Viewing Recent Messages

[bilofsky]

Someone asked how to view recently posted messages, as the View button did on the old board.

This board does identify recent posts, but not the same way.

Messages are listed on the index page in order of the most recent post in the topic. In other words, the topic with the newest message comes first (after the Announcements and Stickies).

If you are a registered user, the board remembers the time of your last visit. This lets it show you all messages posted since then. It does this in a number of ways.

On the main page, at the right side above the forum list, is a link "View recent posts".

Also, this icon appears in front of each forum name. But if any messages have been added to that forum since your last visit, the icon will be instead.

Then in the forum, topics with new posts are flagged with this icon: . On these topic lines, clicking on the icon goes to the first new post in the topic.

It doesn't keep track of whether you've looked at a topic or not. So on your next visit the only topics flagged will again be the ones changed since you last left the board.

(A visit ends when you close your browser, stay idle for a period of time (5 minutes, I think), or log out - though we recommend staying logged in except on borrowed computers.)

- Walt

The boat with the red sails in the icons is Cathy's Realization. And on popular topics with a lot of replies, look real close - the boat (or the mooring buoy) might be rocking from all the wind!

[Bob L]

Walt, at the bottom of a topic page is a menu to let one show the most recent post first or last. I select the item to show the most recent first (so I don't have to always scroll down to see it) and the page rewrites itself appropriately. However, this selection is not remembered and I wind up always having to select it for each visit to a topic. Is this correct behavior?

Bob

[bilofsky]

It works that way for me too, so I'm going to assume it is the normal behavior.

[Warren Kaplan]

Walt,
That "view posts since last visit" function on the upper right hand corner of the first screen after logging on still seems to have a mind of its own (at least on my computer). There are times when I log on and I see the new posts logo in front of the main forum, sandbox etc...then I click on that "view posts...."button, and 4 or 5 new posts pop up. Other times....well...take this morning. I'm logged in automatically. Haven't been on since last night. New post logos in front of a main forum and about this board lines. I clicked on the "view posts since last visit button and I got "no topics meet your criteria" screen. Then, when going back to the original screen, all the new post logos have been replaced with the "mooring" logo indicating no new posts. Don't quite understand it. Perhaps the "view posts" button is bipolar in nature. Sometimes up. Other times down.
Its not the end of the world but the function is nice when it works because I don't have to scroll through the topics looking for new posts (even though they are brought to the top of the list).

Thanks.

[bilofsky]

Warren, thanks for the report. I am making a list of things to look at, for when I have time to dive back into the board code. Until then, please live with it. And if you have any more insights into what's going on with it, please let me know.

- Walt

[Warren Kaplan]

Walt,
This problem should be way down on your priority list. It doesn't stop me from doing or seeing anything on the board. Its just an annoyannce or inconvenience. So please don't lose any sleep of this. I'm not!!

[Warren Kaplan]

Good Morning Walt,

I don't know if you tweeked the code or not last night, but so far this morning I clicked on "view posts since last visit" twice and its worked fine both times. Things are lookin' up!


Thanks!

[Warren Kaplan]

Walt,
I apologize profusely if this has already been covered but I couldn't find the answer scouring the board for it.

I use the WWWstyle, which as you know lists all the posts in a topic by date. Let's take a topic with let's say 10 posts in it. If I click on any specific post, let's say the 8th one this time, the next screen takes me right to the top post and I have to scroll thru all the previous posts in the topic to get to 8th post which I want to read. In other words it seems that it doesn't make a difference what post in a topic you click on, it takes you to the very first post no matter what.
First, is that the way it normally works?
Second, is there any setting I can use so that when I click on one specific post out of a list of very many, that specific post comes up on the screen?
I don't care if the others are there too, above and below the post that I'm interested in. I just don't like having to scroll down to every post I want to look at.

Thanks...and again I'm sorry if you already covered this.

[John R.]

Warren,

FWIW, I use WWW style and have had mixed results like you mention. Sometimes it will take me directly to the post I click on and other times it leaves me at the top of the list just like you describe. I am clueless as to why this happens but I know they have tried addressing this in the recent past. For a period I was having consistent results with it taking me right to the post I clicked on but recently it has been mixed. Maybe something in the registration settings are causing it.

[bilofsky]

It is supposed to take you directly to the post.

If you can give me a specific example, and tell me what browser you're using, I will take a look.

Sometimes the browser isn't able to accomplish precise positioning due to the complicated formatting on the page. But in those cases it usually gets you close, not at the top of the page.

Are you using dialup? If the whole page takes a while to load, it may first show you the beginning of the page. Then when it has loaded the rest of the page it will reposition at your message - unless, of course, you have taken the wheel and started looking for the post on your own.

I have found that if I hit Back and then Forward on the browser, sometimes it will wind up at the right place. Not that you should need to do this, but if it works it means the problem is in the limitations of the browser or the download, and not in my code.

- Walt

[Warren Kaplan]

Walt,
I use two different computers. One is a cable modem service and the other is dial up (at work). I use AOL on both. I think I'm having most of my difficulty on the dial up service.
Just now I'm home and clicking on the specific post did in fact bring me to it. That's via cable modem and AOL. This morning when I wrote the post asking about all this I was at work on the dial up. I never considered that before so let me check it out for a few days and see if the problem is only with the dial up.

Thanks.

[John R.]

I'm using dial up and Netscape 7.2

I'm not sure what is going on but I will try your idea such as the back and forward sequence. My ISP is Earthlink and it has been a very good service and not boggy. I'll try and keep a closer tab on the details and let you know what I notice.

[bilofsky]

You could try waiting until the progress bar on the bottom of your browser goes away, and it says "Done" in the lower left corner.

At that point - if it is indeed waiting for the page to complete - you should be positioned at the proper message. If not, please tell me what you clicked on and I'll see if it happens for me.

If it takes more than a second or two to download a page, it might be interesting to check if your system can accept GZip compression. To check this, go to http://www.toolworks.com/cgi-bin/gzinfo.cgi and see if it says that compression is or is not enabled.

This message board normally compresses the pages, giving a speed advantage of 7 to 10 times in downloading a page. If you have a firewall installed, it can block the compression. On a dialup line you will notice the difference.

[John R]

Walt,

The problem is very intermittent and then sometimes very consistent. Last night (1/17) it was basically going to each clicked on post correctly but today it is not going to any of the clicked on posts on the Main forum but it is going to the clicked on posts in this forum. I checked the browser for Gzip compression and it is okay. Also, it makes no difference regarding the page loading process timing. I tried it both ways and there was no difference whether the page was fully loaded or if it was in the mid process of loading. I've got Symantecs firewall and it also makes no difference whether the firewall is enabled or disabled. Any post I click on in a thread today on the Main forum only takes me to the primary topic post at the top of the page. I have to scroll down to locate the post I actually clicked on. Don't know if any of this info helps you.

[bilofsky]

Well, I will try to use Netscape for a while and see if it makes any difference.

Have you tried using a different browser - IE or Firefox, perhaps?

Norton Personal Firewall will disable gzip compression. You won't see any difference, except for the download speed. If you're interested, you might try turning it off while on dialup and see if the speed improves.

- Walt