new2theplace

Something just happened to me that's happened before and it drives me nuts.

I follow 5 of the Forum's here. For me to keep up with things, it's vital that the "new posts" folder icons here work. I can't remember what date and time (especially in GMT format) I last read anything, so those icons are important to me.

Bot sometimes (like about 10 minutes ago) I'll finish reading a new post in a thread and go back to that forum's main listing of all threads, but all of a suddon EVERY thread has been marked as "read"

So now, when I go to the other forums, I have no idea where to start reading.

This is all compounded by the fact that I sometimes stay away from DVDTalk for days at a time. It's sort of a Catch-22; I only stay away because I know that I'll be screwed unless I have time to read ALL of the new posts in ALL of the forum's that I follow. If I don't, then the next time I come back, there will be threads marked "read" even though I haven't read them. For that reason, I stay away, so when I do visit DVDTalk I've got multiple days of posts to read.

I'd love it if paying a visit to DVDTalk.com resulted in the only threads being marked as "read" were the ones in the forums that I actually visited.

Also, what does the Subscribe to this forum button do for me? I subscribed to some forum months ago, but I didn't see any difference in the way I negotiated the forums at all.

And is there anyway that I can change some setting so the time-stamps aren't in GMT -3 hours? Prior to the "new" forum software (new as of many months ago) the time stamps were accurate for my region, but now they're way off.

Please note that I'm not complaining here, I just get frustrated and I'm guessing that I just don't know what I'm doing.

Thanks

Adam Tyner

You can change the timezone you see by clicking <a href="http://dvdtalk.com/forum/member.php?s=&action=editoptions">here</a> (or 'User Cp'=&gt;'Edit Options') and selecting the appropriate Time Offset.

I browse the forum pretty frequently, and I haven't encountered everything being marked as read, or at least not on any sort of regular basis.

new2theplace

I'm a complete moron. I came back here to try and delete that part from my previous posting. I got it figured out -doh!- I swear I tried it back when the forum software got changed but I couldn't do it. Oh well

I also figured out the "subscribe" function, although it seems easier for me to use the drop down menus instead of going to my member options page. No loss no foul.

Quote:

I browse the forum pretty frequently, and I haven't encountered everything being marked as read, or at least not on any sort of regular basis.

You mean being "marked as read" in the middle of your viewing or are you saying that even when you leave and come back to the site they aren't all "marked as read" for you? It might have something to do with my cache or cookies or something. Maybe it's not DVDTalk.com at all. It just drives me nuts.

Thanks

Blade

If you don't access new information from the forum server for 20 minutes, your "session" ends and your "last visit" time gets reset.

So if you're reading a particularly wordy thread, or step away from the computer for too long, you'll lose the red icons.

Irritates the hell out of me too.

One more thing to look for though: On the thread list page, the text that makes up the links to the thread will change color if you've read the thread or not. For example, go to a forum you don't visit and click on a thread. Then hit the back button and click a blank area on the thread list screen so the link you just clicked isn't highlighted anymore. The thread title text should now be a different (normally lighter) color than all the other thread titles. This isn't useful for threads that you've already clicked on, but it will differentiate threads that have been created since you last logged on. And that won't change after 20 minutes (the timeframe on these is dependent on your History setting in the Internet Options selection under the Tools menu if you're using IE.

I'd try keeping a seperate window open and use it to click on a thread every once in a while when you're reading really long threads.

Another trick is to look at your last visit date/time when you do log in and then you can match it against the thread time/date stamps.

-David

RandyC

That is what I do. Basically, the color of the folders does not mean READ. They mean NEW SINCE YOU LAST VISITED. Now the definition of last visited is the crux.

Some forums do have cookies that know if you read a thread or not. It's handy.

I also like the feature of having the dot on the folder to show you have posted in it. I tend to forget otherwise.

focker

Would it be possible for an Administrator (hint, hint) to enable those features here? Those would both be really useful.

Adam Tyner

vBulletin can do that, as well as mark threads you've posted to, but I believe Geoff tossed that out due to the additional strain on the server.

new2theplace

Thanks for all the replies everybody

Ah-hah! 20 minutes... That's good info to know!

Yeah, I couldn't deal with that because the time stamps were always so far off from my REAL time.... but I wised-up today and fixed that (DOH!)

I tend to forget where I've posted too, the dot would be a great feature to have here! (hint hint)

Thanks again everybody

Venom

when i come to the forum, usually start in bargin, i open every thread i want to read in a new window. then as i am done with them i close the windows. then i refesh the forum list see if anything was been posted since, and move on to the next section. it still won't keep from marking threads not read as not read, but i find it easy, for me atleast, to keep track of things.

new2theplace

Wow, I don't think I could handle that, frequently the new-to-me threads in the DVDTalk forum run for 3 pages, and I read a LOT of the threads. And if I'm gone for more than a couple days, forget about it! I'd have 45 windows open at once!

I'm just happy that there's not as much activity here as there is on the anandtech.com Hot Deals forum. It seems like the posting over there never stops. By the time I've looked at the second page of subject headers, the first page has already changed.

Right now there are 8+ pages of Subjects that have been posted to in the last 24 hours over there. You gotta go to page 15 before you find the end of the posts that were made 48 hours ago. Sheesh!