# Preferred method for navigating this board?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preferred-method-for-navigating-this-board/119523>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 18, 2002, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preferred-method-for-navigating-this-board/119523 "2002-07-18T02:34:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preferred-method-for-navigating-this-board/119523/41 "2002-07-25T23:46:57Z")

</div>

Under Netscape (most versions): Preferences: advancec;cache You can set whether a page reloads  
everytime you view the page, once, never, automatic… If its only ‘everytime’ I would assume  
that’s more server load.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preferred-method-for-navigating-this-board/119523/42 "2002-07-26T19:41:29Z")

</div>

I have it set to “Once per session”. Any less than that makes it hard to view genuinely new posts. It’s not clear, though, what Netscape considers a “session”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preferred-method-for-navigating-this-board/119523/43 "2002-07-26T22:54:01Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by DrMatrix \*  
> \*\*By golly, **Mangetout** is right! \*\*

It had to happen sooner or later.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preferred-method-for-navigating-this-board/119523/44 "2002-07-27T01:56:17Z")

</div>

I had to toss a fly into the ointment here, but I’ve noticed a different pattern.

When lurking as per the OP, I find that if I visit a thread and then click the “back” button, I get a cached display of the forum’s thread list. If I click “back” from there it re-loads the main page.

Did that description make sense?

It doesn’t seem to make any difference which browser I use, either (Netscape 4.0 and IE 5.0). Do I just have coincident browser settings, or is it a board thing?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preferred-method-for-navigating-this-board/119523/45 "2002-07-28T00:49:59Z")

</div>

I have the options: (IE6, probably previous versions too):  
Check for newer versions of stored pages:  
-Every visit to the page  
-Every time you start Internet Explorer  
-Automatically  
-Never

It’s set to ‘Automatically’, whatever the hell that really means…

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preferred-method-for-navigating-this-board/119523.md?page=2)