support: problem w/ view newest post

Yep, I have noticed that it doesn't always work perfectly.

I also noticed one post that was obviously junk, and would have liked to have a little button to flag it and make the administrator aware of it. Just a thought...

I had that happen last weekend... very strange... but, I did not notice it before, because I have only been posting for a couple of months

Everything seemed to work good for me until last weekend.
🙁

i have done a little sleuthing. maybe some of you web experts (bonerowner you out there?) can pipe up.

(1) the cookie aneros.com/phpbb2mysql_t is what tracks this
(2) when you read a thread, the number of the thread and the seconds since epoch in GMT is recorded.

here, for example, is the cookie contents after it has been cleared, and i read two threads:
a%3A2%3A%7Bi%3A2975%3Bi%3A1211716101%3Bi%3A2969%3Bi%3A1211715994%3B%7D

the red numbers are the thread numbers and the green are the times.

none of this explains the bug, but, it is just getting oriented.

two possibilities suggest themselves:
(a) i am reading the forum on two different computers, and so of course the cookies can't know what i did on the other computer. however, this problem happens even when i have been only on one computer for sure.

(b) perhaps it is somehow a time zone thing, like the server isn't doing the time zone math right? my display in the forum shows correct times for my time zone.

anybody else have any ideas?

darwin

Well I am a php developer and I know this forum.

Here is the logic: when you visit the topic it is marked as read and last post id is recorded, as you come back to the forum few days later test is ran against number previously saved and the number that is last. If difference is found you get that icon that says there are replies.

When you click on last post link you are sent to a page that calculates all posts forms pages and pulls up last page in the topic.

Now feature that jumps to latest post does not use information in any way, what it does is scrolls you to the bottom of the page. It uses labels to focus on specific post. if you look at the left side of any post there is a link to the top, it works kind of the same way.

So why this happens? Well to me it sounds like browsing history problem. It is highly unlikely to be a glitch in the script. I assume since you visit this page on daily basis your browser keeps off line copy of the page you are looking for, you can clean this history from options in your browser. And that should fix the issue.

Also cookies are encoded to protect data being stored in them, so there is no way you can get any info out of it.

bop, no, sorry, you're not right on this.

darwin

bop, no, sorry, you're not right on this.

darwin

I can be wrong about it and if you tested and found that browsing history has nothing to do with it then please let me know what browser you are using and how this issue is reproduced.

I ran this forum on three browsers, my main being Firefox and could not duplicate this problem as you describe it . This leads me to believe it has to do with the client side. And I used that conclusion to assume browsing history might have an impact on it.

BoP,
Myself, I do us 2 computers and do posts on both, but history is always cleared by me manually.

I use Mac's and Safari for the browser, but from time to time I do use Firefox also.

It seems to me it may be a logging of the time some how, but I have not been able to reproduce it.

BoP-

i am pretty certain this is a server side problem.

this has been broken consistently for me for months. almost always goes to the wrong reply.

for example, this morning, i clicked on the link for newest post to this thread, and i got my own post, the one where i explain how the cookie works. but, of course i had read bop's reply and given my own reply to it. (in this case i had used only this one computer the whole day). it should have gone to BoP's reply to my reply.

in particular, when i clicked on the "newest" link in the main Discussion Forum page, i was redirected to:
http://www.aneros.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=15299#15299 (my earlier post)

but should have been redirected to:
http://www.aneros.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=15310#15310 (BoP's post)

by the way, those addresses are anchors into individual posts (you can tell that by mousing over the little box to the left of the time stamp on the post).

to answer your questions, i am using firefox in windows xp. i tried clearing my browser history and cache, as you suggested, and it had no effect.

darwin

It is weird that this does not happen to everyone.

Jumping part of the code uses simple labels, it looks something like this

and part of the link after "#" is used to jump to that label.

But it seems that wrong post id is generated.

Ok what time zone are you using in profile on this forum? Looks like standard zone for this server is -6 GMT, basically Pacific time

Not to highjack your discussion, but there are other problems with the site recognizing things properly.

I, and others, have earlier reported the initial log-in failing to take and having to log-in a second time before we get a stable connection. I still have that problem every time I visit the site...

Could there be a connection... crumbling cookies...

Any ideas or solutions much appreciated.

artform

BTW BoP

Your signature is a great question. Why don't you start a poll/survey!?

Hey guys,

I am having the same problem that Artform is. It does not happen all the time, but is sporadic. When I have to log in a 2nd time, my username appears as being "online" even if it is still telling me to log in. When I do finally log in for the 2nd time, the threads that have new comments since my last visit do not designate with the normal blue designation. If I have to long on twice, I have to log out twice as well. I thought that it might be a problem because I was using Windows 2000, but I have upgraded to Windows XP and it still happens. I mentioned it in an earlier thread a few months ago http://www.aneros.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2778&highlight=

Well double login problem is the one I am familiar with for sure, had some pain in the nech few years a go on one of the websites I was managing. That problem has to do with cookies configuration and in fact new post id generation can be related to that as well.

here is a link to tested solution for 2.xx version.

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=244188&highlight=login+twice

as part of the HijackThis discussion about making the site friendly, i wanted to bump this thread.

i am still having the exact same problem i reported originally.

i have it consistently.

i only use one computer, so the "two computers" theory is out.

i used to always use firefox, where i had the problem. now i always use chrome, where i still have the problem.

this is a SERVER SIDE BUG!

are others experiencing this?

the one thing that probably distinguishes me from many users is the frequency with which i check the forum, which is pretty much continually. (i use it for ongoing minor thought breaks throughout the day).

support???

darwin

Hi Darwin,

The forum software we use is one of the most common, so I don't think it's a code issue. What we did do was to update the forum system timezone to be the timezone that our server is in (PST). Before, the forum system timezone was CST. This may not be the solution but let's see what happens. From the lack of responses to this thread, maybe the other community members aren't having this issue.

thanks,
Aneros Support