Sometimes I take too long to write a response to a thread and ls.net will log me out. No problem there, I can just log back in and post it. But then when I go to see what else has been posted since I was last here, sometimes (maybe always?) everything has been marked as read. The forums themselves will actually still have the blue icon, but none of the threads within them do.
So it'd be nice if it either never marked them all as read automatically, or if it waited for a much larger interval. :)
Threads are marked as read based on your last login. I honestly don't know of another way of cleanly doing this. If you have any ideas Ill listen but I can't promise anything.
I don't know how anything works here, so I don't know how useful my suggestions might be, but:
1. Mark threads as read only:
- when they are read
- when you click on "mark this forum as read"
- maybe add a "mark all forums as read" at the top level
or
2. Only mark them as read when the last login/access was more than 2 or 3 hours ago.
I would prefer the first one myself, with such a short timeout you can't assume that people have actually left just because they're logging in again.
Otherwise I have to read everything before I respond to anything, which is... not a bad idea, but not what I currently do. :)
I agree with rabidcow. I usually browse through ls.net a couple times a day during work. if I get called away for something, I don't always(or even usually) remember to set the page to refresh every 5 minutes (just one of the things I love about opera ;) ). then I get back to my computer, and, of course, I've been logged out. going through each post, and looking at the last time anything was posted to it takes more time than just looking at the thread's icon color to see if it was read or not.
there has to be some way of logging which threads have been read, and then resetting that whenever the threads are posted to, on a per user basis, instead of a per logon basis.
Rabidcow: Problem with #1 is the amount of db information stored...the amount of db calls...and the time it would take to load a page tracking 50,000 users through 1800 threads. #2 we can look into...but I don't know how well it will work.
Ah, I see, that's too bad :/
Well, thanks for the effort, I hope you can work something out :)
The dates and times listed on the forum categories should serve as a pretty specific indicator whether a new post has occured recently. If you have been sitting at your computer and get logged off, well you know that anything within at least the last 15 minutes, you haven't read. Shouldn't be that difficult to figure out. Maybe not so easy as a nice colored icon, but still... :)
As for the icon indicator. How about Gray - read, Blue unread, Light Blue - new posts today. Where "Gray" means anything older then a day AND you've logged in since then. "Blue" means it was posted since your last login (regardless if it is a day or older), and "light Blue" is anything posted today, even if you have logged in previously.
The times that are displayed aren't exactly a "specific indicator" if they aren't displayed in your local timezone. Thus the time display has never been useful for me so far. Only the date is more or less accurate (duh). It'd sure be nice to check your watch and immediately notice if a post has been made within the last 15 minutes. *hint hint* =)
Posts created within the last 15 minutes would probably still be marked unread, considering that they probably weren't there when you got logged out. ;)
And yes, I could check the date/time of each post, but that takes a lot longer than just glancing across a row of icons. So much longer that it's not even worth my time.
I agree with ilmcuts. The time is not that useful when it's not your time, or apparently even GMT time. Cause I just made a post at 7:## my time, and I'm in GMT -5. However, the site says I posted it at 18:##, which would be equivalent to 1:##PM my time. unless if the site is not in GMT, and it's just in some random time zone?? the date seems to be the only useful part of the time tag.
how about disabling or making the timeout optional and adding a 'mark forum as read' button? Then all posts will be marked as read after the button is pressed or the user logs out. During the time someone is logged in, it can keep track of which new posts have been read.
deuce: the server is currently in CDT...
uaNiter: since you are so new I won't ban you for that comment. If you read the forum you will find out why that isn't possible though.
I hate to show my ignorance, but what is CDT? GMT +/- what?
Central Daylight Time...uhhh...-7 I think...could be -5. I hate that Daylight time crap. CST is -6 and its +/- 1 for Daylight Savings.
anyway of doing it like destop forums do? set the server to GMT and have a user set time zone and perform the math to the users time?
of course it can be done...however...I need a programmer with the time to do it...and I just don't have them right now.
and just a side note...yall really know how to beat a dead horse. I am closing this thread because we have our course of action, and have for a bit, and I am tired of reading about it.