Every thread appearing as unread

Conor

Gordon wrote: »

If a number of people still like the old way, how about a setting in UserCP that if switched on will mark all forums as read after 10/15 minutes of inactivity or something like that?

That's what I meant by:

Conor wrote:

I may work something out in the future to allow more aggressive marking of threads as a per-user preference but I can't guarantee getting time for that any time soon.

Gordon

You da man!

Myrddin

Conor wrote: »

I may work something out in the future to allow more aggressive marking of threads as a per-user preference but I can't guarantee getting time for that any time soon.

Thats would be great Conor, the best of both worlds.

nesf

Conor wrote: »

I appreciate that you find it annoying, but the long-term technical benefits are far more heavily in favour of the "new" system.

Beyond annoying actually and making me not want to use boards to be honest (It's impossible to skim a forum quickly to look for new threads since you last looked now etc). But yeah, if there's a technical issue with the old system I can appreciate the need for change.

Gordon

nesf, if it's bugging you that much then just click on > Quick Links > Mark Forums Read, up top before you sign off.

Ludo

Gordon wrote: »

nesf, if it's bugging you that much then just click on > Quick Links > Mark Forums Read, up top before you sign off.

Thanks for that tip. The new way has been annoying the hell out of me since it came in also for the reasons Nesf said above. Your suggestion is not exactly user friendly but much better than the current functionality. I'll just have to get in to the habit of clicking it before leaving.

nesf

Gordon wrote: »

nesf, if it's bugging you that much then just click on > Quick Links > Mark Forums Read, up top before you sign off.

Having to remember to do that is part of the annoyance. :P

nesf

nesf wrote: »

Having to remember to do that is part of the annoyance. :P

I should give a better answer than this. It's annoying because it's an all or nothing option. Forget to click the mark forums as read button and when you log on later everything from the old session appears as unread if you didn't click on it. This is annoying because my primary means of reading and following forums used to be watching for unread threads, not counting posts or checking dates on posts but if you forget to mark everything as read yesterday's threads still appear as new tomorrow.

It's most annoying with the subbed threads list. In the old system if you decided to ignore a thread it would be marked as read next time you logged in, now they hang around until you mark all forums as read. I'm having to click on threads just to get them marked as read so they'll stop appearing when I refresh User CP etc.

The new system may be necessary from a technical point of view but it's been driving me mad since it's been put in place.

Myrddin

nesf wrote: »

The new system may be necessary from a technical point of view but it's been driving me mad since it's been put in place.

With all due respect to Conor, as its a WIP....the new system may be technically better, but useability has gone out the window for more than just me it seems. I just dont see how its functional in an everyday environment for normal users

Conor

EnterNow wrote: »

With all due respect to Conor, as its a WIP....the new system may be technically better, but useability has gone out the window for more than just me it seems. I just dont see how its functional in an everyday environment for normal users

In fairness, it's not a WIP. It's a feature that has been in vBulletin for almost 5 years. It actually tracks what threads and forums you've actually read, rather than making wild-ass guesses. It's a complete, well-debugged and correct method of marking forums and threads as read.

I will try and provide an option for the wild-ass-guess method (but using the DB rather than cookies) but I can't guarantee a timeline for that since there are many, many higher priority items on my plate at the moment.

seamus

EnterNow wrote: »

I just dont see how its functional in an everyday environment for normal users

I far prefer it.

I tend to dip and in out of boards sporadically, I don't have time to read every new post on all of my subbed forums in a single sitting. So only marking the actual threads read which I've actually read, makes the whole experience far more enjoyable for me, because I'm not going back through forums trying to figure what I have and haven't read, based on the timestamp.

copacetic

seamus wrote: »

I far prefer it.

I tend to dip and in out of boards sporadically, I don't have time to read every new post on all of my subbed forums in a single sitting. So only marking the actual threads read which I've actually read, makes the whole experience far more enjoyable for me, because I'm not going back through forums trying to figure what I have and haven't read, based on the timestamp.

I'm getting used to it too but still don't like the change to user cp. It does go to show that even when something has never worked right people get used to the way it works...

seamus

Ah right, I don't use the user cp.

