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#230705 - 15/08/2004 16:18 BBS Not marking posts read
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
This has been bugging me since the new software went up. I was hoping it was a fluke or it was something that could be solved by logging out and clearing my cache, but it hasn't cleared up.

When I log into the BBS and read messages, it often doesn't mark the messages as "read" and continues to show me the little orange "(1)" in the parent views and also shows the message as unread (highlighted bar) when I go back in and read it a second time.

This happens pretty much every day, there are at least two or three messages that I have to go in and read 2-3 times before the BBS is convinced that I've actually read them.

This seems to happen equally whether I'm on broadband or dialup.

Potentially related additional problem:

When I am reading the BBS from a dial up connection, if I choose to open multiple windows (say, a window for Off Topic, a window for General, a window for Technical, an additional sub-windows for individual posts within those forums), and each of those is downloading simultaneously, they will frequently *all* stall out with only about half of the data stream loaded. I have to hit "stop" and "refresh" on each one in order for it to get all of the thread.

This does not happen on broadband. It also did not happen on either broadband or dialup when the old BBS software was installed.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#230706 - 15/08/2004 17:32 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: tfabris]
RobotCaleb
pooh-bah

Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 1866
Loc: Austin
there is a thread devoted to BBS bugs, already

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#230707 - 15/08/2004 19:34 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: RobotCaleb]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
Yes, and I think it's time that thread was un-pinned and retired. The biggest group of initial bugs have been ironed out or deferred, so that thread has served its purpose. (Besides, it's one of the threads that takes a long time on my modem and always times out when I try to load it.) So I think we should go back to individual bug reports as we find them.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#230708 - 16/08/2004 01:49 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: tfabris]
ninti
old hand

Registered: 28/12/2001
Posts: 868
Loc: Los Angeles
Personally, I think the new BBS is a train wreck. I have the same problem you mentioned, I still can't log in with multiple computers consistantly, and every now and then it marks all posts as read for no good reason. I am coming here a lot less often because of it.
_________________________
Ninti - MK IIa 60GB Smoke, 30GB, 10GB

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#230709 - 16/08/2004 04:26 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: tfabris]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12338
Loc: Sterling, VA
I'll just add that I haven't had any of these problems whatsoever, and I've logged onto many machines successfully, including my P800.

Isn't this something that was happening to many people on the old system as well? I thought it was happening to you, too. Are you sure the problem isn't on your end?
_________________________
Matt

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#230710 - 16/08/2004 06:54 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: Dignan]
CrackersMcCheese
pooh-bah

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2489
Same here.... no problems whatsoever on several PCs. I don't believe its the board at fault.

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#230711 - 16/08/2004 10:37 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: CrackersMcCheese]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3584
Loc: Columbus, OH
Agreed. No problems with posts or logging on or halfway-downloaded datastreams.
_________________________
~ John

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#230712 - 16/08/2004 11:46 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: ninti]
djc
enthusiast

Registered: 08/08/2000
Posts: 351
Loc: chicago
For me, the old board was much more forgiving if I did not explicitly log out and back in again each time I moved to a new PC. With the new board, I find that I must log out and back in every time I access it from a different location. I also regularly run into the can't-logout-so-must-remove-cookies bug, mentioned on the omnibus bug thread. No big deal.

--Dan.

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#230713 - 16/08/2004 11:52 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: djc]
ricin
veteran

Registered: 19/06/2000
Posts: 1495
Loc: US: CA
Instead of clearing the cookies manually you can just go to the logout page. Just go to http://empegbbs.com/ubbthreads/logout.php and you'll be able to login again.
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Donato
MkII/080000565
MkIIa/010101253
ricin.us

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#230714 - 16/08/2004 11:58 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: ricin]
djc
enthusiast

Registered: 08/08/2000
Posts: 351
Loc: chicago
The bug I mentioned (and referenced in the other thread) is that the logout button doesn't always work.

--Dan.

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#230715 - 16/08/2004 12:06 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: djc]
ricin
veteran

Registered: 19/06/2000
Posts: 1495
Loc: US: CA
Oh, never seen that one. I sometimes run into a situation where the board thinks I'm logged in, but I'm not, and there is no "Logout" link. I just go to the logout page manually and login and everything is fine again.
_________________________
Donato
MkII/080000565
MkIIa/010101253
ricin.us

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#230716 - 16/08/2004 12:25 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: djc]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Quote:
the old board was much more forgiving
I've noticed that the new board is more aggressive about marking things read. If I leave a forum before I'm done (usually because I'm a spaz and click the wrong button), even if I go straight back, all the posts are marked as read. The old board would do this sometimes, but not all the time. Now it seems to be all the time.

Personally, I wish that it would never automatically mark things as read that I haven't read. But that's another story.
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Bitt Faulk

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#230717 - 16/08/2004 15:05 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: Dignan]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
Isn't this something that was happening to many people on the old system as well? I thought it was happening to you, too.

Correct. But on the old board, it was happening intermittently for me, and would be solved for a while simply by logging out and logging back in.

Now it happens consistently, constantly, and no amount of logouts and logins and cache-clears fixes it.


Quote:
Are you sure the problem isn't on your end?

I don't know where on my end the problem could lie. I think I've done due dilligence by logging out, clearing my cache and cookies, and logging back in again. Also, the problem happens equally on three different systems. One of the systems is a freshly-formatted installation of Windows 2000 that I've set up within the last couple of weeks.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#230718 - 16/08/2004 15:36 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
Another note about the unread-mark behavior...

