AFAIK, when a new thread appears in a forum (or an “old” thread isn’t read), the title color is a somewhat pale lavender. Once I’ve clicked on it, it changes to gray.
My question is: Will the color ever change to gray if I (or anyone else using my computer) never click on it? Some threads (since the brief shutdown) that I’ve never opened have changed colors…does this mean anything? Has my computer somehow been violated? My password compromised? This has me a little perturbed. Does it have anything to do with the shutdown?
Remember that we reinstalled from a backup . . . effective Monday morning 3:30 am . . . so any thread you might have read Monday or Tuesday or any response you might have made, all that’s gone now. So all your landmarks have changed.
The way I understand it, if you mark the threads read (which you can do for each forum) all the threads will display as gray. Otherwise, no change, unless you click on them.
Thanks for your response. And I understand if the threads that I’ve already read have changed back to lavender. What’s concerning me are the unread threads that have changed to gray. I’m the only person in the house who could’ve (or at least would’ve) been at the SDMB. So it concerns me how these titles could’ve turned gray without my clicking on them.
It’s spooky at best and disturbing (someone else has access to my computer?) at worst.
Did you click “mark all forums read?” Or “Mark this forum read?” Which is right under the “New Thread” button in each forum.
Easy to click on these links by accident.
I note that “mark all threads read” is right next to the logout. I can see someone clicking on it just sweeping down the page.
I can’t speak to the situation at your house but if someone’s breaking into your house to read the SDMB you have more serious problems than hyperlinks.
Did some thread numbers perhaps get recycled with the board reset? Thus your cookie would say you’ve seen thread 20786 but the board changed that from “Who ate my hamster?” to “F*ck You, My Friend Flicka!”
If you visit the board but don’t read all of the threads marked as unread then log out, will those threads be marked as read (gray) when you log back in?
You know what, I’m noticing what poopah noticed - threads I don’t remember visiting that are now marked as read. I use the “view new posts” link, then navigate from the subsequent “search results” page. On that page, there will be a thread or two that is grayed out (marked as read); if I move from that page to a new-posts thread and then return to the results thread, the same threads that were grayed out are now highlighted.
If this is true with everyone (meaning it’s not some setting of mine), then to alleviate this one should only have to refresh the results page or simply go to another thread and then return to the results.
The color change isn’t handled by vBulletin, it’s handled by your browser. So the suituation could be as described by Irishman. To elaborate:
Sometime on Monday, someone starts thread 123456, on what they had for lunch last week.
You read that thread.
Your browser history makes a note “OK, I’ve visited the page called http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=12345 .”.
The hamsters go on strike, and Jerry (upon him be peace) restores to the Monday morning backup.
The lunch thread didn’t exist as of the Monday backup, so it doesn’t exist now.
Someone else starts a thread on how cute her cat’s hairballs are. That thread gets assigned the number 12345.
You open up MPSIMS, and see a thread listed about hairballs.
You haven’t yet visited the hairball thread.
Your browser sees a link to a page with the URL http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=12345 .
Your browser says “Yup, I’ve been to that page before.”.
Your browser marks the link gray, to show you that you’ve seen that page before.