OK, I just fixed the glitch that caused "clicking on new post."

As you may have recognized, when you "jump to new post," it doesn't ... it only jumps to the first post sometimes. This is because vBulletin has several options of remembering which posts you have read. The one is was previously using was session cookies, which is known to be terribly inefficient.

But the new vBulletin has options to change this, such as database tracking rather than cookie tracking.

With this option, the forum software stores markers in the database for all posts that you have read, the "New Posts" menu option should work 100% of the time and actually be useful.

This means that the site will always know exactly which posts you have already read, instead of the old way of relying on cookies, which relied on the date/time of your last login. That was never accurate because you may not have finished reading all the new posts on your last login, and they would be lost if you we relying on "New Posts" to show you what you haven't read.

(Note: These markers automatically reset after 30 days; so any posts that you don't read will automatically be marked as read when they reach 30 days old.)

You will notice that forums appear "unread." This is because of the switch. So you may have to reset your markers to get a clean start. Once you've finished reading this, go to "Quick Links -> Mark Forums Read." That will reset all your markers, marking everything on the site as "Read."

Then, from now on, if you use the "New Posts" option on the menu it will only show you threads that have posts that you haven't read.

And, in case you didn't know, if you click the "Double Arrow" icon at the end of a thread title on the front page, it will jump you right to where the new posts begin in that thread. Or the small box in front of the the thread title, in forum view.

(You can still use the "Today's Posts" link if you want to see all posts from the last day, whether new or not.)

Please post your bugs by replying to this thread. Thanks!

Michel,

I'm still experiencing a little glitch on "new posts". Some old posts that I know I viewed are showing up under the heading " no new posts in these threads but there are still some posts you haven't seen" or something to that effect. LIke I said, these are on threads I know I have read all the way through.

This is not a glitch. As I said in my post:

Some people (especially the newer people) will see the entire forum marked as "unread."

I apologize for this inconvenience.

Michel... I know what you're saying... But I have already marked my forums as read dozens of times. As of yesterday (I think, or maybe the day before) some other posts started popping up as unread (but with no new posts). I even marked all read again, yet sometimes they come back. (around 1/3 of the time I visit the board)

Now that I think of it, I may have to delete my old cookies and start fresh that way.

Yup, that's exactly what the problem is ... because the new system now logs your unread posts in the database rather than cookies. Clear your cookies and it should work fine.

Ouch... Michel, really the cookies system works just fine. What's monkeying it up is the SEO-friendly URL plug-in.

(On a side-note about SEO-friendly URLs, I'm using a similar plug-in in OSCommerce, it functions with the help of some .htaccess rewrites. I've read in several places, including at Sitepoint, that these SEO-friendly URLs derived from mod_rewrite/.htaccess really do very little to improve SEO rankings. However if one Googles for various hosting issues, Web Hosting Talk's archives come right up on Pg 1 of the search. In terms of vBulletin, if you want your threads to be spidered and ranked highly, I'd recommend scrapping the SEO-friendly URLs and focussing instead on the archive system.)

We run dozens of vBulletin forums on which the cookies system works splendidly... the only people who have issues are those who visit in AOL's browser. But then, AOL is pretty much in their own league, technically speaking... LOL!!!!! So I don't sweat that. I tell 'em to use IE or Firefox and it'll resolve.. and it does.

Just a heads-up though, be prepared to have your site flagged by your web host for high CPU usage. When a site starts adding more DB queries in a vBulletin forum, they quickly start chewing up more CPU, and that will result in your host fishing for a plan upgrade/more $$$.

Offering this just a friendly heads-up, Michel. I don't want you to be surprised if something like this does end up taking place, is all.

Bailey

No it's not. It's a MySQL bug specific to 5.0.21 (was supposedly fixed in 5.0.22, but now it's pushed back to the next release, 5.0.23).

There's a huge thread on it in the vBulletin support forums.

That said, you're partially right. VBSEO is part of the poblem. But the problem is not as apparent without it, and more apparent with it installed.

Untill vBulletin 3.5.x, the cookie system was the only way, and it was terribly inefficient -- as well as glitchy. With 3.5 and up, now the database can keep track. It's more processor-intense, but a lot more effective, regardless of VBSEO or not.

Thanks, Bailey. I appreciate you.

Ahhhh... OK Michel, I get it now. Sorry, I didn't realize you were running MySQL 5.x. We're running 4.1.19 for its stability... we've not yet moved our production/shared servers to MySQL 5.x because it's been too buggy. Our clients rely heavily on stability, so we have been staying put on the older version that we know "works" for their needs.

Sorry for the misunderstanding by all means though if I can help out in any way please do LMK!


Bailey

No problem.

Ya, the older version seems to be more stable. And this is one of the contentious things they're talking about in the vB forums.