So I click “read new posts” and get a page of threads. Open up the 7 or 8 of them that I am interested in in separate windows and read them. Somewhere on this page is a thread, e.g., “Die, Gibbon Girls, Die”. I finish reading the threads I want to read from this page and click the “Next Page” link at the bottom of the page of threads.
New page of threads opens up. Ninth from the top is “Die, Gibbon Girls, Die”.
OK, question: when the “Next Page” link is clicked, does it send cgi back that says, in essence, “For the time and date at which this particular user originally clicked ‘read new posts’, please show the second page of what were new threads as of that time, sorted by what were most recent posts as of that time”? (If so, why the second appearance of ‘Gibbon Girls’?). Or does it instead send cgi back that says, in essence, “Please once again find all the threads with posts that are newer that date on which this poster previously visited the board, and this time go to the second page, sorting by most recent posts as of now”?
If it is doing the second of these, that means that when I click “Next Page” there are posts on the (hypothetical) first page that I never saw, because the sort order has changed and/or new posts have been added to posts that would have been on page 2 when I was on page 1 but are on page 1 now that I am on page 2, right?
Whaddaya mean, your head hurts?
Yes that’s what I mean! And if you don’t quit with that kind of talk, I can make your head hurt too. 
If you want to know what it does, can’t you “View the Source”?
“View Source” won’t help, because the code in question is server-side, not client-side. The only time when non-administrators have any chance to see any fragment of the vB program is when it returns one of its cryptic SQL errors on some line or another.
I’m not too familiar with the “view new threads” option, but judging by what I’ve seen of the standard forum listing, your second possibility (that you’re missing some in between the pages) is probably correct: If you’re looking at page 1 of GQ, for example, and click page 2, you’ll see some overlap due to threads which got posted or bumped after you opened page 1. So far as I know, there’s no workaround beyond opening new pages quickly and/or refreshing frequently to make sure that you catch everything: If anyoe knows of any better method, let me (and AHunter3) know.
Well, KNOWING that this is how it works…I can quickly zip down to the bottom of page 1 (before opening threads) and open page two in a new window and repeat process for pages 3-i, THEN go back to page one and select the threads I want to read.
I just wanted to know if this was indeed how it worked or if the recurrent appearance of the same posts on different pages was due to a different explanation or bug.
It’s only on your computer, you know. Works fine for all 12,439 of the rest of us. You’re the only one…
BTW, check for pods out in the greenhouse yet? You sure? Uh huh. Look behind the potting bench.
[Jerry Goldsmith music up]