Right, this really bothers me sometimes. When I visit forums I can see for example 5 threads that I have replied has new replies from User CP, then I go to one and start typing reply, I write slow and long, so after I submit reply and go to see other threads there is none anymore, forum has marked them as read as it took so long to write.

At other forums it works so that they stay unread unless you actually visit in that thread.

Also if I read all unread threads, then close my browser and come back there is some threads unread that I have read earlier, this seem to be quite random which are chosen.

Using Firefox.

Don't know if there is nothing to be done, but just had to let it out

Open the threads in a new tab (Firefox: middle click). And keep the control panel page open in the previous tab.

Things like this are common in "web-forums" and in many other web session-based applications...

I have so many tabs (forums) already open so it is really pita to do, problem is worse in LFS forum, some other are not so bad that still uses vBulletin board, but clearly it is issue with forum software and so can't be helped it seems.

I've always considered it to be a vBulletin feature. It isn't problem on phpBB based forums that I visit.

There's an automatic 15 minute time-out, it gets me often, especially if a thread contains lots of external links. I'd very much like to have this extended, or have the ability to remove the automatic time-out and click the "mark all forums read" button we're currently missing.

You should try reading the new posts on dialup! You think you miss a lot? Someone will bump a thread from a year ago and it will be like the first time I've ever seen the thread, LOL. This just happened. It was a thread with something about an auto chat unofficial addon. Someone bumped it from it being a dead thread last year sometime, yet I had never seen the thread before.

I read the forum via the "New Posts" link. I then open each page of the list so that I at least have all of the list and it won't time out. If not, while reading other threads that interest me, by the time I reach page 3 of the list, they are gone. At this moment, I have 3 pages of the "New Posts" list openned and 8 different threads. Some threads I will hit the reply button to answer a question and move on to read another thread while the reply pane is openning. By the time I get back to that page to reply, 6 others have already replied making it look like I'm just posting for postcount, LOL.

^^ Sounds quite horrible, defineatly would use of option where is no automatic marking to read

Edit: Big idea behind this is of course as in not so long distant future, I can visit forums only once a week basis, so it would make reading rather hard when threads are marked as read before I can finish reading even tiny fraction of posts.

firefox just sucks.
never had that happen with opera

mighty useless post that last one.... browser type has absolutely nothing to do with this topic.

vB is the least bad of'm all imo. But yes, simple features like 'mark thread UNread' and 'view post-infractions' are nowhere to be found.
Go tell vb i'd say

Quote from Victor :

mighty useless post that last one.... browser type has absolutely nothing to do with this topic.

vB is the least bad of'm all imo. But yes, simple features like 'mark thread UNread' and 'view post-infractions' are nowhere to be found.
Go tell vb i'd say

Hmm, database read marking should fix this?

Nice find.

hmm ok, i thought it would create a lot of extra load on the db and that's why i always had doubts about using it, but it looks like it won't be so bad afterall.

The only thing that'll happen once i enable it is that all threads and posts will be marked unread, so everybody will see everything in bold then. It's then up to you to either live with that for 10 days until the 'unread' mark expires, or to click 'mark forum read'.

I'll make an announcement about it and then activate it some later.

Thanks Victor, now I'm big happy LFS puppy

I kinda like the way it is now. I've seen this on other forums and I hated it. There is a difference between reading a thread and not being interested in it at all and never reading it. Then everytime you come to the forums you think there are all these new threads and replies. But anyway, it's not a big deal.

Like others I've always used the tactic of having one tab for forums and open threads in new tabs.

Quote from Victor :

mighty useless post that last one.... browser type has absolutely nothing to do with this topic.

duh but i never had that happen to me?
i can leave my pc for 1 hour come back and keep browsing my unread posts

Quote from kurent :

I kinda like the way it is now. I've seen this on other forums and I hated it. There is a difference between reading a thread and not being interested in it at all and never reading it. Then everytime you come to the forums you think there are all these new threads and replies. But anyway, it's not a big deal.

Like others I've always used the tactic of having one tab for forums and open threads in new tabs.

come to think of it, i agree with that.

Ideally vb should have an option to let the user choose what he wants, or what cut-off time is desired. But ... it hasn't.

I'm happy to have all unread posts remain in bold forever. I don't see the big deal with that.

Quote from Victor :

Ideally vb should have an option to let the user choose what he wants, or what cut-off time is desired. But ... it hasn't.

Yeah, that would be ideal. The auto-marking everything read is useful, if only the time out was nearer an hour.

In the end, manual gives best control. The time out is indeed useful but 10 days seems a touch long, I would have thought half that would be enough.

Quote from Victor :

mighty useless post that last one.... browser type has absolutely nothing to do with this topic.

actually it does for some weird reason ... on my machine anyway
with ff it behave like its logged in and constantly refreshing for as long as ff i open even if i dont have a forum tab open
with ie it logs me out at inactivity and i need to stay logged off for at least 10 mins after closing ie or all posts are marked unread again

Quote :

vB is the least bad of'm all imo. But yes, simple features like 'mark thread UNread' and 'view post-infractions' are nowhere to be found.
Go tell vb i'd say

imho yabb is by far the best forum software when i comes to marking threads
you can log on and off as often as you like and posts from over a year ago still stay marked unread until you open the actual thread ... plus sections dont stay marked unread for as long as you havent read all new posts in them

dunno how well it would work on a forum this size though


and thx so much for changing the behaviour

Quote from Shotglass :

actually it does for some weird reason ... on my machine anyway
with ff it behave like its logged in and constantly refreshing for as long as ff i open even if i dont have a forum tab open
with ie it logs me out at inactivity and i need to stay logged off for at least 10 mins after closing ie or all posts are marked unread again

Can't you set FF to not refresh everytime you go forwards backwards? (in Opera you can have these handy individual settings for each web page )

That being said, I just click "New Posts", open all interesting threads in new tabs and then read them at one go, or leave them open for laters. After that I fetch the new posts list again and the trest of the not-read threads are bold just like they were 30mins ago... Or if I spam really long times I get shorter list of new unread posts when I refresh the new posts list...

Maybe just a browser setting? I guess it doesn't matter to me in either way, teh current way is fine just like the updated one would be...

Quote from Bob Smith :

In the end, manual gives best control. The time out is indeed useful but 10 days seems a touch long, I would have thought half that would be enough.

I agree. Even shorter would be better imo. 1 day maybe?

Quote from geeman1 :

I agree. Even shorter would be better imo. 1 day maybe?

I disagree, if you are not visiting daily then load of threads will be read before you even see them. Much better to have thread unread until you actually read it or mark as read.

Quote from JTbo :

I disagree, if you are not visiting daily then load of threads will be read before you even see them. Much better to have thread unread until you actually read it or mark as read.

I see your point. But if you DO visit the forum daily you will have to do a lot more manual marking. I personally prefer the current way. I have a broadband and visit the forum daily and I never miss a thread. I don't use the User CP way you do, so I don't know about the problem you have All I know is that changing the forum behaviour will create more annoyance to me, but a lot of people seem to prefer the other way so it will probably be changed. I all I want is that the expiration date to be set to a reasonable time so that 9 day old threads won't keep bugging me when I am not going to read them anyway. Yes, I know I can set all threads read with the quick link, but it is still annoying.

you know what? Let's just see how it goes

Marking method has changed now.

The new-post marker, with the bold text, is pretty much redundant now, for me. There are 6 day old threads which appear as active as today's ones. I have to read them or mark all read in order to change that.
No biggy, just not as good as before.