The Lemon Fool

I know that a few “old hands” on here follow the site primarily through the “new posts” feature.
I notice that there’ll be a build-up of new posts, sometimes running into pages, then all of a sudden there’ll be a cull, and the list will be down to five or six, or so. I think this happens overnight, or early morning, but am not sure. Whatever, I posted a reply to an old thread the other day, and rightly so, the old thread had been resurrected to top of the “new posts” rankings. But an hour later, it had vanished into obscurity once more, as the new posts had been reset and it wasn’t current enough to have made the cut. So, can this cliff-edge effect be softened? perhaps maintain a constant 20-30 “new posts”, with the oldest falling off the log as a new one appears?

Damn. Subject mistyped.

I've noticed this too, and believe a factor is the length of time that has passed since you last refreshed the 'New posts' screen.

I can't be sure, but I don't think you lose sight of any threads that have been updated since you last visited the site.

Perhaps a mod, or stooz, can advise?

Watis

Have you tried Active Topics?

I use that - where there are untitled new posts on a thread, it only shows the thread title from the most recent activity. Then clicking for First Unread Post takes you into the thread. Where there are multiple posts since you last read that thread, you're delivered to the first post after you last read it.

Maybe that avoids the behaviour you're seeing in New Posts?

Greg

New posts is quirky/buggy/unreliable (choose as you like). I reported it 5 years ago but it seems to be an inherent issue with phpBB (the board software).

See viewtopic.php?p=182839#p182839

Also viewtopic.php?p=627855#p627855

vandefrosty wrote:
Have you tried Active Topics?

I use that - where there are untitled new posts on a thread, it only shows the thread title from the most recent activity.

Then clicking for 'First Unread Post' takes you into the thread. Where there are multiple posts since you last read that thread, you're delivered to the first post after you last read it.

You don't have to go to the top of a thread and then click on 'First Unread Post' if you're wanting to move to the first new post since you last looked at an existing thread.

No matter which thread-list you're looking at, you'll notice different colour circular icons to the left of them, similar to the snapshot below -



The lower icon colour means that you've read all the current posts in that thread, and so you're not able to click the icon itself, and can only enter the thread by clicking on the thread-title, which will then open the thread at the very first post.

The upper icon, however, is coloured RED, and that means that there's posts on that thread that you've not read - either because it's a brand new thread, or because there's been new posts made on it since you last looked at it.

With RED icons, you can click on the icon itself, and it'll take you straight into the thread, directly to the first post on it that you've not read, so using that process instead of the 'First Unread Post' process you've mentioned earlier will hopefully save you a little time, if that's what you're wanting to do from a particular thread list.

If you're using a mouse-based browser, then hovering over a red icon similar to the above (but on a thread list - not the snapshot in this post...) should bring up a tool-tip window that says 'Unread Posts', which gives a hint as to the usefulness of that particular option.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Itsallaguess wrote:

vandefrosty wrote:
Have you tried Active Topics?

I use that - where there are untitled new posts on a thread, it only shows the thread title from the most recent activity.

Then clicking for 'First Unread Post' takes you into the thread. Where there are multiple posts since you last read that thread, you're delivered to the first post after you last read it.

You don't have to go to the top of a thread and then click on 'First Unread Post' if you're wanting to move to the first new post since you last looked at an existing thread.

No matter which thread-list you're looking at, you'll notice different colour circular icons to the left of them, similar to the snapshot below -



The lower icon colour means that you've read all the current posts in that thread, and so you're not able to click the icon itself, and can only enter the thread by clicking on the thread-title, which will then open the thread at the very first post.

The upper icon, however, is coloured RED, and that means that there's posts on that thread that you've not read - either because it's a brand new thread, or because there's been new posts made on it since you last looked at it.

With RED icons, you can click on the icon itself, and it'll take you straight into the thread, directly to the first post on it that you've not read, so using that process instead of the 'First Unread Post' process you've mentioned earlier will hopefully save you a little time, if that's what you're wanting to do from a particular thread list.

If you're using a mouse-based browser, then hovering over a red icon similar to the above (but on a thread list - not the snapshot in this post...) should bring up a tool-tip window that says 'Unread Posts', which gives a hint as to the usefulness of that particular option.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

And yet, vandefrosty’s suggestion does address the problem with the “new posts” cull. As it happens there has just been one, and as of this very moment there are only two topics showing as new posts, whereas clicking on active topics displays a comprehensive list.

GrahamPlatt wrote:....clicking on active topics displays a comprehensive list.

Some of which go back a whole week. Never used that before, but it's a useful way to catch up if one has been absent, as New Posts edits itself if one visits the site and then navigates away.

V8

88V8 wrote:

GrahamPlatt wrote:....clicking on active topics displays a comprehensive list.

Some of which go back a whole week. Never used that before, but it's a useful way to catch up if one has been absent, as New Posts edits itself if one visits the site and then navigates away.

V8

In theory New Posts Returns a list of topics containing posts which have been made since the last time you logged in (although I think that should read, "since the last time you were logged in", i.e. since you last logged out), and if you read the posts linked to in my post upthread that does seem to be what users who log in and out every session experience. The "culling" issue seems to appear for folks who stay permanently logged in (i.e. ticked "Remember me").

In regards to Active Topics going back a week, that's the default. If you scroll to the bottom there's a "Display posts from previous..." selector that lets you choose how far back to go (although the choices are limited).