Am I the only one that struggles with this ... the Board is ditching the UNREAD post flags very quickly

I read one post and then all the flags are gone

Nope its not just you Colyn sometimes I see 4 or five unread post flags then I go and read one of them come back to look at the others and the flags are gone.

The only way to get around this is to use tabbed browing. The newer browesers like IE 7 and Firefox supports this feature.

Load the forum page. The right click on each unread thread and select from the popup menu - open in new tab. Repeat this on each unread thread until a tab has been opened for each and then simply click on each tab to read the post - when done reading close the tabs until only the main forum page remains.

It is a problem with the software and will enquire from the forum of forums for possible solutions.

I normally first check where there are unread flags and then I start to read one by one going on memory, but I have missed one or two on occasion and discovered it at a later stage.

Wayne I am using tabbed browsing.

As long as you don't close or refresh the main page from which you are launching the tabs you should not have problems but as soon as your main page refresh you will loose al the read indicators.

The are three main methods that developers use to calculate which posts was read and which was not read by the reader, this problem that you are experiencing is because they have not covered all the angels.

1. They can save a cookie (file) to your pc containing a read indicator for every thread from the forum but this is not practical as there a size limit on the cookie file and the size of the forum is unlimited, so sooner or later this will no longer work.

2. The second method captures the date and time of your last login, this is then stored in a cookie (file) to your pc. This would then enable them to show the new posts since your last login but when you are using autologin this becomes tricky as everytime you request a page the system will log you in thereby chang your last login date time...That is why unread posts are only visible until you have requested another page. The system has no way to know whether you are loged in or not...If you dont use Autologin the developers usualy place a time limit on how long your login will last...so they assume you are logged in although you might not be.

3. The third method is simular to 1 and 2 but instead of saving the files on the clients pc by means of cookies, the server stores it on its own resources either memmory or hard drive but due to the cost implications of the hardware with this most companies do not follow this method.

Remember that the server out on the internet has no idea on whether the client which is the web browser is still active or not. The Server only receives a request and then provides a page, it has no connection to your browser after serving the page...actually it is even worse..If you where to request lots of data and images and close your browser or click the cross sign after clicking the request link, the server will be processing and sending the information to your browser even if you are no longer looking at the site because it knows no better.

The problem here is this ...

1. Arrive on Mainpage and see a number of new posts.
2. Read one post.
3. Return to main page and all indicators are gone.

This is a phpBB Board quirk and the user can do nothing about it.

I am seeing lots of errors today ...

Code:

Server Error The following error occurred: [code=CANT_CONNECT] Could not connect because of networking problems. Contact your system administrator.

The main logo on the top is now gone for me ... happened yesterday some time and I cannot get it to show again.

The crazy NEW POSTS thinghy is making it really hard to monitor the forum properly. Last night I stumbled onto posts that was done days ago and I never saw them.

It is as easy as to look at the dates on the main page, see at what time and what date new postings were made and go to that page!
Or am I missing something here?

I believe the problem about flags at unread posts have been rectified?

Another handy way to see unread posts is to click on "Today's active posts" at the bottom of the Index page or "View posts since last visit" at the top of the Index page.

Alternatively you can access the two above options from any page by clicking on "actions" at the top and choose the option from the drop down list. I use this often.

TAB TAB TAB BROWSING