Important: New logic for status indicators (orange buttons)

[steve_sa]

Hello all,

Starting today, and by popular request, we are implementing a new logic for orange/white status indicators (the buttons on the left of forums/thread showing if the item is 'new' or not). Previously this was based on your last visit time. i.e. anything before your last visit was white, and anything after was orange. People were complaining of sessions expiring, or moving to other computers, and not being to catch up with new topics.

So we have changed the logic now so anything that you have not read is orange in status (regardless of last login). So now, if you want to turn status to white, use options like 'Mark this topic read' or 'Mark this forum read' to mark them as such.

Do give this a spin, so that we can work out the bugs. INITIAL status indicators would be out-of-wack, so that one is normal.

Also, you can move to other machines, etc. etc. as the status is not cookie based (it is server based).

 

[fishmahn]

Nice! Thanks Steve! 😀 😀 😀

Mike.

 

[steve_sa]

Hi fishmahn

Trying Hopefully it works good. Do test it out.

 

[russell]

Good job Steve, THANKS.

 

[RichPLS]

Excellent, the way it should be! Thannx!

 

[Ned_Flanders]

Still not working completly for me. Said there were new posts in here (this forum subsection), but no threads were marked.

 

[alltaken]

Nice.

is this a custom edit to phpBB or is it a setting in phpBB?

just curious, since this is the first website i have seen with such a good idea.

Alltaken

 

[Ned_Flanders]

Lol, it'll better be custom with all the troubles we've been having! 😛

 

[Jake_Barnes]

Still not working completly for me. Said there were new posts in here (this forum subsection), but no threads were marked.

I'm still having this same experience ... main page lit, but no threads lit when entered 🙁

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Cool. 😀

And thanks, thanks, thanks! After coming off of a really crappy Thanksgiving weekend and missed day of work (darn flu) it was so awesome to see this in the works. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I haven't used it much, but it looks like there's a bug already. If I say, go into Home->Community the Feature Requests forum is orange, which is right. But then I go into Feature Requests and all of the threads are white, which isn't right. And then I look into an actual thread and all of the posts are orange, which is right. So it looks like the thread determination logic still has a bug. But other than that, so far it looks great! 😀

 

[steve_sa]

phpbb uses cookies to track last reads. I am now taking that info (without mod) and writing it to user's table (and reading it back) on each page view. I though it would slow things down, but it seems like things are faster ('guess cookie processing is slow).

There is a minor bug, as identified, with the main section pages (where all the forums are shown).. that one I am working on today.

steve

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Huh. Yeah. I guess cookies probably need to communicate back and forth between client and server, where as putting it all into the server could be faster because you don't have the whole of the world's wires in between. Cool and good to know.

You're doing an awesome job, Steve. It's amazing how much the forumz have improved already. 😀

 

[steve_sa]

Great. Thanks. Trying hard is all I can do.

Yes, I did not realize how much cookies slow the site down, unitl I implemented the feature. One read and one write from/to db on each page view seems to be a lot faster than carrying large cookies around. Live and learn.

 

[Rob423]

steve to the rescue as usual!

good job stevie

 

[fishmahn]

I like it, Steve.

There are a couple bugs I've found. First is the bug mentioned by others at the section pages showing orange while no new messages have been posted.

I also notice sometimes the section keeps its orange status even if you visit later, until you've hit 'mark all as read' in that section. Minor bug, IMO, and probably will get fixed by 'accident' 8O with the other one.

Mike.

 

[steve_sa]

Hi guys,

I did a new release, and I 'believe' I fixed the problem. If you see the bug from here on, please report.

Note that due to performance reasons, I check for new posts up to 7 days before current time. Orange shows for any of the 7 day new content that is not marked read or is actually read.

This should work pretty good, since anyone who is not visiting a forum in 7 days is really not a user. I cannot extend to more than 7 days (performance), and in fact, like to reduce the time to say 3 days. What do you think?

steve

 

[pickxx]

3 days works for me....i hate clicking the Mark everythign as read because i forget and come back later thingking there are new posts.....lol....stupid me

I vote yes on 3days

 

[steve_sa]

Yes, the new tracking mode involves more work on the user's side. Yap, 3 days should work pretty good, let's see what others say.

I see two types of users:
-information seekers, they don't care about red/white lights

-socializers: they care about the latest and hottest topics, and the more we go back in history, the more cumbersome it is to find the hot topics in the mix.

By the way, you can always use 'show posts since last visit' (which really works as advertised) it is on the main section pages.

 

[russell]

Granted I'm not one dealing with All this crap, but it seems to me that since this is "state of the art" bulletin boards software then you should be able to do more with it than the old stuff we were using. On the old board even after I had been gone for a couple of weeks, when I came back all the posts that I haven't read were marked. The old system was client based cookie storage. Why is it that it's so hard to get this right with this so called "state of the art" software?

I'm sorry , but I fail to see why you insist on imposing these time constraints.

The old board worked with client based cookies. Sure it would mess up at times, but only when I taxed it by having a couple of browsers open the same time .

Put the darn cookies on my hard drive, I don't care, just make the darn thing work like it should.

This post may put me on your bad side and even earn me some bad publicity, I'm sorry, but this is the way I feel.

 

[steve_sa]

Cookies: some users complained about going from work to home, etc. Some also said that they use multiple computers where they are, and that eliminates cookies as a solution.

You can always use 'show posts since last visit' which works correctly and will show you everything from the real last visit.

Basides the occasional absence, like you indicated which has a good solution, I would think most everyone would frequently visit the forums (at least once every 3 days, or once every 7 days).

For performance reasons, I cannot extend the search to infinite past. It is not going to work for us.

Constructive discussions are good, no reason to hang yourself over them, russel. :lol: :lol:

 

[russell]

Constructive discussions are good, no reason to hang yourself over them, russel.

GOOD ONE>>>>>>>>>>> :lol:

 

[Jake_Barnes]

Put the darn cookies on my hard drive, I don't care, just make the darn thing work like it should.

Russell ... I agree with Steve on this. It's better for all that the cookie db be stored server side - for all concerned. There are still some bugs ... ie., when I see status indicators colored on main pages (Hardware - Sound Cards), but open Sound Cards and all is white - I'm sure this will get resolved eventually. But if you must hang your self ... invite me ... I love a good hanging 😛

 

[russell]

Actually, I really don't think that asking for the new system to be at least equal to the old system is grounds for hanging.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

You shouldn't need to much of a reason to enjoy a good hanging :twisted:

 

[steve_sa]

There are still some bugs ... ie., when I see status indicators colored on main pages (Hardware - Sound Cards), ...

That is the exact problem I attempted to solve. Please check if the problem is still there.