Bug marking unread messages read.

[Chris McMahon]

What is confusing is this:

I'm getting a variation of this bug. When I logged on this afternoon, some 14 hours after my last visit, there were no new posts shown. Of course checking the "last post" info on each sub-forum I could see that there were in fact new posts.

What I meant by that is the little discus icon to the left of a topic or forum, that turns orange when there's a new post to either a sub-forum or specific topic, resets whenever I close my browser window. The "last post" info I'm referring to is the text to the right of every forum that tells who made the last post and when.

Hence, if I get say 4 emails telling me that new posts have been made to 4 of my topics and I open each URL from the emails (thus having 4 open browser instances) if I reply to all of them, close each window after I make a post or read the reply, if I forget to keep at least one browser window open, and have to come back to the forum via a new browser instance, all messages will be marked as "read" exactly as if I'd clicked on "Mark all forums read" from the main browser page.

(Let me know if I haven't been clear in the above).

Due to the way that posts and the indicators are tagged, this should really not be possible in lieu of some caching going on. What browser were you using?

I know Telstra Bigpond cable uses a proxy server that I can't do anything about, but I assume the problem would be more widespread than it is, if that was the cause.

I'm using IE 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803.2158. (In other words, IE 6.0 post SP2).

At a guess since I'm not having to constantly re-logon, I'd assume my logon detail in the cookie are being read ok. I can also assume that the pointer to the last read message isn't be stored in the same cookie, or is being set to expire when the browser is closed.

It only happens too me if i open up the page in another I.E and enter a topic..

Are you closing the first window? Or do you have two open at once?

[Pyroman]

Hence, if I get say 4 emails telling me that new posts have been made to 4 of my topics and I open each URL from the emails (thus having 4 open browser instances) if I reply to all of them, close each window after I make a post or read the reply, if I forget to keep at least one browser window open, and have to come back to the forum via a new browser instance, all messages will be marked as "read" exactly as if I'd clicked on "Mark all forums read" from the main browser page.

Aaah, ok... now we're getting somewhere. What you are describing is an inherent functionality within phpBB, and is quite intentional. This is one of the downfalls of notifications, is that it makes it rather easy to unintentionally wipe out your session cookie.

if I forget to keep at least one browser window open

Really that's the key. If you close the windows, and re-open a new one, basically what youa re doing is re-logging into the forum, and the 'last post' refereces get reset. This isn't specific to just our forum(s)... it will happen with any phpBB-based forum.

[Proteus]

Thats probably why it doesnt happen all the time...

I must ask though,why open the 4 emails into different browsers???

[Chris McMahon]

I must ask though,why open the 4 emails into different browsers???

Because that's how IE reacts to clicking on a URL embedded in the reply notification. If I did one at a time, the result would still be the same, in fact it would reset me faster as when I close the first thread window, I'd be reset.

Hence, if I get say 4 emails telling me that new posts have been made to 4 of my topics and I open each URL from the emails (thus having 4 open browser instances) if I reply to all of them, close each window after I make a post or read the reply, if I forget to keep at least one browser window open, and have to come back to the forum via a new browser instance, all messages will be marked as "read" exactly as if I'd clicked on "Mark all forums read" from the main browser page.

Aaah, ok... now we're getting somewhere. What you are describing is an inherent functionality within phpBB, and is quite intentional. This is one of the downfalls of notifications, is that it makes it rather easy to unintentionally wipe out your session cookie.

Seems like it's deliberately shooting itself in the foot. How then to I reply to 2 or more new thread notifications without resetting the session cookie? Shouldn't this cookie be a permanent cookie, not just a single session one?

Really that's the key. If you close the windows, and re-open a new one, basically what youa re doing is re-logging into the forum, and the 'last post' refereces get reset.

So this happens to everyone? So for example if there are 20 unread messages in the entire forum and I close the browser window (or more likely I click a link from a post and forget that before XYZ.COM the browser was the discusforums forum, or I google a term and forget to hold down shift to display the results in a new session) and open a new one 5 seconds later, all messages are meant to be marked as read across the whole forum, whether I read them or not? (In effect the same as click "Mark all forums read" on the main forum page).

[Proteus]

So this happens to everyone?

Thats the strange part... No it doesnt...

with the number of topic notifications I get I would be thinking why hasnt it occurred on my PC? as to the answer, I honestly dont know.

[Pyroman]

As long as you keep one browser open, it should be fine. I know it's silly, but no modern forum has persistent sessions that I'm aware of.

[Chris McMahon]

As long as you keep one browser open, it should be fine. I know it's silly, but no modern forum has persistent sessions that I'm aware of.

Off the top of my head, none of the other forums I visit; Overclockers.com.au (vBulletin Version 3.0.3) SimplyDiscus (YaBB SE) Queensland Cichlid(ezboard® Ver. 7.31w) Boronia Aquarium (ezboard® Ver. 7.31w) have the problem. I come and go and they all remember which topics I've read and which I haven't.

There's probably a dozen or more others that I my only visit once every few weeks, but it seems this is the only forum I get the problem. I can't remember if this is the only phpBB based forum or not.

While I can try to keep the first open window open, sometimes it's not possible. Perhaps you could mention the problem on a phpBB support board (if you're a member of one) and see if anyone else has any ideas?

[Pyroman]

Actually I already have. When I first converted an old forum to phpBB from the file-based version of YaBB, that was the first thing I asked. YaBB would actually remember if you've read a thread even if you logged out and didn't visit the site again for a week. But, for the very reason it had the nice feature, was the very reason we had to stop using the platform. It beat the server so hard, it cried for mercy.

I'm sorry your having such a time with the topic indicators, I imagine it's pretty frustrating for you. Unfortunately, you aren't alone. Which is why one of the things I added on the main page was the 'posts since' functionality.

*supposedly* some better session management is being used in phpBB 2.2, but they are still in mid-stage development so things change constantly.

I know vBulletin doesn't have persistent sessions, and I'm not familiar with the inner-workings of ezboard (as they are a service provider only). I know I've had the same behavior that I have with phpBB that occurrs with vBulletin.

The problem is, phpBB assumes that when your session is cleared (by logging off, closing browser, etc) that the previous topics were not important enough to read, and it flushes them all. The side-effect is, what you are experiencing, where you are viewing topics via notifications and when you close the window, your session is ending, and the topics are cleared.

What I can do, is alter the session process to use a client-side cookie for all the topics, but this will require people to manually clear topics they haven't read in lieu of the current way of automatically clearing each time they visit the site. Would you be willing to test something like this for awhile and see how it works for you?

[Chris McMahon]

What I can do, is alter the session process to use a client-side cookie for all the topics, but this will require people to manually clear topics they haven't read in lieu of the current way of automatically clearing each time they visit the site. Would you be willing to test something like this for awhile and see how it works for you?

Absolutely. That's how I use forums normally, and is my preferred way of reading a forum.

[Chris McMahon]

What I can do, is alter the session process to use a client-side cookie for all the topics, but this will require people to manually clear topics they haven't read in lieu of the current way of automatically clearing each time they visit the site. Would you be willing to test something like this for awhile and see how it works for you?

Absolutely. That's how I use forums normally, and is my preferred way of reading a forum.

I assume you haven't had a chance to implement the above yet as I'm still getting the auto-markread thing happening.