"new answers" problems

Lately it seems that most of the time when I click the "new answers"

link in any forum, it tells me that there has been no new activity

since my last visit, which it reports as having the same date and

time as my current visit.

 

I have tried to isolate it to anything I might be doing, such as

looking at a picture of the week, or some other traffic, before

looking at a "new answers" listing, and it still happens. I can go

directly there (go to photo.net, click on all forums, select a forum,

then click "new answers"), and it still happens.

 

So, I assume it's not anything I'm doing.

 

It used to work OK.

 

Maybe it might be better to just have the "new anwswers" pages show

all recent traffic in reverse order, rather than trying to figure out

when a member had last visited it?

 

As it is now, I have no way of finding out which threads have had any

new traffic, other than by trying to guess.

I think it actually works by looking at the date of your second to last visit, and it figures that out from when you login and logout. If you don't logout every time and check the box that keeps a cookie on your machine so you don't need to keep logging in, you should find that you'll get a long list of "new answers" after a while.

I never log out.

 

A week ago, maybe, I found myself logged out, but I hadn't logged myself out, but I saw other people mentioning server problems at that time, so I figured I got caught in a glitch.

 

After I got myself logged back in, the problem persisted.

 

I think there was one time in the past few weeks that I was able to see any substantial number of new replies.

 

Strangely, sometimes it seems I can see (very) recent new replies, maybe within an hour or so. But if I don't check for a day or so, and then check back, it says there are no new replies since my last visit, and the timestamp it shows for my "last" visit is my current visit.

 

I may have used the term "log in" in the generic sense, meaning visiting the website. As far as the cookie is concerned, I never offically log out.

I think the old Greenspun fora showed everything in reverse order, rather than trying to divine a last visit date. Would there be a way to set that scheme up as a default on a per-user basis (such as "show all replies in reverse order when viewing 'questions with answers'")?

 

That would be nice.

I just went to "film and processing", and saw eleven threads listed.

 

But, this morning, it showed none, and if I don't check back for a day or so, then go look, it will also show none.

 

If I keep checking during the day, it will show me replies, but if I'm gone for a day or more, it gets confused.

It's still doing it.

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I was gone for a long time, I check, and it says no new answers since my last visit, with a timestamp showing me that it's calculating from my <i>current</i> visit.

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In other words, there are no new posts since "now".

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If I stick around, and keep checking every hour or so, it'll show me the ones that show up. But if I leave, and come back tomorrow, it goes nuts and tells me that my last visit is my current visit.

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I can't believe I'm the only one experiencing this. Not unless everyone else is spending all their time here, never giving it time to reach that magic interval at which it goes nuts. Or, maybe I'm the only one using the "new answers" feature?

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All I know is that it <i>was</I> working, and then some time a month or two ago, it <i>stopped</I> working right. I think someone was tinkering with the code and broke something.

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And I still think the easiest/best solution would be to simply not bother trying to guess at a "last visit". It's obvious that the server cannot accurately divine the actual "last visit" when it occurs more than a few hours ago.

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Ironically, it seems that non-members don't have this problem. They <i>always</I> see the entire "new answers" list in reverse order.

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Why can't <i>members</I> see that same list?

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Please, whoever is Custodian of the Code, turn off the "feature" that tries to track member usage. It's broken!