new posts as they interest me, though I suppose I could try out the "New Posts" link. You do realize that would mean changing something though.... :B

Jason

[Kevin P]

Are you running any cookie blocking software, or set your browser to reject cookies, Jason? These could cause the session to timeout prematurely.

I closed and re-opened a browser window and I didn't lose my unread posts, though it marked posts I had read in that session as unread again.

[aud19]

Nope just default IE6 settings....