I am new here and have been having trouble understanding the unread posts feature in threaded mode. Actually I don’t understand the unread posts feature at all.
I have been using threaded mode to keep track of sub-discussions and things. Unread posts are shown in the hierarchy as little yellow papers, while already-read posts are blue. But in most threads the sub-threads go deeper than five levels and the hierarchy displays “More replies below current depth…”. If I happen to click on one of those buttons then all of the other posts above that depth level get marked as read. Can I make that… not happen? Sometimes posters respond at the top level to a deeply nested post. In threaded mode I might miss such posts because reading unread posts from the hierarchy, top to bottom, doesn’t work.
Also it seems that sometimes every thread in a forum is marked as read for me. I have no idea why that happens.
I personally don’t use threaded mode. Hopefully someone with more experience with it can chime in here. If not, I’ll try to play around with it a bit if I get some time later.
This I can answer. It’s a known bug, and it doesn’t just affect thread mode. It also affects other thread modes and breaks the New Posts feature as well when it happens.
Unfortunately, since it is tied to our version of vBulletin, it is probably not going to get fixed any time soon. Also unfortunately, just upgrading to a newer version of vBulletin doesn’t just fix bugs, but instead also introduces a bunch of new bugs, so in effect you only end up trading one set of bugs for another. I personally have absolutely no control over what version we use, but I can understand why those who are in charge of that are reluctant to change it.
The long and short of it is that we are stuck with occasional bugs in threads and posts being marked read and we’re stuck with a bit of a squirrelly search engine, and a few other quirks.
There are some bugs that can be fixed locally, like bugs with the various themes and such. That is up to the folks in charge, and their choice of allocation of resources or allowing access. These types of fixes also require a technical person with admin access to the system. Moderators do not have admin access, so we cannot make these types of changes.
For bugs like this, though, you would need access to the vBulletin source code, which the authors of vBulletin do not release publicly. So, for the search engine bugs and the bugs with posts/threads being marked as read, no, those cannot be fixed locally.
It is my understanding that vBulletin is some flavor of PHP so there is no distinction between “source” and “distributed” code, unless they obfuscated the sources. Resource allocation and technical skills aside, your admin should be able to look under the hood with a text editor.
Changing things probably voids your warranty though, if such a thing still exists.
The version of vBulletin currently in use on this board has been modified over the years. It is not a “standard” vBulletin install and has had some serious custom work done to it by different hands over time. None of those hands currently work for the Chicago Sun-Times.
It’s also nearly ten years old, with all the problems that brings.
Have you tried “linear mode?” I think that’s what most people use and they seem okay with it.