Nevyn

You mean this isn't something which was a recent hiccup and we are stuck with this crap?
It's been annoying the hell out of me once I marks everything as read once I tought that was it sorted but I still have * on my sub list for things I have read and it makes monitoring forums like PI and parenting which which can be fast moving at times a right pain. Same as nesf I've getting getting frustrated and logging off, giving up trying to figure out what I have read or not.

Ludo

copacetic wrote: »

I'm getting used to it too but still don't like the change to user cp. It does go to show that even when something has never worked right people get used to the way it works...

People keep saying it never worked right...but any other message board I use (Politics.is for example and 3 or 4 others) have the same behaviour as the old method. I have never seen this new behaviour anywhere else.

Maybe the new way is the "correct" way but it is far less user friendly and the fact other forums use the old way seems to imply to me that it is the commonly accepted mechanism.

copacetic

Ludo wrote: »

People keep saying it never worked right...but any other message board I use (Politics.is for example and 3 or 4 others) have the same behaviour as the old method. I have never seen this new behaviour anywhere else.

Maybe the new way is the "correct" way but it is far less user friendly and the fact other forums use the old way seems to imply to me that it is the commonly accepted mechanism.

More likely they just can't be arsed to do it right (the same way boards couldn't be until now:))

I don't see how anyone can argue that actually only marking a thread as 'read' once you have read it is wrong. The old method of assuming you had read every thread on boards everytime you visited, even if only for a short while, clearly wasn't correct.

I still prefer the old way myself, it's what we are all used to. Thats a different matter though.

Ludo

copacetic wrote: »

More likely they just can't be arsed to do it right (the same way boards couldn't be until now:))

I don't see how anyone can argue that actually only marking a thread as 'read' once you have read it is wrong. The old method of assuming you had read every thread on boards everytime you visited, even if only for a short while, clearly wasn't correct.

I still prefer the old way myself, it's what we are all used to. Thats a different matter though.

But it isn't "unread" threads should be highlighted....it is threads that have been updated since your last visit.

Myrddin

EnterNow wrote: »

I just dont see how its functional in an everyday environment for normal users

seamus wrote: »

I far prefer it.

I tend to dip and in out of boards sporadically

Thats the difference. It makes keeping track of updates very tiresome. Useability has decreased for me, its just too much clicking to keep continually going into forums which are marked with new posts, only to find its some thread from 3 days ago which I never read. Undoubtedly I will miss new posts because I dont trust what is actually new, rather than 9 days old new.

KoolKid

But if you drop in & don't see all the unread posts in that visit wouldn't you also risk missing posts?
I much prefer the way it is now. However its clear a user choice would be the best solution.

Myrddin

koolkid wrote: »

But if you drop in & don't see all the unread posts in that visit wouldn't you also risk missing posts?

Not every thread in my favourite forums is of interest to me. Thats the problem, its marking the forum as having unread posts, despite the fact that I may not actually want to read a particular thread. This is only found out by clicking into the forum, scrolling down and then noticing its a week old thread that I never bothered with a week ago, so why would I today?

No point moaning bout it, Conor has his hands full as it is by the sounds of it. So fingers crossed something will be implemented in the future where the user can decide how vbulletin works best for them.

Faith

I honestly don't get why it's causing problems for people? I was away for the weekend, with extremely limited internet access. Having it this way meant I could log on occasionally, read the stuff I really cared about, and then come back tonight and have a really leisurely catch up. Or when I log on during a study break, I can read what I want and not miss the stuff I don't have time to read.

I suppose if you're constantly online it could be irritating, but it's ideal for when you're only logging on briefly at a time and don't want to miss things.

KoolKid

I agrree with Faith. When I pop in & out , I don't miss anything when I return.
After a good browse I simply mark the forum in question as read.
Suppose it takes a bit of getting used to for some.

Myrddin

Faith wrote: »

I honestly don't get why it's causing problems for people? I was away for the weekend, with extremely limited internet access. Having it this way meant I could log on occasionally, read the stuff I really cared about, and then come back tonight and have a really leisurely catch up. Or when I log on during a study break, I can read what I want and not miss the stuff I don't have time to read.

I suppose if you're constantly online it could be irritating, but it's ideal for when you're only logging on briefly at a time and don't want to miss things.

koolkid wrote: »

I agrree with Faith. When I pop in & out , I don't miss anything when I return.
After a good browse I simply mark the forum in question as read.
Suppose it takes a bit of getting used to for some.

