DB Site Development Log See OP for basics

[Owltoid]

Another thing about the new message indicator, it will go on if you post a new message to a thread, even if there aren't any other new posts. So if I post a message and then go to the Main Forums page the new message indicator will stay on until I go read what I just posted.

Perhaps what I'm about to describe is related to the above problem, but I'm not sure. From the Main Forums page if I click on the thread title for the most recent post then everything works great and I go to the last unread post on that thread. However, if I then hit the Forums link at the top of every page to bring me back to the Main Forums section. Even if all threads are read in a subforum (the one I just visited) it still shows the indicator light for a new post. The only way to get that off is to visit the forums, where I find there are no new posts and I just needed to click on the subforum.

Other message boards I visit have the new post indicator go off as soon as you visit that forum, regardless if you've read all the threads (I mentioned this in another post and you said working as intended). I implore you to make these forums the same way as I feel not doing so is causing other issues, such as the one I just described. It's a bit of a pain to click on mark forum as read every single time (I know, I'm lazy).

With all these suggestion, thanks for your hard work Svpernova!

[Svpernova09]

Perhaps what I'm about to describe is related to the above problem, but I'm not sure. From the Main Forums page if I click on the thread title for the most recent post then everything works great and I go to the last unread post on that thread. However, if I then hit the Forums link at the top of every page to bring me back to the Main Forums section. Even if all threads are read in a subforum (the one I just visited) it still shows the indicator light for a new post. The only way to get that off is to visit the forums, where I find there are no new posts and I just needed to click on the subforum.

Other message boards I visit have the new post indicator go off as soon as you visit that forum, regardless if you've read all the threads (I mentioned this in another post and you said working as intended). I implore you to make these forums the same way as I feel not doing so is causing other issues, such as the one I just described. It's a bit of a pain to click on mark forum as read every single time (I know, I'm lazy).

With all these suggestion, thanks for your hard work Svpernova!

This is not related to the other question you were asking about. It's not a problem, because, well, it's working as intended, that's just how the board works.

However, if I then hit the Forums link at the top of every page to bring me back to the Main Forums section. Even if all threads are read in a subforum (the one I just visited) it still shows the indicator light for a new post. The only way to get that off is to visit the forums, where I find there are no new posts and I just needed to click on the subforum.

So you're saying that you can view all the threads in a forum, BUT NOT THE SUBFORUM. and then go back out to the main forums index, and it still shows the indicator for new posts on that forum? Am I understanding correctly? If so, then yes, this is also...working as intended. It's showing you the indicator on the parent forum because you haven't read the threads in the subforum. This is how the 2 biggest (that I'm aware of) php forum systems work (Vbulletin, and phpBB).

What other issues is this going to cause? It's not causing any issues for me, no one else is posting about issues? If you're running into problems, by all means, let me know. The best advice I have for you, is read the threads you want, then go back out to the forum index, scroll all the way down, and click Mark Forums Read. This will mark ALL forums read and reset ALL the new post icons.

Just to show you... There are 3 ways Vb handles thread / post read marking.

Thread/Forum Read Marking Type

This option controls how threads and forums are marked as read.

1. Inactivity/Cookie Based - once a user has been inactive for a certain amount of time (the value of the session timeout option) all threads and forums are considered read. Individual threads are marked as read within a session via cookies.
   
   This option is how all versions of vBulletin before 3.5 functioned.
2. Database (no automatic forum marking) - this option uses the database to store thread and forum read times. This allows accurate read markers to be kept indefinitely. However, in order for a forum to be marked read when all threads are read, the user must view the list of threads for that forum.
   
   This option is more space and processor intensive than inactivity-based marking.
3. Database (automatic forum marking) - this option is the same as a previous option, but forums are automatically marked as read when the last new thread is read.
   
   This is the most usable option for end users, but most processor intensive.

We use the Inactivity/Cookie Based method because it is has the least affect on server performance thus resulting in faster queries, less server load, and faster page loads. Just to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding each option, I tested each one, and each one acted the SAME when it came down to forum new post marking of threads and threads in sub forums.

So, I hope I've understood what you're explaining correctly, if I haven't, please let me know, and I hope I've explain well enough that this is all working as designed / intended. I can't fix what isn't broken and there is nothing that stands out as "this doesn't act like the normal forum software" when this is one of the 2 forum packages I would say are the industry standard.