Just wondering if with the gallery conversion finalising the make over, if you will be finally fixing these yellow stars in the forums.

I do not see any point in having them if we have to mark manually the threads as read, they are just a waste of resourses & make the pages load way slower then they used to.

PLEASE PLEASE fix them to function properly, or get rid of them!!!

Actually, each icon separately totals to only eight different icons. Worst case scenario, your browser is loading eight icons once each page. Most likely, your browser is cashing them and keeping the files on your side. But the icons are so small that, given the slowest dial-up modem, and the worst-case scenario of reloading them each page, they would only add a couple of seconds to your page load. As far as functionality, they will not be changing at this time. Once the conversion is finished, we will re-evaluate the load that having 1 million threads multiplied by 30,000 active forum members (30 billion reads) will put on the database server. Most likely, we will not be changing the way they work at all. N

Well as I said - what on earth is the point of having them if they are not going to function properly??????????

If your servers can't handle a properly funtioning forum such as this because of the member numbers why convert?

Plus I have never seen more than 1000 members be on at one time!

I routinely see more than 1,000 on at a time. The other day I saw 2300-something, and I'm not talking about the community side, I'm talking about the forum side. But I wasn't referring to 30,000 simultaneous users. I'm talking about 30,000 members who have been in the forums in the last few months at one time or another. And the exact number is 35,016. Just the other day it was only 33,000-something. And they do function properly, according to the way we programmed it to work. They may not function they way you believe they should, but they are functioning properly. If you click that you have read a forum, you will see all the stars change. Then if any new threads or replies appear, those threads will be marked by "new" icons. N

Nick, how many of those "35,016" are the same people returning to view new posts, and how many are actually different people?

And frankly, I'd rather not have to do anything other than click a thread to get it to switch to the "read" icon, having to manually mark all the threads in a forum read after reading them is extra time I can spend doing something else I'd rather do.

I know it's technically no big deal, but it's still annoying.

That is 35,016 UNIQUE individuals. Multiply that by the nearly 1 million threads we have. Each individual would have to have a read-date for each thread. You do the math. We may work on something but it's definitely not a priority at the moment. N

"And frankly, I'd rather not have to do anything other than click a thread to get it to switch to the "read" icon, having to manually mark all the threads in a forum read after reading them is extra time I can spend doing something else I'd rather do."

Right, well said

If they can do it in other forums with just as many members I don't see why it can't be done here. And as I have said previously ----->  "what on earth is the point of having them if they are not going to function properly??????????"

Quote - That is 35,016 UNIQUE individuals. Multiply that by the nearly 1 million threads we have. Each individual would have to have a read-date for each thread. You do the math. We may work on something but it's definitely not a priority at the moment. N

it's been done Elsewhere where that happens. but not here? makes one wonder why not. (yes. there are other places with that kind of traffic.)

As Nicholas stated we may revisit this on down the road but at this time the forums are functioning as they were designed to and our main goal right now is getting the rest of the Community converted over to PHP. Once this is done then we will start looking at any suggestions that we can implement. This might be one of them,  I don't know but at the moment this will have to stay as it is.

Thanks

thats a reply I can go with. the reply from nicholas, no. I've seen the problem solved at other sites with a comprable level of traffic in other BBS systems. so his makes no sense at all unless there are core issues preventing such a programming change to be made.

thanks for the clear reply Stacey.

How did Stacey say anyting different that I did? She, like I, said that although it might be a possibility in the future, it's nothing something we'll be working on any time soon. I said that and gave specific reasons for it. I guess I just don't understand how my reply was any less clear. But, if it was, thanks Stac for cleaing it up. N

maybe because you come over as glib and arrogant and 'I don't care' ? I know you probably don't mean to, but thats how it reads here.....

"maybe because you come over as glib and arrogant and 'I don't care' ? I know you probably don't mean to, but thats how it reads here....."

I thought so too, I found the answers very condescending, which is problably why I came across a little frustrated & for that I am sorry.

I know that sometimes its difficult to tell in "typing" conversations but Nicholas cares very much about the members of this Community and about making the site the best it can be. Some peoples typing styles make them appear to be the way you stated above.  Nicholas does a great job for us and is working hard this week as he has in previous months helping us along with the conversion.  So on Nicholas's behalf I'll tell you that I'm sure he didn't intend to come across this way, he was just stating the facts:)

yes, nic is working wonders here, and it will be a good selling point if this php software can do what PHP-Nuke does (mark thread read after the user clicks out of it). of course, PHP-Nuke may not work in other areas I'd like to see, e.g. ignore user, ignore thread, et al. but I appreciate many of the features here, like show/hide sigfile and avatar. I dunno if PHP-Nuke allows that.

