Question & Suggestion (re: no quote-reply button)

Can you point me to a board that has this feature? The way you've described it makes it seem like it would be expensive to provide, in that each thread would need an entry for each member indicating the last read message. I'd want to study exactly how it behaves so I can see if there are any efficiencies they take advantage of.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Try Oops! We ran into some problems. | Internet Infidels Discussion Board?

I'm having trouble finding the button you mentioned. All I can find is the little right arrow icon that takes you to the last post.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

DSLReports Home : Broadband ISP Reviews News Tools and Forums is another site that allows you the option of seeing unread posts. This ability is limited to members who are logged in.My understanding is that they use extensive databases to provide this ability. That makes it a high maintenance site. Moreover to do this they are, in effect, keeping extensive dossiers on their users. This isn't a problem, since most of what they do is non-controversial. I'm not sure that it would be such a good idea for evcforum.

It's the view first unread post button. It's the blue button on the upper left when you view a thread.Sounds like you found it but were mislead by my imprecise terminology.This message has been edited by DHR, 09-27-2005 05:17 PMThis message has been edited by DHR, 09-27-2005 05:55 PM

I assumed EvC was doing something similar because we can see when there are topics that have new posts and view a members posting history.

There is evidently some sort of database for posting history. But keeping track of what I have posted is simpler than keeping track of what I have read (unless I'm a post only, don't read type of person).Determining what are new posts seems to be a matter of cookies. What I have already read is saved in my own browser cookies, not on the evcforum site. I can notice this, because if I view evcforum with a different browser or on a different computer, then the memory of what I have already seen is lost.

It seems more a matter of what page you have looked at than the specific post. If you go to a thread and go thru the pages then the button will take you to the last page even tough you have not looked at any post.

I'm not sure which button you are using there.If I click on the message that is listed as "latest reply", it takes me to that particular post. If I click on the thread name, it takes me to the first page for that thread.What else I have looked at has no effect. Looking at anything in that thread turns out the blue light.

See what you mean seems not all threads have it, but some first pages have it.

Trying to address the last few posts, I'm in the process of switching the board over to MySQL. This will make possible all sorts of data tracking and searching capabilities that aren't currently available, such as keeping track of your read progress in every thread instead of just threads active within the past 48 hours.Some current capabilities whose behavior may at first seem unexpected actually is necessary. For example, someone noticed that if you change computers the site doesn't know what threads you've already read on the new computer. That's because the record of which threads you've read is kept in cookies. It has to be kept in cookies, because otherwise you couldn't click on the blue button to turn it on and off, which happens without a page refresh. The database back at the site can only be updated with a page refresh, and since it is undesireable to refresh a page just because what is in essence a radio button has been clicked, only the local cookie is updated.This behavior will improve with the move to MySQL. The database of read threads (including how far you've read in the thread) will be maintained in the MySQL database, but which blue buttons you've clicked on will be saved in a cookie. But at the next page refresh the cookie's information will be transmitted to the site which will update the database and reset the cookie. Now when you change computers the record of read threads will follow you.Converting to MySQL is a slow process, maybe by Christmas. The biggest hurdle is installing an automated migration process so that upgrades to the database require no manual steps or intervention.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Hi, Percy. I like the chat feature, but I was wondering if there was a way to signal members who are online besides saying "meet me in chat" on every last post?

I did this just for you PB:This message has been edited by AdminJar, 09-28-2005 09:32 AM

I have been popping in more over the past month of Sept. And I have not noticed Dan..or Mamanthus, Hambre, even Lam seems to be scarce. I sometimes wonder about the regulars when they are not posting.

I don't know about the others. But Lam has been around pretty often. He changes his name from time to time, and has most recently been known as "Jacen".