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Author Topic: 'Unread posts' or not?  (Read 3004 times)

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Chris Brimley

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'Unread posts' or not?
« on: May 18, 2012, 10:11:53 AM »

I've been discussing with Clive over the last few days a problem I seem to be finding, and we thought it worth sharing:

Basically, the problem is that the list of unread posts is sometimes fewer than I would expect.  I've obviously not read dozens of them over a long period of time.  There seem to be two aspects to this:

1. I didn't understand the system.

Ever since I've been on the forum, I've wrongly assumed that 'Show unread posts since last visit' meant 'Show all posts you haven't yet read'.  It doesn't, it means 'Show all posts since last visit'  Therefore, if at your last visit to melnet you didn't read all the unread posts on the list (maybe you hadn't time, you got sidetracked by an interesting discussion, your computer crashed, or you simply got bored), then at your next visit any posts you hadn't read the first time will not be displayed.  (Except that they will still be shown under the individual thread, and the individual posts will still have the word 'new' next to them, so by full investigation you can still find them.)

It seems to me that while this may be logical, it's somewhat confusing and user-unfriendly, and I wonder how many others have been under the same delusion as me?  Of course, if you read all posts every time you visit, or always mark them all as unread, you'll never notice any difference.

I'd suggest that a better system would be to split the 'Show unread posts since last visit', into two:

'Show all unread posts';  and:
'Show all new posts since last visit'

I'm sure the system could easily do this, since it already knows that information about you as a user.  I would have thought that most people, like me, would usually just use the first one.

2. There still seems to be a residual technical problem

For about a week, after Clive pointed out my misunderstanding, I thought that explained it all.  But then one day, I suddenly found that when I first connected to melnet in the morning, that the list of 'Unread messages since last visit' was empty, although looking at the individual threads, there were lots of them posted earlier in the morning, which I couldn't possibly have seen earlier since I hadn't connected.  I even wondered whether I had by mistake double-clicked onto melnet, but no, I'm pretty sure I didn't.

I think that since I first raised the issue Clive is also not sure whether there is still an underlying technical issue to do with caching.

Any others had these problems?
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Graham Spencer

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Re: 'Unread posts' or not?
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2012, 03:04:23 PM »

For ages now I've been getting "No unread posts since your last visit" 19 out of 20 times when logging on; it's really a minor annoyance since I then go to "Show all unread posts" and there are all the unread posts since my last visit, plus all the others I haven't read, so I haven't bothered to try to do anything about it.  It used to work faultlessly - this little quirk started about a year or 18 months ago.

Graham
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Among others, Saltarelle Pastourelle II D/G; Hohner 4-stop 1-rows in C & G; assorted Hohners; 3-voice German (?) G/C of uncertain parentage; lovely little Hlavacek 1-row Heligonka; B♭/E♭ Koch. Newly acquired G/C Hohner Viktoria. Also Fender Jazz bass, Telecaster, Stratocaster, Epiphone Sheraton, Charvel-Jackson 00-style acoustic guitar, Danelectro 12-string and other stuff..........

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Graham Spencer

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Re: 'Unread posts' or not?
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2012, 03:08:04 PM »

Well, ****** me, it just worked as nature intended when I clicked on "Show unread posts"!  Like taking your car to a garage and the fault magically cures itself........ time for a gin & tonic, I think!  :|glug::)
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Among others, Saltarelle Pastourelle II D/G; Hohner 4-stop 1-rows in C & G; assorted Hohners; 3-voice German (?) G/C of uncertain parentage; lovely little Hlavacek 1-row Heligonka; B♭/E♭ Koch. Newly acquired G/C Hohner Viktoria. Also Fender Jazz bass, Telecaster, Stratocaster, Epiphone Sheraton, Charvel-Jackson 00-style acoustic guitar, Danelectro 12-string and other stuff..........

Squeezing in the Cyprus sunshine

Chris Brimley

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Re: 'Unread posts' or not?
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2012, 04:24:04 PM »

Quote
Show all unread posts

Where does that message appear, GPS?  I don't think I've spotted it before.
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Lester

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Re: 'Unread posts' or not?
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2012, 06:10:25 PM »

Quote
Show all unread posts

Where does that message appear, GPS?  I don't think I've spotted it before.

On the far Right from the bit where is says Hello Chris Brimley under the banner at the top of the page there os a plus sign, if to press this a new panel appears with the Show Unread Posts option

Québécois

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Re: 'Unread posts' or not?
« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2012, 06:57:49 PM »

I'd suggest that a better system would be to split the 'Show unread posts since last visit', into two:

'Show all unread posts';  and:
'Show all new posts since last visit'
Would make sense to me!  I too sometimes get puzzled when seeing either a long list of posts and sometimes nothing. This seems to happen when using more than one machine. Is anything saved in cookies?
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Graham Spencer

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Re: 'Unread posts' or not?
« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2012, 07:07:41 PM »

Quote
Show all unread posts

Where does that message appear, GPS?  I don't think I've spotted it before.

When you've selected "unread posts since your last visit" and been told there aren't any, there's an option "click here to try all unread posts". But since this topic came up "unread posts since last visit has been working properly!  I believe our transatlantic cousins would say "go figure....."  ???
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Among others, Saltarelle Pastourelle II D/G; Hohner 4-stop 1-rows in C & G; assorted Hohners; 3-voice German (?) G/C of uncertain parentage; lovely little Hlavacek 1-row Heligonka; B♭/E♭ Koch. Newly acquired G/C Hohner Viktoria. Also Fender Jazz bass, Telecaster, Stratocaster, Epiphone Sheraton, Charvel-Jackson 00-style acoustic guitar, Danelectro 12-string and other stuff..........

Squeezing in the Cyprus sunshine

Chris Brimley

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Re: 'Unread posts' or not?
« Reply #7 on: May 18, 2012, 07:48:55 PM »

Ah, I think we're talking at cross purposes, GPS.  Mine says at the moment:  No unread topics found since your last visit. Click here to try all unread topics.   

And on your earlier message, yes, my RH button is always showing a minus sign anyway. So on the LHS of the header it always shows 'Show unread posts since last visit'.

But I also noticed you also said
Quote
plus all the others I haven't read
when talking about the unread posts list - I don't get that on mine, which was my first issue - are you sure?
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Graham Spencer

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Re: 'Unread posts' or not?
« Reply #8 on: May 19, 2012, 05:44:05 AM »

Ah, I think we're talking at cross purposes, GPS.  Mine says at the moment:  No unread topics found since your last visit. Click here to try all unread topics.   


I think you may be right - sorry if I confused the issue!

When I click to try all unread messages I get 13 pages, so I reckon that's all of them......

Graham
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Among others, Saltarelle Pastourelle II D/G; Hohner 4-stop 1-rows in C & G; assorted Hohners; 3-voice German (?) G/C of uncertain parentage; lovely little Hlavacek 1-row Heligonka; B♭/E♭ Koch. Newly acquired G/C Hohner Viktoria. Also Fender Jazz bass, Telecaster, Stratocaster, Epiphone Sheraton, Charvel-Jackson 00-style acoustic guitar, Danelectro 12-string and other stuff..........

Squeezing in the Cyprus sunshine
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