Are You Having Problems With the "New Posts" Feature?

[Jason Dunn]

After we did the update of our core code two weeks ago to launch the subscriber services, we started getting reports from people who were asking why the <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/search.php?search_id=newposts">new posts functionality</a> wasn't working properly any more. One of these people was our own community moderator, Steven Cedrone, and it was difficult to track down because it worked fine on one computer, but not on the other. Even after deleting his PPCT cookie, it wouldn't work. The final solution for him was to turn on "Show hidden files" and delete the index.dat file - and then it started working. But this solution doesn't seem to work for everyone, so I wanted to open this up for discussion and get a feel for how many of you are having problems with this. Please vote, and add your comments if you've found the solution above to work, or if you've managed to figure out why this is happening. :-)

[Pat Logsdon]

I've had this problem since the subscriber service rolled out - before that, it was working fine. I haven't tried the fix on my computer at home, and (like many others, I suspect) I can't try the fix on my computer at work because I don't have admin rights to my PC here. :|

The odd thing is that it seems to work OK as long as I keep a window with the site up all day - then I can refresh whenever I want. But if I close the window, or go to another address, I'm back to square 1 - "No topics or posts met your search criteria". Strange.

[Sunnyone]

I haven't tried the fix on my computer at home, and (like many others, I suspect) I can't try the fix on my computer at work because I don't have admin rights to my PC here. :|

The odd thing is that it seems to work OK as long as I keep a window with the site up all day - then I can refresh whenever I want. But if I close the window, or go to another address, I'm back to square 1 - "No topics or posts met your search criteria". Strange.

Exactly - same for me.

[rhmorrison]

The 'Show NEW Posts' always works for me.
The 'Last 10 posts' NEVER WORKS in the mobile forum (from PPC).
It always comes up empty although it ought to be exactly what we see on the Main PCThoughts page on the right hand column.

Logout, login, delete cookies, delete cache, ... NOTHING WORKS!!

[msprague]

The 'Show NEW Posts' always works for me.
The 'Last 10 posts' NEVER WORKS in the mobile forum (from PPC).
It always comes up empty although it ought to be exactly what we see on the Main PCThoughts page on the right hand column.

Logout, login, delete cookies, delete cache, ... NOTHING WORKS!!
ditto

[Don't Panic!]

I'm using a Windows 2000 machine with Netscape 6 at work and I see new posts okay.

Don't Panic!
Bobby

[droppedd]

heheh - just after i voted, i suddenly can only see the last 10 minutes in "new posts" - four new posts, when just before it showed me 4 pages of new posts :)

[Steven Cedrone]

This has been working for me as a work around to the new posts problem:

1) After I finish reading the forums, I log off 'Thoughts.
2) When I want to read the forums again, I go to the main page and hit the "new posts" button.
3) Once I enter my username and password, I recieve the "No posts or topics..." message.
4) I then hit the "new posts" button again, and I can now see all of the new posts since my last visit.

Hope this helps those of you with this problem...

Steve

[Jason Dunn]

This problem is very difficult to diagnose or fix because neither Fabrizio or myself have this problem. :|

I stopped using the "New Posts" function a long time ago, because phpBB isn't per-message cookie-based, so if I shut down my browser I'd lose all those unread messages - sometimes. phpBB isn't very good at this whole "unread posts" thing. :-)

[easylife]

Why not try to upgrade to phpBB 2.0.5?:
http://www.phpbb.com/news.php?id=16

[Jason Dunn]

Why not try to upgrade to phpBB 2.0.5?:
http://www.phpbb.com/news.php?id=16

Cool, we'll check it out. :-)

[Pat Logsdon]

Why not try to upgrade to phpBB 2.0.5?:
http://www.phpbb.com/news.php?id=16
According to the Further Details page, this version of phpbb is also referred to as the "Tanned and no longer furry because it's summer" Edition. :mrgreen:

[Janak Parekh]

Unfortunately, I've read the release notes for phpBB 2.0.5, and I don't think it has any solution to the "new posts" problem.

There are mods for phpBB that move post tracking to the server-side, although I think they're rather unsupported, so I don't know if we'll want to use it.

phpBB 2.2 is right around the corner, though, and that should include a whole new slew of fixes..

--janak

[Ed Hansberry]

This is mostly an issue on the Mobile site with me.

[lurch]

Okay, I got a repeatable outcome here that maybe someone else can try...

I noticed that after I logged out and then clicked on "new posts" (while logged out) it had me log in, then redirected me to the following page:

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/search.php?search_id=newposts?ln_k=1

Except that it also had the sid (session ID) appended to the URL.

I think it might be an error with the 2nd "?" since that's not valid syntax (unless you've changed it to do funky things, which I doubt)

But if I change the "?" to a "&" then it works... so I wonder if that's the problem?

[delfuhd]

Hmm well for me, the new posts would only work if I went to PocketPCThought's homepage, then clicked on forums, then clicked on new posts. Otherwise it doesn't work.

[Hyperluminal]

Hmm, I can't say I've ever had it give me "no new posts" when it reasonably should have. I have had it only give me 2 or 3 threads when there should be many more (I think), like droppedd said. So I'm not sure if I've had this problem or not... :)

By the way, I'm using Windows XP with Mozilla Firebird 0.6. :way to go:

[blazingwolf]

I thought is was just me with this problem since I never saw a post for it. Whew, glad to know that I'm not going crazy. :D I notice this on my home computer but nothing is wrong at work. Also, I noticed that if I just checked individual threads looking for new posts that I had the same problem.

[Kati Compton]

Works fine for me - I'm using Mozilla. Is it just IE that's having the problem?

