New Posts - number of posts displayed

[johnb]

I've just logged out and immediately logged back in (I was doing a test of something).

When I logged back in there was only one post visible in the "New Posts" view. Before I had logged out there were a quite few pages of posts there.

Does this mean that "New Posts" only shows the posts that have been made whilst you have been logged in?

If so, I think most people would greatly prefer if this could be changed to showing the new posts that have been made over, say, the last 24 hours at least, whether or not you have logged out and back in.

Just a thought!

[Don Petter]

I've been puzzled by this too. I never log out but sometimes the new posts go up to four pages and then, for no apparent reason as far as I can see, shrink to four or five threads. I then have to go to my subscribed threads to see if I've missed anything.

I have a possible theory that only the last two hours (or thereabouts) are shown, and the quantity varies with the density of new posts, but I haven't pinned it down to that yet. Further observations required.

[johnb]

Don, I think what I experienced, when logging out and back in again, is related to the cookies being cleared when logging out.

This brings up the question - "What would we ideally like the 'New Posts' view to show?" and the related question "What is easily achievable?"

Ideally, I would prefer there always to be a view of all posts, in date order (as now), going back at least 24 hours, possibly longer, so that people can easily catch up on what they might have missed.

(Well, there's no harm in mentioning it though I realise that it might not be possible with vB software and that, even if it is, Mark and FF are probably struggling to cope with the admin for the forum anyway.)

[Don Petter]

john,

I agree with all you say.

My test is at present:

Current time 19:09
Oldest new post 15:50

So I'm over three hours ... I'll keep watching.

[Don Petter]

Oldest 'new post' is now 21:59, so it's now running just over 12 hours for me.

[johnb]

Last night I was signed in with the "Remember me" option and didn't log out when I closed down my browser.

At the time I did that I could see 'New Posts' going back to 18:00, the time I logged in after logging out.

This morning (10:20) the earliest post I can see is from 02:15 this morning.

I'm still trying to understand the logic behind how the software displays these posts.

[french frank]

The FAQ, searching on "Latest posts", says: 'If you are logged in, the 'Today's Posts' link will change to 'New Posts', which gives you a listing of all threads that have been created or updated since your last visit.'

a) does that makes sense?

b) is it satisfactory (it may be what you get, even if it isn't satisfactory i.e. I'm not sure if it can be changed)?

[Don Petter]

The FAQ, searching on "Latest posts", says: 'If you are logged in, the 'Today's Posts' link will change to 'New Posts', which gives you a listing of all threads that have been created or updated since your last visit.'

a) does that makes sense?

b) is it satisfactory (it may be what you get, even if it isn't satisfactory i.e. I'm not sure if it can be changed)?

That could fit what is happening, I think (as of course it must). The downside would seem to be that if you only have time for a quick visit, and don't have time to check everything of interest in New Posts, the next time you visit you'll have lost a chunk which no longer shows. Then I find I have to go to my subscribed threads to check for latest posts, hoping that I haven't forgotten to subscribe to something which I meant to.

I can't quite envisage how having a fixed time window, of 24 hours or some such, would work in practice. Would there be any disadvantages (assuming it were possible)?

[johnb]

ff,

What you say makes sense.

However it seems that even though you might be logged in and have the forum open on your browser if you haven't been active in the forum for a certain length of time the software interprets that as you having left the forum and when you then try to update the New Posts view it only shows posts after when it considered you as having 'left' the forum.

(I don't know whether that makes sense or whether I have explained it sufficiently.)

I'll do some tests to try to establish how long you have to be 'idle' before the software considers you as having left the forum.

There might be a setting somewhere in the software that enables this 'timeout' to be varied.

Perhaps if we can establish what the current timeout is we can decide whether it is appropriate or needs changing (if that is possible).

[Don Petter]

Further thoughts about the present system versus a 'time window' system:

If the time cut off were, say, 24 hours, this would be fine for anyone who is usually looking at the Board at least once a day. They'd never miss anything on the What's New list, but someone coming back after, say, three days away would only see the last 24 hours, and miss a couple of days' worth. So for them the present system makes more sense.

On balance, I think the current system is the better, but you do need to try to look at all the What's New pages every time you come on, even if it's only a quick visit.

It will be interesting to see the result of johnb's testing of the inactivity factor, which could affect my conclusions, or it might be another, separate, issue.

[french frank]

I'm just thinking about what's on offer elsewhere. The old (pre-dna) BBC boards had a Latest Posts view which many of us regular (promiscuous) posters opted for as our standard setting. It was similar to the What's New?/New Posts links/list here, except I can't remember if it stretched back ad infinitum. It was just a simple, time-ordered list of all the MB posts.

r3ok (and similar) list the latest 10/20 (whatever number is chosen) posts, so if you look once a day you'll probably see a different selection each time. I'm not sure how you find earlier posts that you've missed.

Perhaps Lars Porsenna better log in on the laptop and see what's visible

[johnb]

Another forum, of which I am a member, has an option to display 'Active' posts and you can select to display 24 hours or 48 hours or past 7 days, but that forum is run on 'UBB.Threads' software. (I have got used to display - and habits die hard! But this is a different forum, with different people, etc, etc.)

[johnb]

I think the timeout for the software deciding that a person has 'left' is somewhere between 35 mins and 63 mins. (It might be set at 60 mins.)

My thoughts are that this setting is too low. Say someone logged on started viewing the "New Posts" then got interrupted or decided to continue looking later and was away from the computer for 60 minutes or more - they then would lose most of the history once they started using the forum again.

I would be surpised if the forum software doesn't have an option, available to the system administrators, to vary the timeout setting.

[french frank]

The situation seems, indeed, to be that if you navigate away from the site (whether or not you actually log out), the Latest Posts are reduced to the number of posts since you were last 'active'. ff's latest threads are now reduced to five (because I closed all my forum tabs). Lars had 87 threads over 5 pages going back to 02-12-10 21.04.

The present 'solution' is therefore to read everything you want to read before you leave the site - if you stay away too long, you'll have a lot of catching up to do. And if you navigate away accidentally before you've caught up ...

Is that 'Resolved' for the moment, or do I keep looking for an alternative (which may not be available)?

[johnb]

The situation seems, indeed, to be that if you navigate away from the site (whether or not you actually log out), the Latest Posts are reduced to the number of posts since you were last 'active'. ff's latest threads are now reduced to five (because I closed all my forum tabs). Lars had 87 threads over 5 pages going back to 02-12-10 21.04.

FF, it isn't only if you navigate away from the site. As far as I can tell, the same thing happens if you do not navigate away but just don't interact with the site.

Is that 'Resolved' for the moment, or do I keep looking for an alternative (which may not be available)?

I would expect there to be a forum setting for the timeout that is modifiable by the system administrator. Could you, please, check whether such a modifiable setting exists? (That is, if you feel the timeout is too short.)