What Constitutes "new"?

[JimLucas]

Just back from several days away, and trying to catch up my reading, I have just noticed that on some Topics the "View New Posts" is showing me only the last post or two, even though there are others that I most definitely hadn't yet seen. E.g., in the "Opinions, Please" topic, it took me directly to the last of 4 posts, though this is the first I've logged in since the Topic was started.

 

Now I'm wondering what else I've missed. I guess I now need to search each subForum for any and all posts dated on or after the day I left. Ouch!

 

Edited to add: Oh yes, and the Topic "English Ornamentation Suggestions?, long roll equivalents?" didn't even appear until someone just added a post to it.

Edited March 30, 2005 by JimLucas

[Pete Dickey]

This is probably an intuitive system. It must have assumed you had already read the posts using Chris's computer.

[David Barnert]

The "view new posts" button has been working very reliably for me since the new forum software was introduced. I am not aware that I have missed any posts except in topics that I choose not to read. As far as I can tell, it shows me all the posts that have appeared since the last time I logged on. As we discussed some time ago, it even gives me a little "grace" period, meaning that if I log off and log on again sometime soon after, it takes me back to the earlier log on time, in case my session had been interrupted unintentionally.

 

Is it possible that you logged on at some earlier time, after the mentioned posts were submitted, but did not read them? That's asking for trouble, because even though they are unread, they will not appear as "new posts."

 

My routine for reading this forum is this:

 

I get to the main concertina.net/forums page and note the date and time of my last session.

 

I click "View New Posts."

 

I start at the bottom of the page (the earliest posts) or the bottom of the highest number page if there are more than one.

 

I click* the little yellow box by the first topic I find there that I am interested in reading. [* Actually, I hold the mouse button down a few moments (I use a Mac) so that a menu appears, from which I choose "Open Link in New Window." On a PC, this would involve right-clicking.]

 

A window appears with the entire topic, but cued to the first post since my last session. I read from there to the bottom, moving on to additional pages if there are any. I post a response if I feel like it.

 

I close the window and go back to the "Search Results" page, which is still open and doesn't have to reload.

 

I work my way up to the top, opening every topic I want to read in a new window, one at a time.

 

When I reach the top, I note the time of the last post in the top topic. Then I click "View New Posts" again to see if any posts have accumulated while I have been reading, or since the time of the last post I just noted. They will appear at the top of the page.

 

If there are new posts, I read them as above and click "View New Posts" again.

 

If there are not, I close the window, ending my session without formally logging off.

 

If my computer crashes or I have to end a session before I've read everything that's new, I have some time (15 minutes or so?) to get back to concertina.net/forums without losing my place. If I wait too long, I lose access to any posts I had not read.

[JimLucas]

My routine for reading this forum is this: ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

David, my routine is very similar to yours, but what I observe seems different, and it's just gotten worse.

 

I logged in this morning and checked all "new" posts, presumably new since I was on last night. Then I left it at the main Forum screen while I did a bunch of other things, but I neither logged out nor went back to check for new things for some time. Just now I went back and clicked on "View New Posts", and I got the Forum "error" that says the search found nothing, i.e., there were no new posts. BUT the individual subForum indications for the latest post in each subforum display several that were posted *after* I did my reading this morning. It's easy to tell, not only from the times they were posted, but because they were posted by individuals who had no "new" posts earlier in the day.

 

But now I discover that if I go directly into individual subForums, there are a number of individual Topics which indicate that they *do* have new posts since I read them last. In several cases, the most recent post was anywhere from Mar. 24 to yesterday, -- i.e., during the period when I wasn't accessing C.net, -- yet these were *not* displayed by "View New Posts" when I first logged in yesterday. So the "New Posts" indicator -- which I have previously understood to mean posts in a Topic since the last time I read it (of course, that includes completely new Topics) -- is missing out a great many unread posts and Topics that on the level of the individual subForums are still identified as unread. It seems to me that there's something wrong with that.

 

What's particularly strange is that I have previously experiened the opposite problem. Topics I've recently read will continue to be listed in "View New Posts" after I've read them, though without the little mark that indicates "unread", yet if I close my browser without explicitly logging out, the next time I log in those already-read Topics which contain no new posts will again be marked as unread.

 

I had gone to using "View New Posts" as the best way to keep track of what I had and hadn't already read, but with these behaviors, it seems that I must now/still check each individual subForum and Topic. I will find this a pain in various parts of my anatomy.

Edited March 31, 2005 by JimLucas

[Richard Morse]

My take on the "View New Posts" link action is that it presents stuff from the last *time* I logged out whether or not I had "seen" previously date posts.

 

For instance, there are some topics I'm not watching - yet if there is a "new" posting in it, the topic will present itself - and when I click on the very small mostly red square before the Topic Title link, that takes me to the posting dating to the last time I logged out. All the presivous postings I STILL hadn't read are apparently not considered "new" to the forum software even though they are "new" to me.

[John Wild]

When I reach the top, I note the time of the last post in the top topic. Then I click "View New Posts" again to see if any posts have accumulated while I have been reading, or since the time of the last post I just noted. They will appear at the top of the page.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

An alternative there is to click on view/refresh

 

- John Wild

[David Barnert]

My take on the "View New Posts" link action is that it presents stuff from the last *time* I logged out whether or not I had "seen" previously date posts.

 

For instance, there are some topics I'm not watching - yet if there is a "new" posting in it, the topic will present itself - and when I click on the very small mostly red square before the Topic Title link, that takes me to the posting dating to the last time I logged out. All the presivous postings I STILL hadn't read are apparently not considered "new" to the forum software even though they are "new" to me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This was my understanding, as well. From Jim's posts, it's not 100% clear whether he realizes that, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming he just hasn't said it clearly (or I'm not reading carefully enough).

An alternative there is to click on view/refresh

Not so. This will show you new posts in the topics that already appear on the "stale" version of the page, but not in topics that don't appear there. Clicking "View New Posts" will show you new posts in all topics.

[John Wild]

An alternative there is to click on view/refresh

Not so. This will show you new posts in the topics that already appear on the "stale" version of the page' date=' but not in topics that don't appear there. Clicking "View New Posts" will show you new posts in all topics.

[right']<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/right]

 

 

I am happy to stand corrected.

Edited Ps added: Having just returned from my birthday celebration, i might even fall down corrected.

 

- John

Edited April 1, 2005 by John Wild