Experimental Forum changes

[Jim Henry]

I am trying some new features for the Forum.

A new section appears at the top showing the 5 most recent posts, the top 5 posters, and the 5 newest members. I might try to trim that to just recent posts.

Links to similar topics appear at the bottom of a topic.

I am also doing some behind the scenes changes to improve operation of the Forum.

Let me know what you think of the new features and if you encounter any misbehavior of the Forum.

[Jim Henry]

The new section appears at the top now shows the 5 most recent posts if you are not logged in and unread posts if you are.

You can now collapse categories with the [-] button on the right end of the category header. [+] to expand.

[ChuckH]

Hi Jim,

1. I like the latest presentation of the forum.

2. For me, displaying the "New Posts" section would be more useful than "Recent Posts" once I am logged in.

3. I find the tacked on "Similar Topics" a bit distracting and would prefer it was not shown.

Thanks again for a wonderful site.


Charles Hughes
Australia

[Jim Henry]

2. For me, displaying the "New Posts" section would be more useful than "Recent Posts" once I am logged in.

It is actually supposed to be doing that. I didn't look but I assume it still captions them as "Recent Posts" even though they are now the "New Posts". I guess the author of the code that controls this figured that the "New Posts" are still "Recent Posts".

I have noticed that whatever it displays for "Recent Posts" before you log in is not always the most recent posts. But I haven't had time to dig into that to figure out exactly what is being shown.

[johnh]

I'm noticing that the forum 'logs me out' much faster than ever before. Even though I check the box at login time to remember me I still have to log in at least once a day (I generally have a tab open in my browser for days at a time). In the past I would only need to login when I started my browser...

---john.

[ChuckH]

Hi John,

I had that issue some time ago and it turned out it was caused by a cleanup program running on my PC that was deleting cookies.

Charles

[johnh]

No such animal here... Pretty sure its a forum change or an amazing coincidence that something changed on my end at the same time. Could happen but I don't think so. None of the other phpBB forums I frequent is behaving this way. Thanks.

[Jim Henry]

My guess is that the phpBB software was updated to force a logout after a fairly short period of inactivity as a security measure.

[johnh]

I note that the cookies themselves have changed, the number of cookies has changed, and the domain of the cookies has changed.

---john.

[Jim Henry]

I note that the cookies themselves have changed, the number of cookies has changed, and the domain of the cookies has changed.

---john.

None of that is by my conscious decision. Is that bad, or just interesting?

There was also an issue of too many program executions causing the service provider to temporarily suspend today. If anyone knows anything about tracking down such issues, please let me know. I could use some help on this.