Items marked read before I can read them :(

[Vidge]

I visit the site a couple of times a day and I usually use the "New Posts" link to see what's going on. Most times, there are several pages of info. Before I can make it thru the end of the first page (after reading some posts), subsequent pages show "No new posts since you last visit" or something like that. It seems that the forum software time limit for reading the posts is quite short before they are all updated. Is there any way this time can be increased? For short threads, it's not a major problem but for the ones that are several pages long, I end up having to guess at what page of the thread I last read since the whole thing has been marked as read.

Thanks!

[Steven Cedrone]

We were having some server problems today, perhaps that contributed to it. I know when I moderate the site, I usually go through many threads (40-60) and don't have a problem. Another thought, do you have software that may be deleting the Pocket PC Thoughts cookie that gets placed on your machine (this keeps track of your session). One other thing: if this happens, you can go into the search page and put in an "*" for the author (without the quotes) and then search for the last day. This will at least let you go through all of the updated threads you missed...

Steve

[Darius Wey]

I hardly experience the problems you're having, but I do know what you are talking about. If it's a common problem, you can try searching for all new posts in the last day (assuming you visit daily).

Just do a search for * in the author field, and restrict posts to the last 1 day.

[Vidge]

It happens to me every time I visit, not just today (yes, I read about the server problems)

Understand that what I'm talking about is the little box to the left of the thread that shows that there are new posts. If that box is there, I can click on it and it will take me to the newest post since my last visit. What happens is I come on site and hit new posts, which is usually several pages. Then I hit the little box and read the new posts (I actually read them in a new tab, using Mozilla). Once I've read the new posts in a particular thread, I close the tab and go to the next thread. Sometimes, I hit the little box and it says "No new posts since your last visit."

Then when I go to the next page of threads, none of them have the little box.

It's not a matter of getting the list of threads containing new posts, it's getting to the actual new posts.

I usually come here in the morning and again in the evening. I visit a number of sites during the day and this is the only one that I can't seem to get the new posts read before they all get marked as read.

Do you understand the problem now? (If I could attach a picture, I could show you what I'm talking about :( )

[Darius Wey]

I know what you're talking about. In fact, it just happened to me about half an hour ago. I too open new threads in their own tab in Firefox, and close them once I'm done.

The way I get around this is I just head back to the main forum index and click the "New Posts" link again. It seems to resolve itself the second time round. Have you tried that, or is it just being an absolute pain?

[Vidge]

I know what you're talking about. In fact, it just happened to me about half an hour ago. I too open new threads in their own tab in Firefox, and close them once I'm done.

The way I get around this is I just head back to the main forum index and click the "New Posts" link again. It seems to resolve itself the second time round. Have you tried that, or is it just being an absolute pain?

Glad to know I'm not alone. I just logged on a couple of minutes ago and this time was the worst. I didn't even open any threads - just paged to the next page - and all were marked read :( Tried your trick - didn't work :(

Here's what the heading shows now:

You last visited on Thu Dec 02, 2004 10:22 pm
The time now is Thu Dec 02, 2004 10:25 pm

That's how fast they were marked (and that wasn't even the fastest - I didn't capture that until AFTER I started responding to this post :(

[timcolling]

This happens to me EVERY time I visit. It is very frustrating, for that NEVER happens to me on any other site.

- Tim

[Jeff Rutledge]

I had what I think was the same issue. My "New Posts" were always empty and all threads were marked read. Turns out it was because I was using an RSS reader to access pocketpcthoughts.com/xml. The reader was updating the cookie I guess. Either way, I shut down the RSS feed for Thoughts and it was fine.

I don't know if that helps or not...

[Vidge]

Nope - not using an RSS reader on the site right not. I just log in to read. I don't have this problem on any other site I visit.

There is something else going on, too. When I just read the postings, it happens after a couple of minutes. If I happen to respond to a posting (like now), I'm asked to log in again. Once I do that, all posts are marked as read. (Yes, I have cokies enabled, yes I have the box checked to automatically log me in.)

This is getting worse by the minute for me :(

[timcolling]

I had what I think was the same issue. My "New Posts" were always empty and all threads were marked read. Turns out it was because I was using an RSS reader to access pocketpcthoughts.com/xml. The reader was updating the cookie I guess. Either way, I shut down the RSS feed for Thoughts and it was fine.