[thomas1973]

I'm having problems viewing 'New Posts', too :( ... At first it was consistantly giving me no new posts - I first thought PPCT had died...

Now I'm occasionally getting through. It usually works if I surf a couple of pages on PPCT before I hit the 'New Posts' button, and usually fails if I push it just after entering the PPCT forum directly through my favourites link. I can't seem to find a reliable pattern though...

I'm using XP Home with IE6. I've been surfing on my proxy 10Mbit connection in Denmark, as well as my DSL connection here in Norway with the same problems.

Hope you find a fix, as I was just getting used to the 'New Posts' button, and was finding it rather useful - now it's mostly annoying :roll: :wink:

Still, it's a minor quirk on a great PPC site. And I must say your site is loading faster than ever after you changed servers. Brighthand - although also a great forum - feels like a 56k modem in comparison :lol:


Thomas.

[torgamm]

I am one of those who are complaining too: no new posts (AvantBrowser/IE6 on XP Pro). I have not read this board extensively for a few days because of that.
I tried many things but I could not find any definitive explaination.
The "delete the index.dat" trick solved the problem.

[FredMurphy]

I even missed this thread because "New Posts" didn't find it! :?

[petvas]

I find this problem very irritating...
I almost never can see all new posts...Sometimes the new posts appear, but if I select to go to a different than the first page, I get no results...
I am using WinXP and IE6...

[Jeff Rutledge]

New Posts generally works well for me (at least, it has since the Sub-services came on).

The only issue I seem to have now is when I stay logged in for a while (say, an hour) with a Forum page loaded. When I come back and click New Posts after that time, I get the dreaded "No posts met your criteria" message.

[Steven Cedrone]

The only issue I seem to have now is when I stay logged in for a while (say, an hour) with a Forum page loaded. When I come back and click New Posts after that time, I get the dreaded "No posts met your criteria" message.

I've noticed this as well. What I do now is this: read all of the forums, then log off. When I go back to the forums again, I log back in. So far, doing it that way, I have had no problems...

Steve

[Jeff Rutledge]

The only issue I seem to have now is when I stay logged in for a while (say, an hour) with a Forum page loaded. When I come back and click New Posts after that time, I get the dreaded "No posts met your criteria" message.

I've noticed this as well. What I do now is this: read all of the forums, then log off. When I go back to the forums again, I log back in. So far, doing it that way, I have had no problems...

Steve

Yeah, I've started doing that to. At least, trying to do it. I forget a lot. :?

Or, I often end up being away from my PC longer than I thought.

Janak mentioned a nice wish-list feature - the ability to click New Posts since... where you could enter a value. That would be great. In the meantime, I'll have to get better at logging off. :rock on dude!:

[maximus]

This problem is very difficult to diagnose or fix because neither Fabrizio or myself have this problem. :|

I stopped using the "New Posts" function a long time ago, because phpBB isn't per-message cookie-based, so if I shut down my browser I'd lose all those unread messages - sometimes. phpBB isn't very good at this whole "unread posts" thing. :-)

How about storing user's last login on the server, and when someone hit 'new post', the server check when was his/her last login, and created a list of the posts posted since ? I am sorry if this is a lame idea, but programming was never a big hit in my brain.

[Jeff Rutledge]

Argh!

This time it was my fault though (I think). I was looking over the New Posts on my iPAQ wirelessly. I exited Pocket IE before I logging into the site on my Desktop.

When I clicked New Posts, only three showed up (this being one of them).

How's that for irony. 8)

[ChristopherTD]

It never used to work for me, I thought it could have been because I remained logged in from several machines.

Since the update it has been working properly - I think...

[petvas]

The funny thing is that it works ok on my laptop (Windows XP Pro) but on my desktop it doesn't work at all. I deleted the index.dat file, removed the cookies but nothing... It is so annoying... :?

[Kati Compton]

The funny thing is that it works ok on my laptop (Windows XP Pro) but on my desktop it doesn't work at all. I deleted the index.dat file, removed the cookies but nothing... It is so annoying... :?
I don't suppose you're using a different browser or browser version on the desktop?

[petvas]

The funny thing is that it works ok on my laptop (Windows XP Pro) but on my desktop it doesn't work at all. I deleted the index.dat file, removed the cookies but nothing... It is so annoying... :?
I don't suppose you're using a different browser or browser version on the desktop?

No, I have exactly the same configuration!!! Same patches, software...

[JvanEkris]

Problem is, when i log out, and log in manually, i can access the new posts feature. When i use the automatic login, it stops working. Tried it on 4 machines (all XP Pro, SP1), including one clean machine, all having the same problem......

Jaap

[Steven Cedrone]

Problem is, when i log out, and log in manually, i can access the new posts feature. When i use the automatic login, it stops working. Tried it on 4 machines (all XP Pro, SP1), including one clean machine, all having the same problem......

Jaap

Once you get the hang of logging on and off, it's not too bad... :wink:

We should try to figure out what we have in common here. There must be something as very few users are still complaining about problems...

Steve

[JvanEkris]

Once you get the hang of logging on and off, it's not too bad... :wink: Well, i'm used to have an "all area pass". Just walk through mister van Ekris, no questions asked. I'm too impatient for waiting for the password box, having to fill it in, waiting for the confirmation dialog. Especially when i'm just awake, that password box is a tricky one :(. I want my thougts directly to me, second thing in the morning :)

[petvas]

Once you get the hang of logging on and off, it's not too bad... :wink:

We should try to figure out what we have in common here. There must be something as very few users are still complaining about problems...

Steve

Maybe people just got used to it and they don't complain so much!!!