"View New Content" updates WHEN?

[JimLucas]

This post seems to suggest that the View New Content list resets every 24 hours. Meaning that if I post something 10 minutes before the reset occurs, that post nevertheless doesn't appear in "New Content"? If so, that would seem to destroy much of the usefulness of this feature. It certainly seems to have caused problems for me with a recent Topic.

 

But as noted in this post, it doesn't always update with that frequency. So just what does determine the update frequency?

 

And might it not be possible to define "New Content" to be anything posted after a time other than the reset time, e.g., anything posted within a day (or two, or...?) of the reset time, or maybe since the last reset?

 

I'm assuming that one can't use the Invision software to present a separate "unread" list for each user, which is what I seem to recall was what Paul's own software used to do. (Has it really been almost 10 years since the changeover?! Maybe we should be planning an anniversary party. )

[spindizzy]

This post seems to suggest that the View New Content list resets every 24 hours. Meaning that if I post something 10 minutes before the reset occurs, that post nevertheless doesn't appear in "New Content"? If so, that would seem to destroy much of the usefulness of this feature. It certainly seems to have caused problems for me with a recent Topic.

 

But as noted in this post, it doesn't always update with that frequency. So just what does determine the update frequency?

 

And might it not be possible to define "New Content" to be anything posted after a time other than the reset time, e.g., anything posted within a day (or two, or...?) of the reset time, or maybe since the last reset?

 

I'm assuming that one can't use the Invision software to present a separate "unread" list for each user, which is what I seem to recall was what Paul's own software used to do. (Has it really been almost 10 years since the changeover?! Maybe we should be planning an anniversary party. )

 

 

I always thought that the new content shows any content added since my last first and needed cookies enabled to do this. Did you leave yourself logged in somewhere?

Edited January 10, 2013 by spindizzy

[JimLucas]

...added since my last first...

??? (Missing words?)

 

...and needed cookies enabled to do this. Did you leave yourself logged in somewhere?

I almost never "log out", though I often disconnect from the internet.

 

I do have cookies enabled for concertina.net.

 

I haven't been able to correlate the seemingly inconsistent update timing/behavior I described with any changes in how I'm interacting with concertina.net.

[David Barnert]

I only check in here every few days and the posts listed in "New Content" always date back to my last visit. I always finish my visit (after I've read everything I want to) by clicking "Mark Board as Read". I always suspected that if I didn't, even old posts from before my last session would appear. In other words, as I understand it, for "new" read "unread." I've not seen evidence to the contrary.

Edited January 11, 2013 by David Barnert

[JimLucas]

I only check in here every few days and the posts listed in "New Content" always date back to my last visit. I always finish my visit (after I've read everything I want to) by clicking "Mark Board as Read".

Hmm. I didn't even realize that "Mark Board as Read" was there (though I think I now recall it being discussed many years ago), since after scrolling down twice on the Forum main screen, on my screen it's still off the bottom. Besides, I very much don't want to mark everything as read. I want threads with too many replies for me to read at the moment to remain marked as unread, so the Forum software will keep track of where I last had gotten to.

 

In other words, as I understand it, for "new" read "unread." I've not seen evidence to the contrary.

And that's my point and problem, because I have seen such evidence. Due to a difference in our ways of using the Forum? Or the way our browsers or operating systems interact with the Forum? (Some discussions of other problems have indicated such possibilities.) I don't know.

 

But as I reported, I normally remain "signed in", even when I don't have concertina.net in an active browser window or my computer connected to the internet. In between, the Forum software keeps track in each thread of whether posts were added since I last viewed that thread... or even that page, if the thread has multiple pages. Sometimes it can continue this way for more than a week before resetting, but when a reset does occur, it seems to delete the entire record and only display threads to which posts have been added since the reset timestamp, omitting even those threads created before the reset but after the last time I loaded or refreshed my "View New Content" page.

 

What I would want is what you describe... that "New Content" was simply a synonym for "unread". As it is, I can enter each subforum and see accurate* markings as to what I have and haven't "read", but there's significant lack of correspondence between these and the display from "View New Content".

 

* There's one major exception to the accuracy of the historical record of "read" vs. "unread". It seems that anything before a certain time in the past (one of the software updates? I don't know),

everything

posted before that time is marked in the database as "unread". So the entirety of entire threads from (e.g.) 2005 are marked as unread when they are returned as the result of a search, even though I remember reading them long ago (which is often why I was searching for their content.)

[RAc]

as far as I can tell, "new content" is everything that has been added within the last 24 hours relative to the time the button "new content" was pressed, regardless of whether one is signed in or not... other forums do this differently.

[David Barnert]

I didn't even realize that "Mark Board as Read" was there[...], since after scrolling down twice on the Forum main screen, on my screen it's still off the bottom.

There is one down there, but there's also a "(Mark all items as read)" link near the top right of the "New Content" page (just under the "View New Content" button). AFAIK, they have the same function.

 

In other words, as I understand it, for "new" read "unread." I've not seen evidence to the contrary.

And that's my point and problem, because I have seen such evidence. Due to a difference in our ways of using the Forum? Or the way our browsers or operating systems interact with the Forum? (Some discussions of other problems have indicated such possibilities.) I don't know.

 

But as I reported, I normally remain "signed in", even when I don't have concertina.net in an active browser window or my computer connected to the internet.

I never sign out. I do most of my c.net work on a laptop that spends most of its life closed and asleep. I always quit the browser before closing it, and whenever I visit c.net, I am already signed in.

 

* There's one major exception to the accuracy of the historical record of "read" vs. "unread". It seems that anything before a certain time in the past (one of the software updates? I don't know),

everything

posted before that time is marked in the database as "unread". So the entirety of entire threads from (e.g.) 2005 are marked as unread when they are returned as the result of a search, even though I remember reading them long ago (which is often why I was searching for their content.)

Interesting. I have never noticed that, but I have found that searching for posts from the "old days" meets with unreliable results (often failure to find what I know is there).

 

as far as I can tell, "new content" is everything that has been added within the last 24 hours relative to the time the button "new content" was pressed, regardless of whether one is signed in or not... other forums do this differently.

When I opened c.net just now it had been more than 24 hours since my last visit, and I have posts on my "New Content" page going back more than 24 hours.

[David Barnert]

Looking at the new software for the first time on my Mac, I notice that when I click "View New Content" and am taken to the "New Content" page, there is now a tool on the left that allows me to customize the definition of "New Content."

 

 

 

By time period

Content I have not read

New since my last visit

Past 24 hours

Past week

Past 2 weeks

Past month

Past 6 months

Past year

[JimLucas]

Looking at the new software for the first time on my Mac, I notice that when I click "View New Content" and am taken to the "New Content" page, there is now a tool on the left that allows me to customize the definition of "New Content."

 

Yep. I think that was there when I made my first post here, but it didn't seem to be working right. Now it's working much better, and I think it's because something's been corrected in the way the database of posts is interpreted.