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Checking new posts on VMB

Discussion in 'Admin. Announcements' started by Jimbo338, Aug 20, 2013.

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  1. Jimbo338

    Jimbo338 VIP Whale

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    I tried to post this in "Administration" but couldn't so I'm posting it here.

    I try to check in to read new posts several times a day when I have time so that when I come on there aren't 789 new posts to scan. When done it resets. However, more and more it reset on me before I've read or scanned over them all. Normally, I scan til I find a thread that I am following, or, just seems interesting. Most often I push the back arrow to the new posts and continue. Sometimes I post a reply or comments and then back arrow, or just see the new posts and pres the back arrow to continue and the board has reset so there might be 315 new posts like today, I scan the first page, write a comment, post it, and then go back and the program has reset and there are 29 new posts listed and I have lost the rest of the 315 original ones (the other 4 pages of posts). I know I can bo back and look for all the threads one at a time for those marked "Today" but that just isn't worth the trouble. Is there some way to eliminate the problem. I figure there must be some little thing that I am unaware of and not doing since I seem to be the only one having this problem.

    Jimbo338
     
  2. shifter

    shifter Degenerate Gambler

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    yeah happens here also. the session times out while you're reading and then you refresh and it starts a new session and bases the "new" posts on those that are new since your last visit a few minutes before.

    ideally the session lifetime would be longer than 15-30 minutes so that wouldn't happen. a session lifetime of like an hour or 2 at least, would be nice.

    what I do is go back to the home page, mark all forums as read, click new posts and then it gives you the link to view all posts in the last day and I click on that. but that sucks because then you don't have the nifty link next to each thread to go directly to the first unread post.
     
  3. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Oh, I wondered why that happened. Sometimes I open VMB then get distracted come back and instead of 200+ posts, it has reset. Good info!
     
  4. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    Personally I open each link I want to read from new posts in a new tab, that way I have browser through the search results quickly. Swapping between pages on the search results should extend the timeout as well - I'm not sure how reliable that is though.
     
  5. nostresshere

    nostresshere Mr. Anti Debit Card

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    Same... I right click to open each post I want to read in a new tab.

    Not too sure about the whole thing about hundreds of new posts though.
     
  6. shifter

    shifter Degenerate Gambler

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    yes any activity will keep the session from timing out, the issue is when you get a phone call or something and come back 30 min later and the counter has reset. I often stumble on old threads that that are resurrected months later and I realize I never saw them originally because of this.
     
  7. USCHawks

    USCHawks High-Roller

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    I do the same thing as all of you, opening multiple tabs. I wish it were set up like some other message boards where the threads would still show as new and you could go to the last post you read in that thread if you haven't read them yet, even if you have logged off and nothing else has been posted.
     
  8. VPDana

    VPDana High-Roller

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    I've been grumbling to myself about this problem for a long time too. Nice to know I'm not alone. I don't quite understand about opening tabs to prevent this problem, but I will try to figure it out.
     
  9. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    This has been something we've had trouble with off and on. I do the right-click thing so I don't notice it.

    Shifter gave some good info on where I can look for the fix. :nworthy: I'll get to work on this and see if we can't get it working better for everyone.
     
  10. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

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    I am a right-clicker, too. But when I see the number of new posts over a few hundred, I just go to Quick Links ---> Today's Posts and catch up that way.
     
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
  11. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    Presumably you already know about vBulletin.org - it's the official support forum for vBulletin.

    There is another really good one but the name evades me at the moment...
     
  12. kingcrim05

    kingcrim05 Tourist

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    For all you right click -> Open new tab people, try just clicking on the link with the scroll wheel on your mouse. Should accomplish the same thing for you.

    Also, where is the "Go to the last unread post in this thread" button that others are talking about? I've never been able to find it.
     
  13. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    On the new posts page: there is a green icon with a down arrow to the left of the thread title. Click this.
     
  14. shifter

    shifter Degenerate Gambler

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    If you have a dedicated server, you can just have someone edit the php.ini file and modify the session.gc_maxlifetime to something like 7200. if not, you can have someone add this to the header file: ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime', 7200);
     
  15. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    I increased it to 5400 from 1800 and hope that will help you guys with that problem. (That's 90 minutes)
     
  16. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    If this is on a shared hosting plan I'd be surprised, but if it is you should check with the hosting provider that it is within your SLA to quadruple the overhead on PHP's garbage collection. On a busy site (500,000 page impressions a month plus) it can be quite a load increase.
     
  17. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    No, I can't run this board on standard, shared hosting. I let them know about the change and I haven't heard back that there has been any problems with the server load.

    Please let me know if you still have the problem of the "New Posts" resetting on you. Now that it's set for 90minutes, it shouldn't be a problem.
     
  18. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    It won't be an issue on a dedicated server.
     
  19. shifter

    shifter Degenerate Gambler

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    The server load isn't an issue but you do need to make sure there's enough space on the drive the sessions are stored on for the increased number of active sessions. Otherwise it will fill up and new sessions won't be able to be written and you'll get all kinds of errors. Oftentimes the tmp dir is on its own partition and it can be small. I've had that happen before and it can be very hard to debug.
     
  20. wigwam_salesman

    wigwam_salesman VIP Whale

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    That's not quite right, it's not a very interesting discussion though...it is something we consider in technical specifications on large Enterprise websites but it's not likely to grind anything to a halt any time soon.

    Saying that, this may all be moot. The consensus among vBulletin people seems to be to use the database to maintain the new posts and adjust this setting:

    AdminCP -> Settings -> Options -> General Settings -> Thread/Forum Read Marking Type

    I have only spent a few minutes on this though and it has been a few years since I did any vB admin.
     
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