# threads marked read



## mskuse (Dec 13, 2002)

Anyone notice an issues where you log in but dont do anything for a bit and all of the sudden all of the threads are marked as read?


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## angbear1985 (Aug 25, 2006)

Yup - has happened to me before.


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## CatBurger00 (Sep 20, 2003)

You're automatically timed out after 20 (IIRC) minutes.


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## dplaflamme (Nov 1, 2002)

CatBurger00 said:


> You're automatically timed out after 20 (IIRC) minutes.


I'm confused. Is there a board setting that says, "Don't mark a forum read until *I* say I've ready it?

I can eyeball "last changed" dates on a thread to make my own guesses, but this seems like the sort of thing computer are really good at! 

Sorry if this is a newbie question too often asked; only recently have I decided to immerse myself in TCF.


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## CatBurger00 (Sep 20, 2003)

dplaflamme said:


> I'm confused. Is there a board setting that says, "Don't mark a forum read until *I* say I've ready it?
> 
> I can eyeball "last changed" dates on a thread to make my own guesses, but this seems like the sort of thing computer are really good at!
> 
> Sorry if this is a newbie question too often asked; only recently have I decided to immerse myself in TCF.


 Apparently it's too server intensive (and may also not be an option with this version of vBulletin).

To me, it would make much more sense to instead just purge all the old members who haven't visited here in a year (yet are having all new posts marked as unread which probably uses up more resources than allowing active members the better option).


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## David Bott (Jan 1, 1999)

It is all based on TIME thus 1,000,000 member or 10 members makes no difference as it is based on your last time you were on the site and as mentioned has a 20 min time out.

If we were to track each thread made for each member on the site to know if they looked at it or not, well, you can see the issue.


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## dplaflamme (Nov 1, 2002)

David Bott said:


> It is all based on TIME thus 1,000,000 member or 10 members makes no difference as it is based on your last time you were on the site and as mentioned has a 20 min time out.
> 
> If we were to track each thread made for each member on the site to know if they looked at it or not, well, you can see the issue.


I can see the issue, sure. I guess I was just misled by the pull down option for "Mark Forum Read."

I was also misled by references to whether a forum was read or not; I'm used to smaller conference boards where they actually track that sort of thing. (EZBoard comes to mind.)

So, any chance that in the interest of "truth in labeling," the references to "unread forums" might instead be "relatively recently updated forums" or something similar?

Sorry to be so pedantic. It's an occupational hazard.


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## timckelley (Oct 15, 2002)

On a related note, I just had a revelation. Sometimes when I make a post, and then go to user CP to see my list of new subscribed threads, the thread I just posted to shows up as if it's a thread with new posts. Usually this doesn't happen, but sometimes it does.

I just realized why it sometimes happens. Sometimes somebody else posts in between the last post I viewed and the post I'm currently making. So even though my post is now the last post, there can be new posts I haven't seen yet, so the User CP is correctly showing this thread as containing a new post(s). I like that feature.


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