Unread messages

[Minnewaska]

Originally Posted by administrator

the problem is with the forum software that we use Vbulletin. This has been an outstanding request to them for many months to fix and they've done nothing to date other than to say they're researching the problem. Some items they're very fast to correct and some seem to languish for months. They did have a change in ownership last year and a large turnover in the development staff so I think they're struggling right now with their priorities.

Thank you for the reply. I went to do an experiment at another forum that uses the same software.

If I clicked on Quick Links, then on Mark Forums Read, it also updated my last visited time to the present.

However, I also opened a thread and left it opened with no activity for a half hour. In this scenario, SailNet will also automatically mark everything read and the other forum does not. This scenario is the most frustrating, as one feels they need to rush or lose the ability to identify where they left off. Once a forum is marked as read, the View Last Post button will no longer work.

I clipped the bottom of the page from the forum that seems to work properly.

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Copyright ©2000 - 2011, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

It seems to be an older version. Could some of these updates and new features be causing more trouble than they are worth?

I also wonder if SailNet has an automatic time out of some kind selected. If so, I would highly recommend extending the time.

[bacampbe]

I know this sounds like a minor problem. But please realize that this has significantly reduced my use of Sailnet. There's so much activity here that there's no way to browse it all in one session, or before everything gets marked read. If I can't come back later and tell where I left off, well, the incentive to come back at all is reduced. I can't imagine the people posting on this thread are the only ones having a problem.

I browse many forums for many purposes. A significant number of them use one or another version of vBulletin, and none of them seem to have this problem.

On the odd chance this is browser specific, I currently use Safari 5.1.1 on OS X 10.7.2 (Lion). But I originally noticed it on OS X 10.6.X (Snow Leopard) using an older version of Safari, so it's not a new OS or new browser issue.

[Minnewaska]

Happened again this morning. I opened my subscribed threads and was responding, when I got distracted. I came back about a half hour later and finished my reply, which was still on the screen. When I posted it, the upper right box went from indicating I had last visited 9 hours earlier to just 40 minutes ago. Everything posted since last night is no longer identified.

If you remain dormant for any period of time, the system must think you have signed off. Is that a parameter that can be extended?

Further, it is useless to have new or unread posts trigger off one's last visit anyway. That implies that you would read everything you were interested in each time you sign on. All posts should remain New or Unread until you read them, regardless of how many times one signs on.

[Squidd]

+ one

I too am an avid forum reader (several at once, going back and forth) and the loosing track of read/unread is quite frustrating..

Often a thread I am following will "dissappear" ( I won't remember which forum group it was in) only to reappear with several new replys days later (or even same day)

[bacampbe]

Originally Posted by Minnewaska

[...]

If you remain dormant for any period of time, the system must think you have signed off. Is that a parameter that can be extended?

Further, it is useless to have new or unread posts trigger off one's last visit anyway. That implies that you would read everything you were interested in each time you sign on. All posts should remain New or Unread until you read them, regardless of how many times one signs on.

The last part is the important bit. It really shouldn't matter how fast the login times out. The act of logging out should not mark things read that you haven't read. I wonder if there might be a "mark items read on logout" parameter that got turned on by accident?"