I don't know if that helps or not...

I'm not using an RSS reader.

- Tim

[timcolling]

This happens to me EVERY time I visit. It is very frustrating, for that NEVER happens to me on any other site.

- Tim

Incidentally, this problem never occurs for me when I visit other sites' forums such as at Pocket Informant, Wisbar, PocketPCTools, and others.

- Tim

[Jeff Rutledge]

You could try deleting the cookie and then re-logging in. Perhaps the cookie has become corrupt and that should re-create it.

[Darius Wey]

Vidge, which browser are you using?

[timcolling]

You could try deleting the cookie and then re-logging in. Perhaps the cookie has become corrupt and that should re-create it.

Thanks, but that doesn't help, in my case.

- Tim

[Vidge]

Vidge, which browser are you using?

I'm using Mozilla. I've tried deleting the cookies - doesn't work.

This is so annoying :( Couldn't get past page 1 (of 5 pages of new posts) before they were marked read

[Darius Wey]

I'm using Mozilla. I've tried deleting the cookies - doesn't work.

This is so annoying :( Couldn't get past page 1 (of 5 pages of new posts) before they were marked read

Have you tried a day at PPCT using IE? I'm curious to see if it's a browser-related problem, which I doubt, but anything can happen these days...

[timcolling]

I'm using Mozilla. I've tried deleting the cookies - doesn't work.

This is so annoying :( Couldn't get past page 1 (of 5 pages of new posts) before they were marked read

Have you tried a day at PPCT using IE? I'm curious to see if it's a browser-related problem, which I doubt, but anything can happen these days...

I'm using IE, and I'm having the problem even after deleting the cookie.

- Tim

[Darius Wey]

I'm using IE, and I'm having the problem even after deleting the cookie.

Hmm... This is a little odd. I'll try and work out what the problem is. :)

[timcolling]

I'm using IE, and I'm having the problem even after deleting the cookie.

Hmm... This is a little odd. I'll try and work out what the problem is. :)

For what it's worth:

I notice that here the forum software in use is phpBB 2.0.11. I notice that on the Wisbar Advance forum, where I have no problems like the ones we're seeing here, they are running a newer version of phpBB, version 2.0.6.

I speculate that upgrading to that (presumably) newer version of phpBB might solve the problem.

Thanks,
Tim

[Vidge]

Hmm... This is a little odd. I'll try and work out what the problem is. :)

Thanks for looking into this. Just logged back on, 2 pages of new posts, got to the end of the first page - all now marked as read :(

It may be a version problem but it also may be a setting in phpBBB that is just not set long enough.

[Darius Wey]

For what it's worth:

I notice that here the forum software in use is phpBB 2.0.11. I notice that on the Wisbar Advance forum, where I have no problems like the ones we're seeing here, they are running a newer version of phpBB, version 2.0.6.

Thanks for the input Tim. Although you have your version numbers a little mixed up. phpBB 2.0.11 is the newer version, not phpBB 2.0.6, but it's easy to see how confusion can arise from this.

[Vidge]

Maybe we need an OLDER version?? <sigh - logged in, got 2 pages of new posts, read the new posts in the 2nd thread on page 1, tred to get the new posts on this thread - only the 4th one on page 1 - and it came back "No new posts since your last visit>

[Steven Cedrone]

Weird! Uncheck "log me in automatically" and see if you are being forced to log back in after reading a few threads...

Steve

[Vidge]

Weird! Uncheck "log me in automatically" and see if you are being forced to log back in after reading a few threads...

Steve

I've only seen that box come up occasionally when I try to post. Where is it normally?

Edit - OK - I logged out and logged back in & I saw the box. As it turns out, the box was NOT checked, anyway.

I logged back in and everything was marked as read. Note this thread was the ONLY one that I read this morning.

[KimVette]

I've seen this problem when the server is slow/busy, using MSIE and Firefox on Windows and Linux respectively. It's likely a server load issue, since the only time I've seen it was when the server was slow to serve up pages. Incidentally, any progress on blocking rogue indexing robots which don't follow common standard practices?

[Vidge]

Last night when I left, I logged out. When I logged back in today, I got 5 pages of new posts. Today I was able to read and post without losing my unread posts. So maybe the answer is logging out before I leave. I'll check it out later & see if that fixes the problem (although it will be a pain to remember to log out :( )