Topic Title

O.K.

I'm back to gripe more about the software this board is running on. If I have missed the answer, Somebody PLEASE let me know what it is!!

The problem that I am having is that I am having A really hard time keeping track of READ messages on this board!!!! If I open the site and there are a number of messages, UNLESS I read EVERY ONE in one session, I am unable to IDENTIFY the messages the went unread when I come back again, because every time I close the browser and then come back to read them later, all messages have been "marked" as read. This is INCREDIBLY frustrating


I submit to the "powers that be" that if this software is not intelligent enough to to keep track of read vs. unread messages BETWEEN SESSIONS, then the software SHOULD BE REPLACED!

As an example of a software that IS CAPABLE of doing this, look at boards that are run on "UBB.classic" software by Infopop.

This is a very easy to navigate web-board software, and in addition to keeping track of read vs. unread messages in a thread, it also lets you "jump" to unread messages in any thread, so if a particular thread has a large number of post, you DON"T have to scroll through every single post to get to the new post (this is another thing that is REALLY annoying about this board software - I find myself having to repeadly scroll through post I've already read.

If any one is interested in seeing a board that is running the INFOPOP software, you can go to Thom Hartman''s board here:

http://www.thomhartman.com/cgi-bin/ubbc ... matebb.cgi

(You'll have to register, but is is a quick process, and you won't be spamed by doing this)

Be forewarned though:
Thom is a Progressive/Liberal talk show host (and my political "mentor"), so some of you with "conservative" leanings might be offended (or heck you might even be enlightened and give up your "radical Right" ways ).

Anyway, bottom line is that the current software that this forum is now running on is just very frustrating to use - and there are better alternatives out there (IMHO).

When you come back to the forum homepage at anythime, if you click the view post since last visit, it will display all of the post listed that you have not viewed, since your last visit. Also the post that are in a new topic display a tan color icon, to show that the topic it's self is new, from your last visit. If you scan all of the message subjects and nothing looks like anything you want to read, you can click the "Mark all forums as read" link above the Whos On Box. Hope this helps you find what you are looking for.

P.S. - this board is still brand new and doesn't have all the bells and whistles loaded yet. I would guess the Datacad boys (and girls) want to get things running smooth before loading a ton of forum add-ons all at once, and then if one goes bad, it hard to track down which one is causing the fuss. Give it time, this forum is still just a noob.

Hi Josh.

I know about "view since last visit" and that topics with new post are displayed with a different color/icon.

Where I am running into problems with the way this board works is if I can't/don't get to read all the new post in ONE sitting/sesion. IF I have to close my browser and go away for a while, when I re-open the site ALL the post have been "marked" as read, and I have to rely on my feeble memory to remember whether I read a topic/post or not

I know this board is new, but something like keeping track of read vs. unread messages BETWEEN SESSIONS (be it one or many sessions) is (to me) something that is very BASIC and ANY e-mail or news reader program is very capable of that - so I don't consider something as basic as that as a "bell or whistle"

Prehaps that is part of the problem (with Web based BB software). The writers concentrate too much on "Bells and whistles and avatars" and leave basic functionallity (like remembering read/unread between sessions) OUT.

TO me progress is when something REALLY improves the way something works. In this case I honestly feel that this board is a step backward over our beloved DBUG listserv forum. I could sit down (with my e-mail program) anytime and know immediately which post I've read and very easily keep track of the different threads - now it is really hit and miss - so what should I do (other than keeping the browser window OPEN alll the time). I just have too much going on in my life to be forced to have to try and read all the new post in one sitting (or remember what I didn't read). Right now the volume is low so it's not such a big deal, but what happens when DCAD finally releases a new version (and as it always does) the number of new post per topic SPIKES and there is no way to read everything in one session?

I really do want to encourage the management to look at the way the UBB software works. It's not 100% perfect, but it is better at intelligently managing how it handles knowing which threads/topics you've read and just allows more flexibility than the way this board is currently set up.

Well on my system, it has been remembering which post I have opened or not since my last visit. Maybe there is something else going on?

Hi Aaron,

Do you have cookies enabled (in your browser) for our site?

