# very confused about "new posts" list...



## bonj2 (22 Oct 2007)

if I click new posts, that's presumably a list of all threads that have had a post in them since I last read that thread, therefore that I might not have seen.
But then at the bottom there's "The threads below have not been updated since your last visit but still contain unread posts."
What's defined as "my last visit"? My last visit to any part of the forum, or that particular thread? If any part of the forum, then surely all the threads in the new posts list should drop into this bottom section if I click 'new posts' twice in succession, as there won't have been any new posts in the two seconds since I last clicked it, and clicking on the 'new posts' constitutes visiting the forum. If they're there 'cos they've got no new posts since i last visited 'that particular thread', then surely i've read all of that thread so why are they in the 'new posts' list at all? Maybe it's just me but it doesn't appear to be very scientific... 

Also, is there a way of having the new posts list, i.e. threads that have had new posts in them since I last read that thread, but restricting it to threads that I've posted in, and then have _another_ list that's just a list of all completely new threads that have cropped up since I last visited _any_ part of the forum? i.e. basically all threads I am, or might be, interested in. The only threads that I want excluded from this are threads the OP of which predates my last refresh of the particular section they are in and that I haven't viewed. i.e. this would be the way to know which threads I'm definitely NOT interested in. But this covers quite a few threads. Is that possible?

(if that makes ANY sort of sense...??  B))


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## Shaun (23 Oct 2007)

It's basically down to the VB forum software. It offers two basic forms of marking _new_ posts: *Cookies* and *Database*.

It uses cookies to track _new posts_ as default, but it's somewhat unreliable and regularly shows visited posts as new, and doesn't work well when you're here for a long time reading as your cookie can time-out. You therefore spend a good deal of time re-reading posts.

I changed it to database tracking some time ago to get around these issues. It works by marking each post as read (in the database) and is a lot more reliable (certainly in my experience).

Basically, a post is marked as _new_ if you haven't read it. So, _even if you log out, and log back in again_, the posts that were new before, are still new because you haven't actually read them.

Once you visit the thread and read through to the last post, it is marked as read. You've read each post in the thread, so there is nothing new. Next time a post is added to the thread, it'll show as having a _new_ post/s.

One of the side-effects of changing to this type of tracking is that the entire forum was marked as unread for every user when I effected the change. This meant that masses of posts were changed to unread, or new. This is where the message _"The threads below have not been updated since your last visit but still contain unread posts."_ comes in - these are the historically old unread posts that you have never gone back over and re-read.

What might help, is marking the entire forums as read. This is best done at the end of your visit - just before you log out.

From the *Quick Links* menu at the top, select *Mark Forums Read*. This will mark every single post as read, and next time you login you should only see the threads with new posts.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Shaun


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