Heh.

I can't say that I remember, actually -- I typically have Firefox up pretty much, uh, all the time. I'll test that today and see if it makes a difference.

--sofaspud
--

On the other hand, I hate almost all web forum software, so I'm probably not a good judge. Maybe what I consider 'sucks horribly' is what everyone else _likes_ and is working as designed.

Shalon Wood

Oh! The light dawns.

To the best of my knowledge, DCForum doesn't have fully automatic marking. You have to click "mark as read" at the top of each forum when you're finished with the topics therein (which automatically takes you back to the lobby). What logging in does is record which places you've done that in.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

No, I'm pretty sure I've done that. I've been assuming it was a Firefox 3.0 glitch from hell....like most of F3, frankly.

yours,
t.

Trigger Argee
trigger_argee@hotmail.com
Manon, Maccadon, Orado, etc.
Denton, never leave home without it.

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." - HST

Shalon Wood

Seconded.

However, I was completely unaware of (oblivious to?) the mark-as-read clicky. I'll look at that as well.

(and, I tested, and it does indeed work -if- I close Firefox. I'm not sure why this is. I suspect it's something to do with cookie-caching, perhaps, but who knows.)

--sofaspud
--

Hmm. Well, the user interaction mechanisms in DCF do work via cookies, so if anything's going wrong with cookie handling, that would tend to foul them up.

Ordinarily, at this point I'd suspect that a point-release to Firefox had dropped that incidentally messed up something in cookieland, Firefox point releases being traditionally a bit stealthy like that, but I'm using it here, and I appear to be using the current version.

Just for laughs, have you tried it with any other browser?

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I'll check back now that I've established this browser's cookies for the forums, and we'll see what happens. Quick, somebody post something! *grin*

--sofaspud
--

My test methodology:

1. Opened IE, came to the Forums, logged in. Posted the message above. Closed browser.

2. Opened IE, came to Forums. As expected, this conference was the only one showing new content. Viewed message -- hi, self! -- then navigated away to another site (an internal one, first, then to Google, then to the Drunkard's Walk forums, just to be safe)

3. Came back. This conference still showed a new message, but the only new message was the one I'd already read.

4. Closed browser, reopened, came here. All conferences gray -- no new messages.

So, in essence, identical behavior to Firefox on my system. It only works properly if I close the browser between visits.

I'm running XP Pro, if it matters. Doubtful, really, but who knows.

Still, now that I know... closing the browser is a workaround I can live with, heh.

(One question: I _still_ don't see the mark-this-as-read button/link/whatever it is. Can someone tell me what I'm missing?)

--sofaspud
--

Weird. I got nothin' at this point, I'm afraid.

>(One question: I _still_ don't see the mark-this-as-read
>button/link/whatever it is. Can someone tell me what I'm missing?)

It's one of the labeled icons in the row at the top of the page in lobby or forum view. The row that starts with Logout, FAQ, Search, etc, just above the "Conferences -> $whateverforumyou'rein" links, which are in turn just above the heavy blue stripe.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I still couldn't find it.

However, experimenting with the User Settings for my account reveals that said Mark All button is only there if you elect to use the MARK feature -- that is, if you tell the forums you want to mark stuff manually, don't remember when I showed up last, thanks.

Which explains why I wasn't seeing it, at least. Heh.

Anyway! Thanks for looking into it!

--sofaspud
--

The alternative would be to start a new visit when the time since last page update passes an arbitrary limit, or a combination of the two. The option used here has the advantage of simplicity.