Is there a change in the way the "last visit" is logged?

[Capt. Factorial]

For the past few years (at least) the behavior of "you last visited" on the KF site has been pretty consistent - it has apparently ignored any page loads that happened within about 30 minutes of the most recently logged visit. Meaning if I refreshed the main forum page every 31 minutes (for example) the only threads that would be noted as having new posts would actually contain posts I hadn't seen.

The past few days, it seems that the threshold has gone up to maybe two hours, resulting in a lot of already viewed posts being marked as new. Has something changed in the site software? I didn't find any preferences to change this on my user profile.

 

[kennadog]

I've noticed that as well. It's sort of bugs me to go check and see if there are actually new posts that I haven't already read. And it shows new posts, even if I deliberately double-click on the category.

 

[uolj]

I don't know if it helps, but my forum surfing habits on all vBulletin forums includes clicking "Mark Forums Read" as the last thing I do.

Since after some time limit of inactivity (I don't know what it is, it could be 30 minutes) all threads are marked as read anyway, I just click that link before I leave. Maybe adding that habit could solve your problem short of a forum fix.

I think I recall seeing the problem you describe many years ago, but I haven't since I started marking the forums as read when I leave.


On a side note, the way marking posts and threads as read works in vBulletin is horrible. SMF is much better at solving that problem.

 

[Revrag]

I was messing around with that setting on draft lottery day to try and reduce the load on the server. I had it turned down to 5 minutes for awhile that day (the less users it has to keep track of the less load on the server). Afterword I set it "back" to 1 hour because I thought that's what it was set at before. I just changed it to 30 minutes but I'm open to other suggestions.

 

[uolj]

I was messing around with that setting on draft lottery day to try and reduce the load on the server. I had it turned down to 5 minutes for awhile that day (the less users it has to keep track of the less load on the server). Afterword I set it "back" to 1 hour because I thought that's what it was set at before. I just changed it to 30 minutes but I'm open to other suggestions.

What does that setting do exactly?

 

[Revrag]

From the admin panel:

This is the time in seconds that a user must remain inactive before their login session expires. This setting also controls how long a user will remain on Who's Online after their last activity.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I was messing around with that setting on draft lottery day to try and reduce the load on the server. I had it turned down to 5 minutes for awhile that day (the less users it has to keep track of the less load on the server). Afterword I set it "back" to 1 hour because I thought that's what it was set at before. I just changed it to 30 minutes but I'm open to other suggestions.

Thanks! In the past I've thought 30 minutes worked well. When it gets longer you can get the problem I described if you check too often. If it gets too short (like 5 minutes), you might "miss" posts if you don't read through the new ones fast enough, or stop to write a response that is kind of long. But I would probably lean towards smaller values in general.

 

[uolj]

From the admin panel:

I see, thanks.

I agree 30 minutes sounds good.

When it gets shorter I often get the problem of typing up a long post (or stepping away from the computer for some reason) and then all of a sudden all the posts are marked as read, so I would lean towards longer values in general. But I also don't want unnecessary strain on the server.

 

[Warhawk]

I don't know if it helps, but my forum surfing habits on all vBulletin forums includes clicking "Mark Forums Read" as the last thing I do.

Agreed, I always do that after opening the threads to read. While I may miss an occasional post, it usually works well.