So what both of you are saying is that the new system works best for the people who use Boards.ie less than others?

Nevyn

Hang on did you say that this changes the types of cookies which boards.ie now creates?
Cos I have had fecking issues with my antivirus thinking that boards cookies are dodgy from roughly when this change over happened.

KoolKid

EnterNow wrote: »

So what both of you are saying is that the new system works best for the people who use Boards.ie less than others?

That would not be my experience. I pop in & out during the day. When I have time to look around more I mark forums read when I know I have seen everything that is of interest to me. Probably twice a day I would get around my subscribed forums and mark as read when done. If you have time to see all you want in the one visit then the old way may suit better.

Faith

EnterNow wrote: »

So what both of you are saying is that the new system works best for the people who use Boards.ie less than others?

Not at all. I nearly always have boards open in the background, but I'm not always actively browsing. The way it was before, I'd get logged out while reading a particularly dense thread, or if I went away to make a cup of tea and have a brief chat. That meant, when I came back, every thread was marked as read and it took me ages to find the first actual unread post in every thread I wanted to read. I used to literally dread having to log on for a second because it meant it was so much work to figure out what threads I hadn't really read when I came back with some time.

Now, I know exactly what I've read and haven't read all the time. If I click "First unread post" in a thread from 5 days ago, I'm actually taken to the first post I haven't read. If I go to, say the Ladies Lounge, I figure out where I am by seeing where the last thread that's read is, and working up from there. When I get really bored, I can flick back through the pages to find threads I wasn't bothered catching up on earlier.

I'm on boards a lot more than the average person I'd say, and that's actually why I find the new system so good. It saves me having to refresh every 10 minutes to not be logged out and have everything marked as read.

Myrddin

@ Faith & Koolkid

Ive read your posts, and it does go someway to help me understand the benefits to some people so thanks for that. What your saying (and Conor too) does make a certain sense to me I admit, but can you see my point of view about it also?

Take this morning as a scenario. I log on, and scroll down through the various forums to see whats new. I click into a certain favoutite forum of mine which is being reported to have new posts since my last visit. The forum opens up and I scroll down, I immediately see that the last post in the forum is from me the night before. Ok, keep scrolling down...its a thread about something Im not interested in which someone posted in 6 days ago. I dont want to read it, it doesnt interest me, I wont be reading it. So there you have it, no new posts since my last visit, despite the forum telling me there is.

This can happen with 10/15 forums easily & thats just one visit to boards out of many in a day. Conor explained the technicalities of it & it does make a certain sense, theres no disputing that. All I know is, for me personally, its taking a lot longer to sift through various forums to see whats new for me.

Faith

Ah yeah, it mucks up the functionality of the subbed list; I'll definitely give you that.

EnterNow wrote: »

All I know is, for me personally, its taking a lot longer to sift through various forums to see whats new for me.

Okay, so say you log on, go straight to your favourite forum and there's loads of new posts. 'Great', you think, 'I'll just go get a cup of tea then read all these new posts'. Only, while you're making tea, you get logged out due to inactivity, and when you come back, you can no longer tell what's new or not.

Or let's say you're a member of a private cooking forum. You desperately need a recipe, but you only have one minute to check it. You have to log on, but you know that by doing so, once you log off everything will be marked as read, despite not reading it.

As a mod, I used occasionally just ignore reported posts because I had to log on to act on them, and that meant either having enough time to go through everything I wanted to read, or missing things.

Maybe if you're constantly active on boards, or only log on for one good session a day, the new style would be irritating. I certainly understand why people are finding it annoying. But I find it less troublesome to click into a forum and ignore threads I don't want to read, than get logged out accidentally and have to pick my way through dozens of threads to manually find where I left off.

Hopefully a solution will be developed that makes both camps happy .

I haven't read this thread so don't know what changes have been made.
All I can say is my experience of the change so far and that is the drop down subbed list with the star to indicate new posts has been rendered useless to me.
This is because it's showing a star even though there have been no posts there since yesterday and I've read the post the star[that should be gone] refers to.

Nevyn

Same here, renders the sub list useless and is how I navigated the site.