View Full Version : Your Timeouts Drive Me NUTS
chuck&gail
06-10-2013, 08:26 PM
Haven't been on in a few days. Logged in and saw there were ELEVEN PAGES of "NEW POSTS". Ok, I expected that, I started looking. I am on dialup, and the forum timed out on me. When I again log in, because your timeout kicked me off, hitting "NEW POSTS" gave me only four posts. Not four pages, just four posts.
How can I contribute if I can't read the "new" posts?
I seem to get this problem quite a lot. Is there a work around, or can you fix your software? RV.NET never gives this problem.
Thanks,
Chuck
JRTJH
06-10-2013, 09:00 PM
I'm not aware of any timeout settings on the forum. There have been times when I got called away from the computer and didn't get back for an hour or more and have never timed out.
Possibly your internet connection is the culprit? or possibly if when you sign on if you check the box "keep me signed in" ???
I'm shooting in the dark on those two possibilities, I really don't have anything to point to that you can do to fix the issue. We enjoy your comments and hope you can get it resolved.
I will send an email to the administrator, he may know a trick I'm not aware of :)
Courtland
06-10-2013, 09:58 PM
Chuck,
In all honesty I have never heard of this complaint before. The default timeout for the vBulletin software is set to 900 seconds or 15 minutes and this has never been changed since the forum started. The explanation for this setting is "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." From reading this it appears that the setting will logoff the user after 15 minutes of inactivity on the forum and then force them to login again. I know most users check the box "Remember me" and therefore don't have to login after being timed out.
Are you having to login again after being timed out after 15 minutes in inactivity or are you being disconnected from the forum itself?
I think 15 minutes is a pretty standard setting, but I have bumped it up to 20 minutes before a user is timed out. I prefer not to change to a higher setting as this does affect other operations of the forum itself.
Courtland
I don't think Chuck is specifically talking about his session timing out - and having to log back in....
But instead he is referring to the method in which the forum keeps track of which particular threads he has opened, and which threads he has not opened.
If he is gone for say 1 hour, the forum is assuming he has read ALL of those threads, and they are marked as read... Hitting "new posts" reveals nothing (or very few) despite the fact that he as not read all of them.
I experience this and find this very frustrating as well. It is not browser specific. It is somewhere in the way the vBulletin tracks what the end user has done.
I visit other vBulletin forums that do not exhibit this behavior. I have not checked to vBulletin version (in the footer) to see if it differs from this one.
Ok... I went and asked the admin at one of the other forums that does not exhibit this behavior... Here is the question I asked and the response:
What version is this? It doesn't say so in the footer like other forums I visit does...
Another vBulletin forum I visit (3.8.5) doesn't do a good job of keeping track of which threads users have read and which ones they have not.
Using the "new posts" link, it will show you a lot of threads.... Dont open them, but go away for an hour... Hit "new posts" again and it will say none or only a few... It assumes all of them are read.
Is this something specific to the vBulletin version? Or is it some sort of setting? Or something you've just fixed on your own since JUOT works as I expect it to, and this other forum does not.
Posted on JUOT.net: http://www.juot.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1616725#post1616725#ixzz2Vu3wEvky
This is version 3.8.7 but the issue you refer to is likely due to an Admin setting.
In the Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> General Settings -> Thread/Forum Read Marking Type
They probably have the default "Inactivity/Cookie Based" which depends on cookies to determine what you have read or not.
We use the more robust, but somewhat more server intensive, "Database (automatic forum marking)" which stores what threads/posts have been read in the database.
Posted on JUOT.net: http://www.juot.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1616725#post1616725#ixzz2Vu42MfHn
Courtland
06-11-2013, 05:58 AM
Mike, thank you very much for finding out this information for me, it sure makes my life easier when I have users like you to help explain what is occuring and then how to fix it. I have made the change to the Thread/Forum Read Marking Type to "Database (automatic forum marking)" and hopefully this resolves the issue for you and everyone else.
Courtland
hankaye
06-11-2013, 06:14 PM
Cortland, Howdy;
Whatever you did it did something.