Sometimes I will view the main page (the "top index") and it shows exactly 1 unread post within a specific thread, including the name of that thread. So I click directly on that thread name and it brings me to the single unread post within that thread. As expected.

But when I'm done reading that post, and I click the link to go up one level to that forum's index, I see that there's a thread about 12 items down in the list with five new/unread posts in it.

I click on that thread and I see that it's the five posts I already read 15 minutes ago.

My point is that there is often a discrepancy between the unread count shown on the main index page, and the unread count for a thread within the forum. And in the case cited above, the main index page was correct, it was the forum view that was showing (incorrectly) that I hadn't read those five posts in that thread.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#230719 - 16/08/2004 15:37 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: Dignan]
Cybjorg
addict

Registered: 23/12/2002
Posts: 652
Loc: Winston Salem, NC
Same here. No problems.

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#230720 - 16/08/2004 15:44 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: Cybjorg]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
When a similar problem happened on the old board, it seemed to cycle around amongst users. For months I would not have the problem, then it would plague me for a week or two, then it would seem to go away again and another user would complain about it.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#230721 - 16/08/2004 16:14 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: tfabris]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12338
Loc: Sterling, VA
*knocking on desk*

I've been here a while, and never once had this problem. I did a quick guestimate in my head, and I think I've checked this board regularly on about 40 different computers, most likely more.

Could a reason for this be that I don't think I've ever logged out of the system?
_________________________
Matt

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#230722 - 16/08/2004 16:53 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: Dignan]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
Could a reason for this be that I don't think I've ever logged out of the system?


I've never (to my knowledge: I'm not necessarily that observant) seen this problem. I never deliberately log out either and, although I tend to view the board from my desktop, I occasionally use my laptop or someone else's PC

I do occasionally get logged out by cookie expiration (or by a bug in IE -- whichever), but that doesn't seem to cause a problem either.

I check the board with frequencies ranging between 3 times an hour (when I'm bored) to 3 times a day (when I'm busy). I didn't check it this weekend -- I was away.
_________________________
-- roger

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#230723 - 16/08/2004 17:00 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: tfabris]
JeffS
carpal tunnel

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2858
Loc: Atlanta, GA
The only problem I've noticed like this is with my Konqurer browser on a very old Mandrake Linux machine at home. But that install is about to go away so it really isn't an issue. My IE browsers work fine and I never log out.
_________________________
-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.

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#230724 - 16/08/2004 17:33 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: tfabris]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
Quote:
Yes, and I think it's time that thread was un-pinned and retired. The biggest group of initial bugs have been ironed out or deferred, so that thread has served its purpose.


Not all. I'll unpin it and create a new one when I get the boards up to the newest beta. It's easier for me that way then trying to track multiple threads all over the place to then report to the UBB folks.

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#230725 - 16/08/2004 18:13 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: Roger]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12338
Loc: Sterling, VA
This is how I visit as well.

I should also point out that I used IE up until a month or two ago, and since then have used Firefox. No problems on either.

I also get logged out every so often (maybe every two months), but yeah, that's no problem.
_________________________
Matt

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#230726 - 16/08/2004 18:15 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: tfabris]
peter
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
Quote:
I don't know where on my end the problem could lie.

B0rken transparent proxy at your ISP? I get the not-marked-read thing all the time from home, via NTL's transparent proxy. But I got it with the old BBS version too. In theory if you could persuade Tom to make the board accessible on another port as well as 80, that would bypass any filthy transparent proxying.

Peter

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#230727 - 16/08/2004 19:04 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: peter]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
I doubt it. I've had the same problem happen through two different ISPs, one of them via DSL and the other via dialup. And nothing has changed about my ISP configurations between the time it was working OK (before the BBS switch) and now.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#230728 - 16/08/2004 22:32 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: drakino]
AndrewT
old hand

Registered: 16/02/2002
Posts: 867
Loc: Oxford, UK
Tom
It might just be me, and if so please ignore this, but when a thread gets much past one page (and I view at 50 posts per page) I tend to ignore it because I can't click into the thread to the point where I last read. This is an age-old "problem" that existed before the upgade and I know its my loss but it bugs me all the same.

My reason for mentioning it is that, for me at least, the "Old board/bug reports feedback" thread is a place I keep clear of for the reasons I mentioned above - I'd much prefer it if you un-stickied it and we started a new one to keep the thread "readable" (for people like me at least!).

Just my two cents

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#230729 - 16/08/2004 22:37 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: AndrewT]
RobotCaleb
pooh-bah

Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 1866
Loc: Austin
click the arrow to the left of the link. it will take you to the unread post.

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#230730 - 17/08/2004 06:16 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: RobotCaleb]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
click the arrow to the left of the link. it will take you to the unread post.


There's also the problem that IE doesn't correctly honour the anchor in the address (the # in the http thingy) if you Shift-click on a hyperlink.
_________________________
-- roger

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#230731 - 17/08/2004 15:26 Re: BBS Not marking posts read [Re: Roger]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
There's also the problem that IE doesn't correctly honour the anchor in the address (the # in the http thingy) if you Shift-click on a hyperlink.

Yeah, I hate that. Interestingly, if you right-click on the link and select "open in new window", it does honor the anchor. How silly is that? Theoretically, the two actions (shift click, or right-click and open in new window) should produce the exact same results.

MyIE2 and Firefox both have no problem with the shift-click honoring page anchors.

I'm so surprised that no one's noticed nor fixed that bug in IE for so long. It's been years, hasn't it?
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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