Quote - As far as functionality, they will not be changing at this time. Once the conversion is finished, we will re-evaluate the load that having 1 million threads multiplied by 30,000 active forum members (30 billion reads) will put on the database server. Most likely, we will not be changing the way they work at all. N

I seem to distinctly recall being told in a couple of threads that some issues of functionality that were brought up when the forums were initially changed dover, that those issues would be re-visited and addressed once the galleries were brought over and the conversion was done.

Now it seems your saying no they won't be.

Wich way is it please?

Sincerely,

Another cusomter that hates being lied too!

P.S. I've seen over 2,000 members on at one time, but never 35,000 plus, is that a typo?

His responses didn't strike me as glib or arrogant. A little terse maybe, but I guess he's pretty busy right now, and getting shouted at in large type wouldn't generally elicit a warm and effusive reply from anyone.

;)

@ Anniebel By typing this: a.forum_threadname_link:visited, a.forum_threadname_link:active { font-size:12px; color:#FF0000; } into the "My Style" box on my "Member Options" page I've enabled my read threads to immediately turn red after I read them. That has made a tremendous difference in the forum's ease of use for me. I agree that I'd prefer not to have to type anything anywhere to do that but it's an easy fix to accomodate the fact that the universe doesn't run in accordance with my desires. Unfortunately I still haven't found what I need to type into which box to fix all the politicians out there. I'd love to make it so they turn red immediately after they've lied. [grin]

no fair, bob! they'd be permanently red as a beet!

If you don't like red you can change the color (#FF0000). Info on Hexidecimal color values is all over the web (I know you know that Miss Nancy) In my case I usually clear my browser history at the end of each day so each day I start with a clean slate the next morning.

no, bob, the politicians, not the links. the last thing we need are a lot of guys in commons or the senate with red faces 24/7. :lol: no, wait, we already have that! :lol: p.s. good tip on the link colours. try this one: a.forum_threadname_link:visited { font-size:12px; color:fuschia; } a.forum_threadname_link:active { font-size:12px; color:red; } if you'd like to differentiate between active links and visited threads.

oops, change the fuschia to fuchsia. I can never remember how to spell that. :lol:

f-u-c-h-whatever... That is one of those chick colors. I don't use it. Not that I'm a sexist or anything. In fact that's one of my mottos, "Don't be a sexist; chicks hate that!"

Bobasaur, thank you for that.

I don't know why they don't just publish that option, considering all the complaints I have seen regarding the issue.

Hmmm actually, sorry it is not much help, now the text is just a different colour.

It doesn't reset once someone replies, which is the main issue I have. For example all the threads I read yesterday are now red, so now if I go to read them I still cannot see the ones I have read.

Thanks anyway.

"oops, change the fuschia to fuchsia. I can never remember how to spell that.."

Easy -- just remember that it (the plant) was named for a German botanist called Fuchs ;)

It's never pronounced right, maybe because doing so sounds like you're saying something else.

Dahlia isn't usually pronounced right either for some reason.

by jove! they even recognise "dahlia" as a font colour! I dunno if I have seen one, but apparently they're reddish flowers.

When I've gone through a forum and finished reading everything I click "mark all read." That makes the yellow stars turn grey. At the end of the day I clear out my history so the next time I open up the site the red threads (the ones I've read) are back to their default, unread color. Everything that's changed since I finished the day before has a new yellow star. Every link I read that day turns red. Therefore between the two I can keep track of what's new and what I've read.

This thread title makes me wonder if we're goin to have pink hearts next to the thumbnails in the new gallery, and when and where they're going to implement the blue diamonds, green clover, purple horseshoes, and red balloons.

:b_grin:

Quote - When I've gone through a forum and finished reading everything I click "mark all read." That makes the yellow stars turn grey. At the end of the day I clear out my history so the next time I open up the site the red threads (the ones I've read) are back to their default, unread color. Everything that's changed since I finished the day before has a new yellow star. Every link I read that day turns red. Therefore between the two I can keep track of what's new and what I've read.

What do you mean but "clear out my history" do you mean delete cookies etc?

Not cookies. History is the list of links you've visited. It's a record within your browser so it knows where to go to when you hit the "Back" button. Different browsers have different ways of displaying it but you can usually access the list and clear it. I can tell you how on a Mac using Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer. However if you're on a PC I don't know if the software is exactly the same. I know IE is different across the two platforms and there is no PC version of Safari.

OK I have a PC & use IE, & have no idea how to clear history, didn't even know you could.

Thanks anyway.

In the menu, go to...

Tools  > Internet Options > (General tab), click on Clear History

Well duhh, I clear my cookie & temp files every few day & never noticed that at the bottom.

Thanks

You can set the number of days of browsing history you want to keep. I think it defaults to 5 but you can alter that.

The default is 20 days. My personal preference is 5.

I keep my history set at '0'...dont have to worry about dumping it that way....just extra stuff  that I dont need...having cookies and temp files is bad enough ;)

{btw, even if you set history to '0', you can still use the back button, it just closes the session out when you close your browser }