Now all the threads for the past week or more (10 days show as UN read
each and every time I've logged on today. Instead of a list of 1,2, or at times 6 or7 New posts to read I see a list that drops to almost the bottom of each and every thread, time and time again. read them all. Log off... log on ...
they all read un read again :banghead:, :banghead:, :banghead:
Sorry, It's been over 100 degrees here for the past 3 or 4 days and the computer doesn't like to work in the heat. So, my time becomes limited and
don't feel like re-reading everything each time I log back on...
hankaye
Cortland, Howdy;
Whatever you did it did something.
Now all the threads for the past week or more (10 days show as UN read
each and every time I've logged on today. Instead of a list of 1,2, or at times 6 or7 New posts to read I see a list that drops to almost the bottom of each and every thread, time and time again. read them all. Log off... log on ...
they all read un read again :banghead:, :banghead:, :banghead:
Sorry, It's been over 100 degrees here for the past 3 or 4 days and the computer doesn't like to work in the heat. So, my time becomes limited and
don't feel like re-reading everything each time I log back on...
hankaye
Interesting. As of now, it's working perfectly as expected for me... Might be worthwhile for you to navigate to the very top level of the forum and use the "quick links" menu and "mark all forums read" to reset it...
I did thus... And then manually logged out... Logged back in and hit "new posts" and it did not do what you describe.
hankpage
06-11-2013, 06:28 PM
Hank, when you are done for the day, go to the top of the page and click on "QUICK LINKS" then select "MARK FORUMS READ" . The next time you come on and click "NEW POSTS" only the ones since you left will show. I do this on all the forums that I read. Try and find some shade and have a cool one and see if this makes your day easier. Keep cool, Hank
http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=251&pictureid=1157
I have to start typing faster so Mike doesn't beat me all the time. :D
hankaye
06-12-2013, 07:15 AM
Hank, Howdy;
Don't understand the need to 'do other things' in order to accomplish
what was done before.
I belong to several other ph boards forums ... this is the only one
that has a timeout feature for idleness with so short a time. I've had
to log back in for taking to long to write a response to a post. Apparently,
typing doesn't register as activity ...
This is also the only forum that I now, or so it appears, have to do extra
things to clear the board so I'll know what is new and what has been previously read...
It's already up to 85*F, think me and Rascal will go find a shade tree (mesquite bush 4
or 5 foot in height), and kick the scorpion that lives there out for the day.
hankaye
I'm not sure I follow your beef....
1) if you click "remember me", you will never be asked to log in regardless of how much time you take to type out your response. You will always be considered "authenticated".
2) did you do like I mentioned and "mark all read"? You should not have to do that every time. Just do it one time to "reset" what you have read, and you should be good.
I did this and visit the forum on several different devices (all set to "remember me"), and for the first time since I have joined this forum, the "new posts" link is actually representative of new posts...
Up to this point, the forum has been behaving incorrectly based upon your actual behavior. I used to think it had a LOT less traffic than it actually does.... I'm finally seeing traffic that I would have missed otherwise.
I'm confident that it is behaving as designed. Kumputers is whut I do. ;)
Hank, Howdy;
Don't understand the need to 'do other things' in order to accomplish
what was done before.
I belong to several other ph boards forums ... this is the only one
that has a timeout feature for idleness with so short a time. I've had
to log back in for taking to long to write a response to a post. Apparently,
typing doesn't register as activity ...
This is also the only forum that I now, or so it appears, have to do extra
things to clear the board so I'll know what is new and what has been previously read...
It's already up to 85*F, think me and Rascal will go find a shade tree (mesquite bush 4
or 5 foot in height), and kick the scorpion that lives there out for the day.
hankaye
I think something happened yesterday. I check the forum everyday on my android tablet. It's set to remember me so I do not log in each time. Yesterday afternoon when I dropped by the page and selected "new posts", there were 14 pages!!!!! I did not take the time to read all 14 pages of new posts and just hit "mark forums read" as I do everyday. Most everyday I see about 3 pages of new posts, but 14?!?!
Forum Admin made a change --- he posted about it higher in this thread. Before, new posts would time out, now, must read them or mark them read.
hankaye
06-12-2013, 08:43 PM
Hank , Howdy;
Took your advise and marked all as read. logged out and waited till now to
log back in. Didn't go to the just the new ones as I sometimes like to re-read
an older post while I'm browsing. Appears, after checking a few threads in the General Forum to be working.....
Maybe like Mom always used to tell me; "You aren't holding your mouth right."
:rolleyes:.
hankaye (aka 'The Other hank')
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