Forum not tracking unread posts correctly?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sharky.
  • 23 comments
  • 1,501 views
Sharky.

Sharky.

MX-5 gang
Premium
Messages
11,969
New Zealand
Christchurch
OK, this is something that's been bugging me for a loooooong while now. The forum doesn't seem to be keeping track of what posts I've read and what ones I haven't properly - when I log onto GTP in the morning, any new posts since I was last online are correctly marked as unread as one would expect.

However, those posts are then re-marked as unread if I close my browser, even if I have already read them. This means when I come back to GTP later and go to the new posts in a thread, it ends up showing posts I've already read, and the actual new posts may end up being on a different page entirely.

This happens on both of my computers (FF3.6 and FF4) and my iPod touch (Safari) and it's very annoying. Is it a forum-related issue or something on my end?
 
I've never experienced this. Do you log in anew every time you load the page? I have the username and password save to the browser and it seems to keep track of where I've read or not. Could that be the problem?
 
It can't be that, I've always used "remember me" and haven't needed to log into GTP manually for years.

edit: just did a couple of tests. Closed my browser and reopened it, as expected posts I've already read are now marked as unread. Power-cycled my modem to get a new external IP address (my ISP assigns dynamic IPs that change when you reboot your modem) and the same thing occurred, read posts are marked as unread. Not entirely sure why it "works" overnight (when my modem's switched off) based on that though...

If anyone else from NZ is on Telecom, does the same thing happen to you? (Daniel?)
 
Last edited:
Does your browser clear cookies every time you close it?

Although, you said you always used "remember me", so yeah.. :indiff:
 
FF is set to accept cookies until they expire; as you said, because "remember me" works I can't see how it could be a cookie issue...

Safari on my iPod is set to always accept cookies, and remember me works on that as well. It's just the tracking of what I've read that doesn't work, and because it happens on completely different devices and completely different browsers I can't see how it's a browser issue :odd:
 
Does clicking the Mark Forums Read button at the bottom of the main page help? That's how I do it - open a whole slug of tabs that catch my interest and then click the Mark Read button.
 
MFR works, as you'd expect. (edit: but not Mark This Forum Read)

The problem appears to be in letting the forum deduce by itself what I have and have not read after each visit - it seems to have a problem maintaining a post's read status in between sessions (ie each time I close my browser, reopen it and visit GTP again) unless I explicitly tell GTP that I've read the posts. Tested in FF3.6, FF4, Google Chrome, iOS Safari, Windows Safari and IE9, and all demonstrate the exact same problem. Not sure why old posts are correctly marked as read while my modem is off overnight though...

This has been happening for a long while (read: months) - it's not something that's cropped up in the past few days/weeks.
 
Last edited:
This has been happening for me since forever across IE, FF and Safari in pretty much exactly the same way as Sharky so I use 'mark forum read' quite a bit too.
 
I'm on Telecom (unfortunately :lol:). But I think it's something to do with the cookies. If I'd log out, then close the browser, I think it'll mark whatever you read as 'read'. I press the back button a lot as well though, dunno if that changes anything. I'll start doing the 'Mark Forum Read' too, seems useful 👍
 
Yeah, I just had that problem. I just posted in the thread on whether the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix should go ahead. When I returned to the sub-forum, it showed that there were new posts in the thread, despite the fact that I was the only one who had put a new post in there since the last time I went into it.
 
I've been having another problem, although with the same effect that the forum doesn't seem to be keeping track of what posts I've read and what ones I haven't properly (to quote Sharky.) It seems that logging out does an implicit 'mark all forums read".

Let's say I log in at 9 AM and start with this subforum (The Help Desk). After reading new posts, replying if appropriate etc, I move onto the next subforum of interest to me. So I've worked my way through GT Planet by let's say 10 o'clock, and I log off. Next day I discover that any posts in The Help Desk made between 9:05 or so and 10:00 are all marked as read, even though I never read them. Similarly for other subforums.

This is not specific to just The help Desk, it applies to all subforums; I'm just using The Help Desk as an example because it's one of the first subforums I visit.
 
I kinda got that too. Not only in this forum but also in another forum I'm a member of. Unread posts get read and then they get unread again if I restart my browser.

Must be an issue with the browser, not the forum itself. I'm using Firefox 4 by the way if someone will ask.
 
I've been having this problem too. Another similar problem is that I sometimes read every thread in a sub-forum and then leave it. The subforum is marked as if it has a thread in it that I haven't read yet. When I click it all the threads are marked as read though.
 
That's normal, Sharky. Read threads will be marked as un-read if you close the browser before your "session" has expired (30 minutes without contacting the server, or signing out of your account).
 
Oh, I see. So for posts to mark as read one basically has to go AFK/leave GTP with the browser open for half an hour?
 
Jordan
That's normal, Sharky. Read threads will be marked as un-read if you close the browser before your "session" has expired (30 minutes without contacting the server, or signing out of your account).
Click to expand...

Well, with the iPod app, I'm having unread posts come up as read under the participated tab...
 
Sharky.
Oh, I see. So for posts to mark as read one basically has to go AFK/leave GTP with the browser open for half an hour?
Click to expand...
Yes, or log out of your account, or click the "Mark Forums Read" link.

gogatrs
Well, with the iPod app, I'm having unread posts come up as read under the participated tab...
Click to expand...
Hmm, threads listed under that tab appear to be working as expected for me at the moment.
 
Jordan
Yes, or log out of your account, or click the "Mark Forums Read" link.

Hmm, threads listed under that tab appear to be working as expected for me at the moment.
Click to expand...

It only seems to happen once and awhile.
Mostly on the second page and the only thing that seems to spark it is when I haven't visited that page in a day or so...
 
BobK
My problem occurs pretty much every single day. Any help on it?
Click to expand...
That's also normal. When you return to the site after more than 30 minutes, threads are marked as "new" if they've been posted in since your last visit. Activity that occurred in the thread while you were previously active on the site is not considered new.
 
I don't think it's a bug. It's just how the forum works.
 
It's working incorrectly, as in, saying posts have been read when in fact they have not, nor have they been marked by the user as read. In other words, it's a bug. Other forum software does not have this problem (phpBB for example).

"That's just how it works" does not mean it's not a bug.
 
It's not a bug, as the software is working as expected in this configuration. The forum software does provide database-level read marking (which would work exactly as you expect), but I do not have it enabled here for performance and scalability reasons.
 

Latest Posts

Back