I just realised something odd - does the forums mark everything read when you log off or something? Because I just realised the unread marker is supposed to remain until you open the thread. Does the forum think you’re opening every thread? Just a wrong last visited time shouldn’t be marking everything read.
Essentially yes. The software uses the “last visited” time as the determination of what is marked read. This time is updated if you explicitly log off, or if no activity is detected for 30 minutes.
For some reason, this 30 minute timer is not being honored randomly for some people at some times. I’ve tossed some theories around on this and related threads, but without knowing the actual hardware setup and without any sort of access to the logs, random speculation is all I can do.
Is there any way to only reset unread when you explicitly open a thread? I’ve found out some places are like that.
The vast majority of message boards I’ve been to only update all threads as read if you explicitly click the “mark all read” option. In fact, this is the only one I’ve run across that actually uses this type of timer function (and yes, I understand that I am an anecdote, not data and all that…).
Nevertheless, it does seem strange that they recognize there is a problem, know that it’s annoying a lot of users, state that they have no clue what’s causing it or how to fix it, but refuse to turn it off.
Although, that’s pretty much how they dealt with the malware problem until Google put a gun to their head, so perhaps not all that surprising.
Zapped again, immediately upon logging on.
My technical problem with this board: I’ve mentioned several times, since I’ve been here that, from time to time, I have trouble signing in. I type my username and signature, when prompted, and in response I just get the same screen again asking for my username and signature.
Periodically, this has happened with greater frequency, and this seems to be starting again. Lately, I’ve been noticing it more often. And, in the past, this has always presaged some kind of board problems.
Last time, so many people (including me) were complaining so much that Jerry took the whole board down for a few hours (or a few days?), re-indexed the whole works or whatever magic he does, and everything ran much better after that.
So I kinda-sorta think I see this looming again.
sigh Zapped again. It’s July now. I will be a Member for 6-1/2 more months and am withholding my usual 30 bucks for two years as long as this keeps happening.
And zapped again. Twice in one morning, less than three hours apart.
Normally I wouldn’t consider it appropriate to announce that I have become a member again (since it is sort of obvious), but since I was delaying because of the recurring last visited glich (which at least for me seems to be more or less behaving now) and the spanking Google gave SDMB a while back (which doesn’t seem to have recurred) I put my money where my mouth is and paid my membership. I hope others follow similar strategies.
This is a test. I don’t see any new posts in the various fora.
Regards,
Shodan
Don’t keep us in suspense, man! Did we pass?
F! That’ll teach me to be too hasty renewing my membership. I just got zapped again.
I’ve got a shiny new 30 bucks, all just sittin’ here doin’ nothin’. Sure would be a shame to let it go to waste and not send it in just because of poor Board performance.
Strange new effect: starting yesterday, and again today, the current post count pointers have reset, while I was logged in.
I have my computer set to keep me logged in. I close the browser (IE9) when done. When I come back, new posts are flagged as…new posts.
But some time in the first five or ten minutes, the flags go away, and even unread posts from “Today” are grayed out, as if they were old posts.
This has never happened before; it only started yesterday. I’m doing nothing different (that I know of.)
No real harm involved: I just look for “Today” and go to “Last Page” and scroll down a bit. But it’s a shame that a nice feature (“Jump to first unread post” is no longer functional for me.
The bug is evolving! :eek:
Isn’t this just the same problem everyone’s having?
Yes, exactly. Welcome to the club, Trinopus.
It’s not happening anymore. Odd.
Regards,
Shodan
I’m experiencing something different: Lost posts.
Specific example: In GQ, the thread titled “What programming language would most likely be used these days?” About six hours ago (4:15 AM Eastern Time), didmiller posted a one paragraph post, and 1.4 hours later (5:37 AM) I posted several words. Both of those posts are still readable on my phone because I happened to not close that window. They show up as posts #31 and #32. But now, sitting at my pc they are gone, replaced by more recent posts from other people.
Any idea what’s happening?
My symptoms are different, everything is working fine except I can’t see Shodan’s signature in any of his posts.