Problem with Bulletin board

Thoom · Post by **Thoom** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:16 am

Hello,

maybe it's only me but this bulletin board seem to have some problems. It often happens (to me) that I log on and click on the "View posts since your last visit" and I get the "No topics or posts met your search criteria" message, although there are messages listed for today and it's been days since I last checked the board. There are also other quirks with the board, but this one is the worst.

I follow a lot of boards regularly and this one is the only one that does that. Is there an update waiting to be installed by any chance?
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moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 3:32 am

Personally I don't use those options... when I log in, I am able to see which ones have been updated or not read yet by the 'icon'. The happens flawlessly for me so I'd have to try the method you suggest to see if the experience is equally consistent.

M
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Thoom · Post by **Thoom** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:30 pm

Well it's a very useful feature, try it and you'll see. You just hit it and you get a nice list of all the threads that have new posts since your last visit. You can rapidly browse the subjects and jump right in for those that are of greater interest to you.

You should also use the little page icon with an arrow on the side that is just before the title of the thread: that will bring you directly to the last post in the thread that you read. For example if a topic is very active and you were at the 6th page and now there are 12 pages it will bring you directly at the right spot to continue reading.

Anyways, this board has this feature (as most board do) but it doesn't work consistently (unlike all the other boards I visit).
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Thoom · Post by **Thoom** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:01 pm

moriarty777 wrote:
Personally I don't use those options... when I log in, I am able to see which ones have been updated or not read yet by the 'icon'. The happens flawlessly for me so I'd have to try the method you suggest to see if the experience is equally consistent.

M

BTW when I have that problem, all the board's sections show as having NO UPDATES.

It may have to do with the expiration date of the cookies from the site (which seem to be wrong). Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an admin of the board that can be bothered to look into this it or even reply to a thread with the title like this...
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gideon_thorne · Post by **gideon_thorne** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:12 pm

Welp, All I can tell you is that there is no update waiting to be installed. Beyond that, not being particularly computer literate in these areas, I have no clue as to how to solve such a problem.

Those admins who are computer adept apparently seem to be busy. Ill try and give em a prod and see if they have any ideas.
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Thoom · Post by **Thoom** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:28 pm

gideon_thorne wrote:
Welp, All I can tell you is that there is no update waiting to be installed. Beyond that, not being particularly computer literate in these areas, I have no clue as to how to solve such a problem.

Those admins who are computer adept apparently seem to be busy. Ill try and give em a prod and see if they have any ideas.

Thanks Peter, much appreciated.

Also, thank for suggesting the Oath of Swords series from David Weber (in another thread). I'm in the 3rd book and I have enjoyed the first two immensely. I always like to discover new authors and this one is one of the good ones. Thanks!
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C&C Society

Sir Ironside · Post by **Sir Ironside** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:18 am

Sounds like the problem is on your end.

My first guess is see if you have cookies enabled. But, if it does it sporadically, does your connection go offline at all? That sometimes resets your cookies.

I use the same features that you do without any problems. I don't think anyone else has experienced anything like this.. so check those things first.

Also it would be a good idea if you could let the people here know what OS you got running.

I got my own computer guy for my forum so maybe I'll poke him if things can't be worked out here.
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gideon_thorne · Post by **gideon_thorne** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:32 pm

Thoom wrote:
Thanks Peter, much appreciated.

Also, thank for suggesting the Oath of Swords series from David Weber (in another thread). I'm in the 3rd book and I have enjoyed the first two immensely. I always like to discover new authors and this one is one of the good ones. Thanks!

Welp, near as I can gather from the geek squad, what folks in this thread are saying is pretty on the money. Since the problem doesn't seem to be affecting anyone else, it might be some setting on your computer.

And no problem on the Oath of Swords books. I laughed myself silly through all of em.
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Thoom · Post by **Thoom** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:20 am

Sir Ironside wrote:
Sounds like the problem is on your end.

I'm very willing to admit it may be the case. As my first post states from the beginning.

Sir Ironside wrote:
My first guess is see if you have cookies enabled. But, if it does it sporadically, does your connection go offline at all? That sometimes resets your cookies.

My cookies are set at "Accept cookies only from sites I visit." One thing that also occurs which is most probably related is that I almost always need to RE-log-in when I visit this board, even though I always check the "Log me on automatically each visit" checkbox when I log-in. This is one of those things which don't happen with other boards.

I must say I check BBs regularly, some of them for near 10 years without ever having these kind of problem. Most of these other boards are phpBB based. This is the only one I visit that is based on freeabb.

Sir Ironside wrote:
Also it would be a good idea if you could let the people here know what OS you got running.

Right, sorry I didn't mention it: Mac OS 10.6.2, I'm using Safari 4.0.4.

Sir Ironside wrote:
I got my own computer guy for my forum so maybe I'll poke him if things can't be worked out here.

Thanks!
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C&C Society

Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:31 am

I personally utilize the little page & arrow to see if anything's been discussed since my last visit. I also have these forums tied to a not-often-used email address that I check daily to see if anything's been replied to. That's about it for me.
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Post by **Fiffergrund** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 2:44 pm

I'm running Firefox on Windows 7 and XP, and I haven't been able to recreate the problem. I also have a persistent log-in that works every time.

This board uses an older version of the board software. It's a free board, and upgrading to the new version has proved to be problematic, so we've never made the switch. It's possible that this older version doesn't play nicely with Macs and Safari in terms of cookie use.

I don't anticipate a full-on upgrade in the near future. The only way I can see it happening is if the Trolls decide to host their own message board on one of their servers.
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Dagger · Post by **Dagger** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:10 pm

I have a Mac and I'm using Safari. I have the same problem where new posts and topics aren't flagged as new. The "view posts since last visit" doesn't work and the thread icons don't change to show that there is a new post. It is intermittent... Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It does seem that if I visit the board for the first time in a given day it works properly. But if make a second visit in the same day, I won't see any indications that new posts were made since my last visit.
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Thoom · Post by **Thoom** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:56 pm

Fiffergrund wrote:
I'm running Firefox on Windows 7 and XP, and I haven't been able to recreate the problem. I also have a persistent log-in that works every time.

This board uses an older version of the board software. It's a free board, and upgrading to the new version has proved to be problematic, so we've never made the switch. It's possible that this older version doesn't play nicely with Macs and Safari in terms of cookie use.

I don't anticipate a full-on upgrade in the near future. The only way I can see it happening is if the Trolls decide to host their own message board on one of their servers.

Ok thanks Fiffergrund. I understand that upgrading isn't always easy. Hopefully this will be resolved in time.
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C&C Society

Thoom · Post by **Thoom** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:57 pm

Dagger wrote:
I have a Mac and I'm using Safari. I have the same problem where new posts and topics aren't flagged as new. The "view posts since last visit" doesn't work and the thread icons don't change to show that there is a new post. It is intermittent... Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It does seem that if I visit the board for the first time in a given day it works properly. But if make a second visit in the same day, I won't see any indications that new posts were made since my last visit.

It's good to know that I am not alone 8)
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C&C Society