Dave

Actually it's not the cookies. This type of bullitan board checks to see the last time you visit and assumes that you read all the new messages. Thus resetting them when you leave the site.

Since it opens a whole page of posts, it is logical to assume that one has read all of the posts on the page since the time of the last visit. How is it to know which posts have been read and which have not since they are all on the same page?

Since it opens a whole page of posts, it is logical to assume that one has read all of the posts on the page since the time of the last visit. How is it to know which posts have been read and which have not since they are all on the same page?

Not sure about that, but I do know that on Thom Hartmann's BB (running UBB classic by infopop), that ANY thread that you don't actually click on REMAINS unread between sessions (it also uses cookies to track read/unread, so in answer to you question Dave G, I DO have cookies enabled - they HAVE to be on Thom's board to track read/unread there, and it works beautifully there).

So for instace if you have various threads in forums like THREAD-A, THREAD-B, THREAD-C, and you read the post under Thread-C, but don't have time to read the other post in the other threads and forums (or you accidentally close your browser) Those threads you didn't have a chance to read will still be be marked as "unread" on his board.

However ON this board, if you close your browser window without going through ALL THE POST in EVERY single thread prior to closing your browser window EVERYTHING will be marked as read (NOT just for the particular thread, but also in ALL the forums!!!!.

There has got to be a better way of tracking read/unread. However it seems with this software it's "all or nothing"

I really urge you all (Mark T., Dave G., and Mark M.) to at least look at Thom's (or anyone else running the Infopop software) board and see HOW it handles the issue, then maybe you will understand what I'm talking about and why it makes it so frustrating to use Datacad's shiny new board.

Aaron

However ON this board, if you close your browser window without going through ALL THE POST in EVERY single thread prior to closing your browser window EVERYTHING will be marked as read (NOT just for the particular thread, but also in ALL the forums!!!!.

That's just not the way this software works for me. If I open a thread, it is marked as read. But, that thread only. If I do not open any other threads marked as unread (or having new posts), they remain in that state between visits. There really must be something else going on here. I honestly doubt that the Infopop BBS software tracks users' visits on the server side, I would imagine that it utilizes client side cookies as do most packages in this genre.

I really urge you all (Mark T., Dave G., and Mark M.) to at least look at Thom's (or anyone else running the Infopop software) board and see HOW it handles the issue, then maybe you will understand what I'm talking about <snip>

After your post mentioning Thom's board, I immediatly went to have a look. I must admit, I truly hate forums that force you to register prior to even perusing the board's content, but I carried forth with the required information. I must say, that I saw no different behavior (for me) between that board and this as far as marking threads as having been visited. As I said before, there is something else at work here. I don't know what it is yet, but I will delve into the PERL source of this board (yes, it is open source) and see if I can determine what may be happening that is causing the behavior that you describe.

Dave

Well Arron, your not nuts I am now on my home system, and it's having the same problem. I do know that my Internet explorer Security setting were different from those at work, so I'll see if I can track down which setting maybe causing the problem with the cookies, and what level things need to be set at.

Also, you could use the search tool. Here's how I set it to check the last days post. Hope this will soothe your forum pains for now

Aaron,

I have just made a small modification to the PHP code of the forum's main page. Please let me know if this makes any difference for you.

PS: You must be logged in for this change to have any effect.

Dave

Wow! Thanks Josh and Dave!!!!

I had not even thought of the search Feature!!

Aaron

Only thing of note, is if you use just the * wildcard, in the search for keywords area, it will highlight all of the text as a bright orange, because when using the * wildcard say like *text*, it would find post with the word "text" in it and highlight it in that orange. Ex. "The text is not blue." So it highlights all the text because nothing is definded. So if you put the * in the search for author area, and it wont do this.

Just to note:

This morning I was on the board and looked at a couple threads in the DataCAD 11 forum.

I then closed out my browser without checking anything else. I did notice there were new posts in the off topic forum.

I jumped back a little while later and the off topic forum showed that there were no new messages. So it's set to show if there are new messages since my last visit.

I look in the forum and non of the topics show that there are new posts in them. I can look at the last post date on the right side, but this should not be the case. i should be able to tell by the icon.