Re ......... "You have unread front page forum posts."

Arh .... err .... where is it??

Fastest way to access new Front Page posts is via the Recent Forum Activity list on the right hand side of the forum pages.

Currently it says: "Front Page: Matt Laube here"

In my experience (using Firefox) the "You have unread front page forum posts." flag sometimes doesn't extinguish until I attempt to reply to the latest Front Page post.

Recent Forum Activity

Front Page: Matt Laube here.

click on "here"

If it still shows, click on: https://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?t=144.

if it still shows after that, you need to enter the archive and try clicking on random ones until you find it, seeing as there's no index.


edit: looks like I wrote this while GTC posted.

Thanks guys, got it.

Thought it may have been April 1 already .......

One of the recently commented front page forums is here.

GTC made the suggestion that as time goes by threads should be locked off. At the moment there's no way to do that here, largely because the forums were originally experimental. If I do bolt on such a feature I'd probably make it simple by setting all threads to close three months after the last comment is written. I've never subscribed to a commonplace forum edict that requires users to search for previous comments on their proposed question before they post it, in order to see if the question is already answered. I'd much rather a question be asked again for two reasons:-

1. To keep the forums alive.
2. In case there is a more up to date answer to the question.

An obvious exception is where a question was asked yesterday and a new user wants to ask the same question today - people just need to be mature about the distinction in this regard.

In my experience (using Firefox) the "You have unread front page forum posts." flag sometimes doesn't extinguish until I attempt to reply to the latest Front Page post.

I've never been able to replicate that fault. It's a server-side function and will normally work the same in any and all browsers. Commenting won't trigger a clearing of the data that operates the function as this is done when the page loads. If you see the message sticking and you are sure that there are no other comments on the front page awaiting attention you can try holding down the shift key whilst refreshing the page. This forces the browser to reload the page from scratch and if this does clear the message it will indicate a gremlin in the browser's page cache.

Thought it may have been April 1 already...

We've never played any of those tricks here though that isn't to say it'll never happen. Whirlpool used to do it on their forums and there'd always be some big believable announcement such as "NineMSN to close down at the end of the week" or "Microsoft commits to hostile share raid on Google", etc. They were able to set the forum so you could only see your own comments until 12:00. When the whole thread opened up it would reveal who the suckers were.

GTC made the suggestion that as time goes by threads should be locked off.

I made that suggestion in relation to Front Page threads which are, in the main, related to forum maintenance and are thus only current for a short time.

There is not a lot of 'necro bumping' on this site, so I don't feel there's a great need to automatically lock all threads after a period of time.

It would be easy to isolate the feature to the front page as it is a separate system to the main forums.

If you see the message sticking and you are sure that there are no other comments on the front page awaiting attention you can try holding down the shift key whilst refreshing the page.

This problem suddenly cropped up again overnight. AFAIK, the most recent front page comment was 'Written at 19:56 on 28 March 2016.' and I had already seen that two days ago.

So, I added a comment to that thread and the flag is still present.

Using the shift key makes no difference. (Firefox 45.0.1)

Logged out and in again, no difference. Deleted all V-R cookies, no difference.

Was something changed overnight?

I'm using the same version of Firefox and do not have your issue.

If the message is there, it's because there's something you haven't read.

Did you read Brad's thread on the demise of the narrow format?

Brad, your message today about the narrow format did not appear as the most recent Front Page in Recent Forum Activity. It was still showing Tallar Carl's of 2 days ago as the most recent post there at the time.

It seems you only update that link when a reply comment is made. Suggest making that link live when you create new FrontPage material, too.

Nothing has been changed on the site for several weeks though I am about to do some major work on the database to support a few features to be rolled out in the near future.

Cookies don't support the 'unread posts' features - this is all in the database so if there was a fault it would affect everyone. The cookie from this site only stores minor membership information, such as your username and access level.

I am about to do some major work on the database to support a few features

See my post #10 above.

Brad, your message today about the narrow format did not appear as the most recent FrontPage in Recent Forum Activity.

Yeah, I noticed that though to be honest I don't remember if I included original posts in the feature. I will check up on it because I do want it to include original posts.

Whilst on the subject of websites, I am about to start work on a personal website pertaining to my own vintage radio collection - which funnily enough was the original purpose of this website back in the pre-forum days. The new site's content management system will form the foundation for the replacement of the one on this site. We are talking a long way into the future here but I think it'll be worth the wait and some priorities such as connection quality are much higher up the list.