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All posts in all forums showing as having been read. What the... — Parallax Forums

All posts in all forums showing as having been read. What the...

RickBRickB Posts: 395
edited 2005-01-21 05:48 in General Discussion
jumpin.gif Ok, its' happened again. All posts in all forums are showing as having been read. This happened at about 10:45 Wednesday night. What is causing this???

Rick

Comments

  • RickBRickB Posts: 395
    edited 2005-01-20 07:07
    And 30 seconds after posting the above, everything is normal. Am I nuts, or is it my browser.(mozilla)

    Rick smurf.gif
  • Jim EwaldJim Ewald Posts: 733
    edited 2005-01-20 07:26
    Rick,

    I hate to ask, but are you sure that you are logged in? The other thing that would be good to know is what letter appears in the little circles on the left side of each forum when the anomoly occurs? Do you have cookies enabled? Ok, that's three questions. I'm wondering if there is something going on with cookies or with the session. Without cookies enabled, it's possible to appear as a guest to the server if your session ID changes. Some software firewalls, like Zone Alarm, do that to protect the innocent but it drives web guys nuts.

    Jim

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    Jim

    Parallax IT Dept.
  • RickBRickB Posts: 395
    edited 2005-01-21 04:12
    Jim: Most of the time I am not logged in, and most of the time everything is fine. Cookies are enabled. Most of the time the color of the circles is orange. I don't recall what letter was in the circle this last time. When the problem happens, all circles are grey at the top level and all the way down. This has happened about 3 times and the last time it went away when I logged in to ask the question. Also, no firewall. I will try to keep track of what I am doing next time it happens. Thanks.

    Rick
  • Jim McCorisonJim McCorison Posts: 359
    edited 2005-01-21 04:47
    Rick,

    The fact the everything is "fine" when you are not logged in seems strange to me. If I'm not logged in, all forums show a grey ball with an "X" in it, meaning all forums have no unread posts. This seems normal because if you are not logged in then the software doesn't know who you are and therefore doesn't know know what you have read or not. When you log in, it restores your status and shows what you have and haven't read.

    I have periodically experienced what I think you are talking about. When you say "most of the time I am not logged in", do you mean most of the time you have not explicitly logged in? The software keeps your login status through sucessive browser sessons using cookies. Unless you explicity log off, you stay logged in. At some point, I know not when, you are automatically logged out. Perhaps Jim can fill that part in. Then you revert to a guest user. When you log in, everything is restored.

    When this happens, take not of the top left of the page. When everything is "No Unread" you should find that it says "Welcome Guest". When you are logged in, it says nothing.

    I hope this is clear. It's clear in my mind, but that doesn't mean I typed it clearly.

    Cheers,
    Jim
  • Jim EwaldJim Ewald Posts: 733
    edited 2005-01-21 05:48
    The cookie we use expire after seven days. I "think" the timer is reset every time you connect to the site. but I won't bet my future on that detail just yet.

    The 'Unread Posts' counters are not supported for the Guest account. If the cookie has expired or isn't getting sent back to the server for some reason, the site will default to the guest account. All the circles will be greyed out and contain an 'X', just as Rick has alertly noted.

    The situation that would really concern me is when you are logged in, are actively reading or posting and then the site suddenly starts treating you as a Guest. That would indicate that we lost the session and can't find the cookie. Definitely a Bad Thing for a web site.

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    Jim

    Parallax IT Dept.
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