Viewing unread doesn't keep track properly

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C

chem geek

TFP Expert
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Mar 28, 2007
11,919
San Rafael, CA USA
I noticed that recently clicking on the viewing unread messages for a thread doesn't work quite right. It doesn't always seem to remember the last point that was read. It sometimes selects a post further up so shows ones that have been already read. It doesn't start from the top of the thread so it does recognize some things being read. And if I go back and refresh the page, the unread symbol goes away as it should.
 
I have been trying to duplicate the problem here, but so far it has been working for me.

I assume you have been using the "First unread post" link towards the top right, just above the "Author Message" sub-heading?
 
No, I have been using the "Your posts" or "New posts by date" and then clicking on the symbol to the left of the thread name, such symbols only being present for new unread posts. The symbols correctly disappear if I refresh that screen or click on "Your posts" or "New posts by date" (whichever was done originally) again, but if a new post gets added to the thread then the next time it shows up in New posts by date with the symbol, clicking on the symbol won't go to the new post -- it will go to the older post as if I didn't go into the thread to look at it before.

This problem happened with this very thread as well.
 
I think I found it. It appears to be a bug in Safari.

The forum software is correctly figuring out the post to display and correctly making a URL for that post, but the browser is displaying something else. If you go to this link, you should get to renovxpt's first post, and in Firefox you do. But in Safari, you usually end up at Knollbrook's third post, much higher up in the sequence. From what I can see, Safari is picking a scroll position based on the topic without images. Then as the images load the text gets pushed down and you end up in the wrong place. Occasionally it even blinks in the correct position for a moment, and then pops to the wrong position. Once the page has loaded, if you select the URL bar in the browser and press return it takes you to the correct position (at least most of the time).
 
Got it. Well, at least there is the workaround of clicking the link and pressing enter to reload the page after images have been loaded (clicking on the "reload the current page" circular arrow symbol doesn't always work). Thanks for figuring this out. I used to use Firefox, but got a new laptop and have switched to using Safari. That explains why the problem seemed to start happening with that switch.
 
I have seen something similar in. IE 8 and Tapatalk (multiple platforms) it seems to be more of an issue in threads with a lot of pictures. I will try to let you know when I see it again.
 
There's something more going on here. With this current thread, when I go back into it after "Your posts" and clicking on the symbol to the left of the thread name, it gives me the following link:

viewing-unread-doesn-t-keep-track-properly-t55025.html#p452299

which is to the second post in this thread (which, by the way, has no images in the posts). So this isn't just Safari and it's not going to the right place, though that is indeed a separate problem. The workaround of clicking on the URL and trying again doesn't work in this case.
 

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This thread using Tapatalk has worked for me so far. The pictures thing I mentioned may not be causing the problem as much as exposing it by making it easy to see.

Sent via Tapatalk...
 
I finally saw this fail in the second way (wrong post number), which seems much less common than failing in the first way (image height). Again the cause was a Safari issue. Safari was caching the last time I clicked the first unread post link for that page and not accessing the server at all. There is a no-cache command on those results already. I added a different no-cache command to the page header to see if I can force Safari to not cache the page, but it happens so rarely for me that I haven't been able to test it in a meaningful way yet. Plus, anything already cached before my change will still cause problems.
 
Whatever you did worked better for me since this time for this thread I went directly to your message. So it seems you've worked around Safari's bug, at least the post number / caching bug (not the timing wait for images to load before positioning bug).
 
I finally have a concrete example I can share:

I opened this thread from the "your posts" link using IE 9:
newbie-about-to-start-t54771-40.html#p452664

This is the post I was taken to:
newbie-about-to-start-t54771-40.html#p452194

This is the last post I recall reading seeing prior to this visit and also the one that matches the last date I was on the site using TapaTalk or IE 9 either one:
newbie-about-to-start-t54771-40.html#p452215

EDIT: Revisiting that thread after posting this using the first URL in this post took me to the correct post. So I'm at a loss as to explain why it behaved that way once and only once.
 
Another one:

This thread:
newbie-closing-pool-in-houston-t54599.html#p452968

Using "your posts" link took me to this post from Dec 13th 2012:
newbie-closing-pool-in-houston-t54599.html#p448897

It should have taken me here to this post from January 7th 2013:
newbie-closing-pool-in-houston-t54599.html#p452968


And another:

This thread: newbie-about-to-start-installing-swcg-t54771-40.html#p452990
Took me to this post: newbie-about-to-start-installing-swcg-t54771-40.html#p452664
But this is the correct post it should have delivered me to:http://www.troublefreepool.com/newbie-about-to-start-installing-swcg-t54771-40.html#p452990
 
That particular kind of detail doesn't really help. What would be more interesting to know is, when it fails and you go back to the previous page and follow the link again do you end up in the same place? And if so, if you exit the browser, launch it again, and then try the link again what happens.
 
JasonLion said:
That particular kind of detail doesn't really help. What would be more interesting to know is, when it fails and you go back to the previous page and follow the link again do you end up in the same place? And if so, if you exit the browser, launch it again, and then try the link again what happens.
Click to expand...

I'll check. I can check those threads now and report back on what they do now. I have not closed the browser since earlier.
 

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