Forum "new posts" Topic is solved

[Lucio Chiappetti]

I use to read phpBB forums from the "new posts" page (which I periodically refresh either via browser Reload button or forum "new posts" link when provided).
I noticed that the amount of new posts (i..e how back it goes) is forum-dependent.

In particular for the Pale Moon forum it looks like that (after the server move ?) this backward-time is quite long (about two days) ... seems longer than it used to be.

[Mæstro]

I do not regularly use the new posts page, but happened to check it shortly before we migrated. It looks the same to me before and after.

[Gemmaugr]

I occasionally use New Posts, and visit this forum every day. There is indeed a difference since the switch, with before only having a few threads and after having many. Not that it's an issue, just a change.

[Moonchild]

Funnily enough, I didn't make any particular change for that; I did look through the settings for search for exactly that reason but didn't find a control for that length (it was too short, IMHO) but if it's now longer (which it seems to be) then that is actually more desirable. "New posts" should be the last few days.

[THX-1139]

Similar to other Forums where if you post on any of the threads it will "bump" that thread....so like if I posted 1 reply to each of the current threads in "New Posts", that would keep the current "New Posts" up for another so many days. Dare I?

[Moonchild]

There is a threshold for when topics get "bumped", to prevent exactly this kind of "keep my preferred topics at the top for everyone".
Please only post if you have something to contribute, or if it's actually been a considerable time and it does need attention from the community (e.g. a question that wasn't answered by anyone). Posting just for the bump otherwise is not really something I want to see too much of.

[Lucio Chiappetti]

There is indeed a difference since the switch, with before only having a few threads and after having many. Not that it's an issue, just a change.

Yes ... I compare three phpBB forums I frequent. One (low traffic) shows 1 new post, older today 08:59. One (frequent traffic) shows 9 new posts, older yesterday 22:34. Pale Moon (intermediate traffic) shows 22 posts, older March 17 00:52. This seems quite more than it used to be before (in the past I used occasionally "Active topics" to go back beyond "expired nw posts"). Yes, it's not a bug but a feature, slightly unpleasant though ... but if there is no control I'll live with it.

BTW "Active topics" has a control (down arrow in the bottom left) to select the depth in days. "New posts" hasn't.

BTW, further edit. I tried to logout from the forum and log in again (which is something I never do; I usually use Session Manager to restore the previous session and that usually does not require a login, excpet in case of crashes). Apparently that did a reset new posts to just one (I had to recover this thread from "active topics"). BTW I have the forum in Cookies Exterminator whitelist (and otherwise delete cookies at browser exit). Maybe it was the survival of some cookies across the server change ? Let's how it behaves in the next days.

[THX-1139]

There is a threshold for when topics get "bumped", to prevent exactly this kind of "keep my preferred topics at the top for everyone".
Please only post if you have something to contribute, or if it's actually been a considerable time and it does need attention from the community (e.g. a question that wasn't answered by anyone). Posting just for the bump otherwise is not really something I want to see too much of.

I agree, I was just trying to give a basic example of why a thread can persist for so long.
and I haven't seen an actual "Bump" posted in a thread since sometime in the 90's.

[BenFenner]

I don't have much to say other than "New Posts" is my life blood on any forum. On some forums I'm using it hundreds of times an hour. And the behavior of such can make a forum a pleasure to use, or a bear. This forum in particular has never been a great experience in this regard. Mainly because of how "smart" or "dynamic" it is by not showing the same list to all users and customizing the list based on if a user has "read" all of the new posts in a thread or not. (Which is doubly insane considering the existence of the even worse "Unread Posts" feature.) It's also super-annoying that it is not available to users who are not logged in. I am often not logged in on my tablets, for example, but still want to, you know, see new posts... Also the length of time it is willing to go back is also less than ideal (too short). It seems now that maybe something has caused things to improve there, but I suspect it will go back to its normal ways once the cache catches up and it knows which threads you've read already.


(The forum software I wrote myself has the following behavior for this feature... It grabs the threads with the most recent posts from the prior week. If that is more than 100 threads then it presents them. If it is below 100 threads then it keeps going back a week at a time until it grabs the most recent 100+ threads with new posts and presents them. So you always get at least 100 threads and always at least a week's worth of threads. Of course it doesn't show threads to users that don't have permissions to see them, but in general it shows the same thing to all users and doesn't try to be obnoxiously "smart" about hiding threads that have already been "read" or other nonsense. It is a dream to use, and gives a perfectly clear view of what is going on across the entire forum, at all times, to all users, and all visitors/guests alike.)

[Lucio Chiappetti]

It's also super-annoying that it is not available to users who are not logged in.

I think it is unavoidable. "new posts" are new for each specific user (new since "last visit" whichever defined) and so are user-dependent. The forum software needs to know the user! Hence ther user has to be logged in.

You can use "active topics" if not logged in.
Personally I tend to remain logged in "forever".

[BenFenner]

The New Posts feature regressed to its previously poor behavior (as expected) for me early on today.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

[Lucio Chiappetti]

Not sure if it regressed, and whether what looks poor to you is desirable for me. Current "New Posts" for me starts at 01:14 today. Fine for me !

But I cannot tell whether it is due to a change in the forum or to an accident in my behaviour (as I said I never logout explicitly from forums, but usually close the browser before swiytching off the computer ... yesterday I forgot so I restored crashed session)

[Moonchild]

OK I figured out what the issue is.

The "new posts" choice will show new posts since your last visit, not a fixed duration. The "last visit" gets updated periodically in a cron job, which might happen during a single session when you are idle long enough on the forum.
This temporarily was extended because the cron maintenance was not running to update user data in the db properly, so it would show more. Since I fixed the cron job (as it's essential for e.g. notification e-mails) the behaviour reverted to the short duration purely since what was recorded as the "last visit".

I'll see if I can edit the function to show the posts since the last visit + a few days extension, to get the best of both worlds.

[Lucio Chiappetti]

There is already "active topics" in the "quick links" which allows the user to select how many days to go back.
Personally I am (rather) happy with the current crontab behaviour (which also explain why other foruyms have even shorter times)

[BenFenner]

There is already "active topics" in the "quick links" which allows the user to select how many days to go back.

Very interesting!

I'm quite happy with the behavior of this one. And I expect it will work for those of us who are logged out as well.

I almost wonder if it is worth surfacing it to the header...