Not a bug Post tracking and display order issues when viewing XF "Have you seen...?" forum

[tomdav]

Affected version

2.1

See attached screen print. When I view topics in "Have you seen...?" the topics are not bubbling up properly. Note the "Push notifications" thread has the latest reply and should bubble up to the top:



Also, when I click on some topics in this forum it does not take me to the first unread post. Instead it takes me to the first page of the thread even though there are new unread posts. There is a "Jump to new" button so obviously it knows there are new posts. It just doesn't take me to them. I don't have these issues in most threads but the "Have you seen...?" forum is particularly problematic, perhaps because most of the topics are multi-page or something else is going on? I have cleared cookies, etc. so this is not the issue. For example I just clicked on the REST API thread and it takes me to page 1. Note the "Jump to new" button. I have been noticing this problem for several months and figured it would go away but it continues to manifest.

 

[Paul B]

The threads in that forum are sorted by start date.

 

[tomdav]

Ah, ok, but still have the issue with post tracking in that forum. Not sure if related.

 

[Paul B]

We haven't had any other reports of that and I suspect there are many people watching that forum with alerts for new messages.

I suspect that as you haven't visited the threads in that forum for a while, that is why it is loading the first page with the 'jump to new' link.
That is standard functionality in all forums, regardless of how the threads are ordered (XF1 and XF2).

 

[Chris D]

As you alluded to in your other thread, this is indeed down to the read marking data.

If you have never viewed the thread before, or the thread was last viewed over 30 days (default) ago then we wouldn't know how far you have read into the thread.

When that happens, it takes you to the first post.

Note that the button you refer to says "Jump to new". Not "Jump to unread". We can't take you to the first unread post, because we don't have the read marking data anymore.

So "new" in this context is the first post which was posted within the last 30 days (30 days being the auto read-marking data lifetime).

I guess you may see it more frequently in certain forums, like the HYS forum, because you may not visit there routinely or there isn't as much activity there.

I did a number of tests, and it was only this scenario which yielded the results.

The only other thing would be if you are clicking the date-line link rather than the thread title. The date link always takes you to the first page of the thread.

 

[tomdav]

Thanks for the clarification. So basically what you're saying is post tracking is essentially worthless for threads that have been dormant for 30+ days and someone makes a new post? Then everyone basically goes back to page one? I think that's overly aggressive and drastically castrates the functionality but I'm not familiar with how xenforo tracks posts for users. I am only familiar with the post tracking I coded from scratch for the software we are in the process of converting from. When someone views a thread the last post (on the page they viewed) is saved in a table and is not cleared until the forum is marked as read. I suppose on a large forums you might need to clear that information more frequently but 30 days seems a bit short.

 

[Ozzy47]

Thanks for the clarification. So basically what you're saying is post tracking is essentially worthless for threads that have been dormant for 30+ days and someone makes a new post? Then everyone basically goes back to page one? I think that's overly aggressive and drastically castrates the functionality but I'm not familiar with how xenforo tracks posts for users. I am only familiar with the post tracking I coded from scratch for the software we are in the process of converting from. When someone views a thread the last post (on the page they viewed) is saved in a table and is not cleared until the forum is marked as read. I suppose on a large forums you might need to clear that information more frequently but 30 days seems a bit short.

You can change it on your site to whatever you wish. ACP --> Setup --> Options --> Threads, discussions and conversations change the Read marking data lifetime setting.

 

[tomdav]

Perfect thank you.

 

[Ozzy47]

Not a problem, glad to help.

 

[tomdav]

Something still doesn't make sense to me. In the admin control panel this is what it indicates regarding the setting:

This is the number of days to maintain read marking data (such as for threads and forums). Data older than this will always be seen as read.

In other words, after 30 days of dormancy the assumption is that everyone has read the thread. Therefore, If a new post is made, everyone should be taken to the first new post in the thread after 30 days. Instead it treats new posts as if the thread had never been read before. This still seems like a bug or at the very least the marking treatment is inconsistent before and after a post is made to a thread that has been dormant for more than 30 days.