OK, rather than revive this thread or that thread, I'm starting a new one.

I've been keeping my eye on the issue, and I've seen it many times now.

Someone posts to a thread I had read completely in the past (= some weeks ago). I click on the "read first unread" button, and instead of going to the new post, I am taken to the *first* post. I then have to try to guess where the new post really is. The orange "unread post" markers help. But if the thread is long and has had some activity since I've last been there, I'm in danger of overshooting the mark.

Is there anything that can be done to stop this?

Fred

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"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

As I've come to understand the problem, it seems like vBulletin has two settings for remembering which post was the Last Read, it can save it in a cookie or in the database.
If saved in the database, it works as we cane to love it in the past, ie. it worked. Unfortunately it takes up space in the board, with 61,520 threads and 30,598 members, we're talking up to 1,882,388,960 records to keep track of that info.
If saved in a cookie, the information expires after a while, but it doesn't fill the database, since it's stored on the client.

As I understand it we have the latter option running at the moment.

Note that I'm not an admin and don't have access to the guts of the system so this may be wrong, and we might have the first situation but with automatic expiration in the database. If so, I think the expiration time is set irritatingly low

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"God bless thee, my son; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have ...
"The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible."Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

I wonder what language vBulleten is written in. If it is .php or perl. for example, one might be able to search the code for where the cookie expiration time is set, and change it to, say, a year.

Todd

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

Well, Henrik, your explanation at least makes sense. If it is a cookie, I would like to have the time limit bumped up some.

Fred

__________________
"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

I think it's got to be some sort of automatic expiration in the database because my read/unreads match up between my office computer and my home computer. But it does seem that the expiration needs to be stretched out more.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

I'll take a look through the options and see if I can find the setting for this.

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Fraser Cain
Publisher
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Hey, Fraser, did you find anything?

I have another data point. The "Banned Posters" thread is one that I visit whenever there's an addition. The most recent post was today (2/25), the post before it was 20 days ago (2/5). So, now I know that if it's been about three weeks or more since my last visit, I'll wind up on the first post when I click on "go to first new post."

Fred

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"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

I tried it and wound up at the first unread post, just like I should have.

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson