unRead posts?

[IndyGerdener]

How can I reset posts that I have looked at the title and had no interest in looking at? They are all still showing up as new. I only want messages that are new from my last time I was on the board. Like it used to be

[webmaster]

"View new posts" is the same thing.

There's
View unanswered posts
View active topics
View new posts
View your posts

[Dillbert]

sorry to continue to carp on this, but
View New Posts
is not the same thing as
View UnRead Posts

New Posts seems to show everything from the last 24 hours, with a little arrow indicator to the left of thread title indicating there's unread posts in that thread.

so, the index of unread posts can be build / displayed / used; it's actually a standard function of most bb software

here's what new posts shows - note some threads show new posts, others not.

oh, it's only a partial listing, have to scroll down for full listing but that interrupts the screen capture

>>"Like it used to be"
that is also my impression, but I did not document the old screen behavior

[Dillbert]

so then I backtracked to main page, did a "Mark Forums Read"
closed browser
re-logged in

"View New Posts" now shows:

[Dillbert]

so the "View New Posts" as currently executed is really "View Today's Posts" - which if you research my carping - you'll see is something I highly recommend to be available comma anyway - but as currently implemented View New Posts does not show "only those threads with posts I have not read"

[webmaster]

Let me clarify:
View New Posts has the same function as View New Posts did in the old version of the forum. Same thing. Only it's better. The old way used to forget. So if you close your browser and open it again, you will lose the old set and get a new set or worse, no new posts. I used to get that complaint a lot, that the View New Posts list used to disappear.

This new version is persistent. You can open up a different browser and see the same list of new posts.

If you log out then log back in, it will reset itself. You will lose all the New Posts that were formerly listed.

If you want a view UNread posts, that's something I can add to the forum.

[Dillbert]

imho, "weeze" need both -
Unread Posts
Today's Posts

let's assume the place gets a lot more popular and a lot more msgs/day posted.

one thenceforth has to scroll down through pages and pages of thread title listings looking for the little arrows. the list is sorted chronologically - so one has to scroll through every thread with a post made in the last 24 hrs.

unworkable - cumbersome onus placed on the user.

otoh, "Today's Post" is very valuable - it's that "I saw that now where the heck is it?" no, I don't keep track of what sub-forum stuff is in. my brain only registers topics and perhaps users....

here's a really spectacular example of "we haven't got a clue" management:
http://www.food.com/bb/

there's pages and pages of sub-forums.
you have to click thru every sub-forum, then scroll down through all the stickies, _every blinking visit!_ - just to see if perchance there's anything of interest.

so I joined the place; I figured perhaps members would have other options - but no, members have to plod through exactly as any visitor sees it.

it's unworkable, it's a HUGE time waster. not worth the effort.
when users find things more trouble than it's worth, they go away.
food dot com for thought.....

[IndyGerdener]

It seems like before the update it would log me out when I left the page. When I came back it would automatically log me back in and therefore reset the new posts since my last visit. There are alot of posts now that the season is coming in full swing and new users are asking same questions over and over. I guess I will just mark everything as read and go about it that way. As the season goes on I am sure it will slow down and I will be able to keep up again!!

[cynthia_h]

It seems like before the update it would log me out when I left the page. When I came back it would automatically log me back in and therefore reset the new posts since my last visit. There are alot of posts now that the season is coming in full swing and new users are asking same questions over and over. I guess I will just mark everything as read and go about it that way. As the season goes on I am sure it will slow down and I will be able to keep up again!!

To address your points in reverse order:

1) The posts per day, if I remember the past few years correctly, peak in July. Many people seem to go on vacation in August, so the incredible number of posts per day diminishes somewhat that month. There's a resurgence in September (what I think of as "the last gasp before early northern frosts"), then quite a few posts in October (southern gardens which freeze are now trying to beat the frost), but traffic on the forum doesn't *really* quiet down until just after...

Thanksgiving.

Forum traffic started ramping up again pretty early this year, certainly sooner than usual. I missed all of January due to work, but February was busier than I remember it being the last couple of years; maybe due to warmer weather in some parts of the country? (Destroyed, of course, by later storms.)

March was about average, probably due to those late storms, but April has just about taken the cake for exponential growth in posts per day (I considered, then discarded, metaphors like "April has just been snowed with posts" and "April has seen a blizzard of posts" in consideration of the true snow and blizzards across much of the United States the past two or so weeks).

The take-home message here is that dedicated forum followers may want to re-organize how/when they read the Forum. Perhaps daylight hours are too scarce, and need to be used in the garden itself, so catching up at THG might be reserved for when the Sun isn't available? And, of course, if one has a full-time job, that needs to be factored in!

2) Being logged out by the Forum / Threads being marked as having been read: I think that the Forum software now grants us a longer "inactive" period before ditching us. I'm sometimes interrupted by a dog needing to go outside, "kitty politics" (I have three cats), laundry needing to be moved from washer to dryer, or other household tasks. Previously, I'd attend to them, come back, and--Aieee! I'd been logged out. That meant I'd have to go through each forum/sub-forum and look at the time of the most recent post...etc. etc. etc. Yuck.

The current system, though, where the title of each and every thread I've even looked at--not posted on, just opened to read--since the update has turned orange and will evidently stay that way from now until Domesday (history reference; yes, it's the correct spelling), makes me crazy. It gives me no guidance a'tall; 90 to 95% of the posts are orange, making the system pretty much worthless to me. At least under the former régime, I could find my place in the list of New Posts by seeing which ones were bolded/unbolded.

I'm not sure how I would use a "Not Read" system, unless it worked like the previous system did.

Is that what everyone on this thread is talking about?

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[webmaster]

Just wanted to clarify that Cynthia's comments about traffic are her perception and not based on actual traffic log data.

[IndyGerdener]

What is the actual data? And the mental data from me relates not just toward traffic, but towards new users asking the same questions over and over. And quitting posting after 6 posts.

Possibly have an advanced gardener sub that is only open after 50 posts or something. Just a suggestion. I am going to be happy with this forum either way.

[webmaster]

Sticky posts are for common questions. Fishing forum is for super advanced gardeners. :p

[IndyGerdener]

Haha ok...

[Dillbert]

the orange is certainly a mystery.

fwiw, here's average messages per day over a five year average from another life where I managed in a gardening forum. things peaked in May-June

[Dillbert]

[quote="IndyGerdener"]What is the actual data? And the mental data from me relates not just toward traffic, but towards new users asking the same questions over and over. And quitting posting after 6 posts.

Possibly have an advanced gardener sub that is only open after 50 posts or something. Just a suggestion. I am going to be happy with this forum either way.[/quote]

if you weary of the same questions, you're in the wrong place.
the problem is exceedingly simple: people keep having babies.
babies don't know a whole lot. they keep asking questions.

alternately, you could be too old. if you've been around a long "on-line-time" you've seen too many one-off posts/questions and decline the repetition.
there's a reason the term "newbie" was invented.

one needs to know one's limitations. if one is here to share and participate, that's different from self-promotion / see my post count / look at my user description. my personal "on-line" post count in various venues runs to six figures. it fails to impress me, then again, I'm not here to be a "MeisterPoster"

six posts? one reason I personally do not go overboard with long detailed answers about the who-why-where-what-when is related to: post count 1 frequently there is never a post #2, so I may answer but I'm not going to get carried away unless I know the poster is participating in the conversation.

otoh, I find long multiple "sig blocks" obnoxious. can you even begin to imagine what this place would look like if everybody linked in their Facebook, PukeBook, ScamBook, LinkedInBook pages along with all their interests and things they are selling?

think about it. one line of message text, 5,10,15 lines of signature block.