OT: does your IE distinguish between read/unread threads?

[George Kroonder]

It may be a 'policy' change? If I read Jenns post correctly, it is different than it used to be.

I usually visit the forum multiple times a day and use the Quick Links - Todays Posts to quickly get all posts and then page through to find posts. Posts since my last visit were always marked read.

However now posts will not be marked read until 10 days after; unless you do a manual Mark Forums Read action.

I must say I like the 'old' way better as a frequent user. And even if I wasn't online so frequently I believe I'd still prefer it that way.

George/

[Jenn Kramer]

If the consensus is it was better the way it was, we can certainly change it back, but the new method gives you more granular control over what you've read and what you haven't. Instead of comparing the last activity time in your cookie to when new posts were posted, it actually keeps track of each post to give you a clearer picture. I've found that this works better when I'm tracking things, but this forum is large, so I can see how it would be easy to get underwater.

I'd suggest seeing how it goes after a week or so, and if the general consensus is that it's more of a pain than it's worth, we can flip it back.

[Larry Price]

Originally Posted by Andy Tejral

More weirdness:

Sometimes I'll follow an external link and by the time I'm finished, I have 'no' new posts.

I've experienced this phenomenon off and on for months now. Many times, if I click on an external link, it immediately flags ALL subforums and threads as 'read.' There doesn't appear to be any time limit as Andy suggests. The mere act of clicking the external link resets all the flags. This doesn't happen consistently, but happens at least half the time for me.

As you can imagine, if I come to the forum and see many unread posts waiting for my perusal, then click an external link in the first thread I visit, then go back to the main page and discover that everything has suddenly been marked read, it's extremely frustrating!

Incidently, I don't usually use the Quick Links menu. I nearly always start from the main page and click on the subforum I wish to read, and return to the main page to choose the next subforum, etc. I'm using IE7 on Vista x64, but I seem to recall it happening with IE6 on XP way back before I upgraded. Also, FWIW, I visit many sites using vBulletin, but I've only experienced this particular phenomenon here at DVInfo. Good luck eradicating the Gremlins! Despite these little glitches, this is one of the best forums on the 'net!

[Chris Soucy]

About whether what I'm seeing is a deliberate policy or just an unwanted by - product of the change.

If I dive into DVinfo (which I do about 20 times a day - I know, I'm sad), the "Home screen" (don't know what else to call it) shows new post(s) in the XH Camcorder forum (say).

I look right and see the "last post" entry, click on it, read it and then back out again. The "last post" entry doesn't change, neither does the "new posts" flag.

Go back to the left and dive into the forum itself - 5 threads with new posts.

Open all new posts and immediately back out again to the "home screen" and voila, over on the right the "last post" is still the same, tho' I have managed to kill the "new posts" flag over on the left.

From memory, before, if you read the "last post" it was marked as read and was replaced with the next "new post" in the list.

Now you can't beat the "new post" entry to death with a stick.

The only thing that seems able to change that entry is clearing the forum of all unread posts (what a PITA) and waiting for another new post to steamroller it off the cliff.

Even worse, before (again from memory) if I spent 15 minutes scruteing DVinfo from top to bottom, then went away for half an hour, on my return and refresh, those forums not visited on the previous visit would have the "new posts" flag removed, unless of course there was a new post in the preceeding half hour.

Now I've got "home page" "new posts" flags breeding faster than rabbits and have to completely ignore the "last post" on the RHS as it is, to all intents and purposes, useless.

And another thing!

I made a crack in my mail Jeff about one of my posts (an entire thread actually) being "dissapeared".

Well, it suddenly re - appeared back in the "DV info net announcements" Forum in all it's pristine glory with about 7 additional posts attached.

Where had it been hiding for over 24 hours?

That's the second one to simply be Martianed off the site and reappear with who knows what experiments conducted on it.

Now you can (hopefully) see why I'm confused.


CS

[Josh Chesarek]

I find I have to use the Mark Forums Read multiple times a day. From the results there are some new ones as expected but then hundreds that are under the heading of "No new posts but still unread". I find if I hit the mark forums read when Im done the list does stay shorter.

[Jenn Kramer]

One option is to use today's posts, that should always sort by newest. The 'Last Post' column on the homepage will always show the last post in the forum, not necessarily the last unread post by you. You can click on it, read that post, go back to the forums index and the forum will still show new posts. The flag will only go away when all the posts in the forum have been read.

[Chris Barcellos]

I liked the old way, but can live, and maybe eventually figure out the new system....If I thought I missed something in a given day, I could always go to posts for the last 24 hours.

[Chris Soucy]

I just logged in again, did a refresh, and Voila, all those bloody flags are gone.

TFCFT.

Well done that man, er, whomever.

Blessed relief.

What a great end to an otherwise miserable day - chain saws, do it evey time!

CS