What happens to new activity?

[RJM2096]

So far I have noticed that everyday the active threads are buried about noon. We might have 50 active threads at 11:30 am but only 8 at 12:45.

The active threads should be what is active in he last running 24 hours period not since 12:00 pm.

I am offically lodging a complaint to the forum gods. :stick

[username]

i'm not sure what you mean?

when i enter the forums, i always click "new posts" and i see every thread that was modified since i last visited.

does this help you at all?

[Paul_F]

The active threads should be what is active in he last running 24 hours period not since 12:00 pm.:stick
I know what you mean. You log on in the morning, click on new posts and see three pages of posts. There might be time to read a few and you make a note to one's self to come back later and read other threads which look interesting. However, when returning later, it is not uncommon to hit the new posts icon and see only a few posts listed. The same thing happens if I am away for a few days. Hit the new posts and pages and pages of them appear. Read a few and intend to read the rest later, but by then they are history, buried in various forums. Is it not possible to have posts that we have not read highlighted until we have read them or at least have them remain active as new for 24 hours or so?

[PAULBACH]

I have noticed the same thing but I thought it was a loose nut at the keyboard. One hour there are many new posts and then there are only three or four new posts. Never thought of keeping track of the timing. :scratch

[DarrylRi]

When you ask for "new posts", this is actually a type of search. The forum software hangs on to the results of your search for a certain amount of time before it decides that the results are stale and discards them. I don't know what the forum is set for, but from empircal evidence, I would guess that this is around 2 hours.

The forum can't hang onto this data forever, it would make the database on the server huge. We have nearly a thousand members visiting every day, and all could have search results hanging around.

Also, the forum software notes whenever you view the forum, and records that time as your "last visit". This is what the New Posts search is based on.

[username]

interesting. Forum usability and navigation is something I'm interested in, so I really like reading how you folks read here. I have not seen the problem you describe, and I think it's because as a moderator I try to visit the forums many times a day.

When I get to a pc and have time I will poke around and see if I can find an actual fix for you. It might take me a while as I'm traveling a lot in the next ten days and what little time I will have for the forums I will use to scan for anything requiring immediate attention.

In the meantime, I might have a work around to you. Say you login in the morning and click new posts. 25 threads appear. You only have time to read fiveof them. (this happens to me all the time.) try leaving your browser window open to the new posts window. It won't use much computer resources. Then if you come back later you can just use that page and read the remaining 20 threads.

Also, if you aren't finished reading, make sure you do not click the "mark the forums read" button. That'll reset your new posts search criteria.

Hope this helps.

[RJM2096]

The NEW POSTS search should retrieve all Threads with activity in the last 24 hours. That way the number of active threads will stay steady except on heavy traffic days. I suspect it is set to somewhat of a lesser amount or even after a fixed time like 12:00 pm.

[Voni]

Two other options I use are to click the "back" arrow and use the search results stored in my browser.

If I mess us and close the browser, I can always us the Quick Link called "Today's Posts".

Hope that helps.

Voni
sMiling

[Belquar]

I am on an off all day long. When you log in you leave a trail that you were here. The system updates from time to time. If you log in and read everything, come back in ten minutes and stuff you read may still look "new" even though you have read it.

But log in, read a little and leave. Then log in later that day (several hours) stuff you didn't read but that has not changed since you were here last is no longer new cause you were already here. Don't know if that makes any sense but that is how it works for me.

Brian

[SheRidesABeemer]

The NEW POSTS search should retrieve all Threads with activity in the last 24 hours. That way the number of active threads will stay steady except on heavy traffic days. I suspect it is set to somewhat of a lesser amount or even after a fixed time like 12:00 pm.

I disagree. New Posts works as expected - it provides new posts since the last time you logged in. This is consistent with the way other forums work. You are looking for a "Today's Active Topics" search, which as Voni mentioned is in Quick Links, Today's Posts (thanks Voni - I never use those)

[DarrylRi]

I disagree. New Posts works as expected - it provides new posts since the last time you logged in. This is consistent with the way other forums work. You are looking for a "Today's Active Topics" search. I don't see that offering on this forum, but have on others, so perhaps username will dig it up in his research.

Check under the Quick Links menu near the top right of the page. The first item is Today's Posts.

[Paul_F]

If I mess us and close the browser, I can always us the Quick Link called "Today's Posts". Voni
sMiling
Thanks Voni. I wasn't aware of this feature.

[RJM2096]

Where is the link for "Todays Posts"?

[Voni]

It's on a pull down menu under "quick links". Two spots to the right from "New Posts".

Voni
sMiling

[RJM2096]

It's on a pull down menu under "quick links". Two spots to the right from "New Posts".

Voni
sMiling

That works better. A little knowdge is dangerous!

[PAULBACH]

It has happened again!

When I last looked at the screen there were two pages of new posts. Now there are only 12 new posts listed.

[mrich12000]

Leave a little strudel for the moderators:whistle

[BradfordBenn]

Here is how this new post and 24 hour post things work...

The new posts link looks at the forum database on the server and figures out when you were last here. It then does a quick search of posts that have a newer time date stamp then when you were here last. If you go on vacation it can be quite a bit and I believe that this forum software limits it to 400 posts before it gives up.

The today's post links, looks at the past 24 hours to figure out the posts.

Then there is the whole read versus unread thing, but that is for another day.

Something that can confuse the database is if you have about 20 minutes of inactivity as the database will automatically determine that you left which might be the reason for the smaller list of posts. The reason for the 20 minute sign out is to keep the unused connections to the database from remaining open for no reason. It is an MySQL thing not a forum thing.