I love the feature that flags the posts that are new since the last time I visited. It helps me keep track of what I've read and what I haven't.

But sometimes I visit for only a few minutes, and don't read everything. But when I come back later, all the flags are gone.

My interpretation of the situation is that the markers only show up to mark the posts that have been posted since the last time I logged on to the site. Is this correct? If so, that's a minor problem. It would be much nicer if all posts could be marked for my attention until I actually read them (or mark them as read).

I hope that made sense.

The flags should be staying there until you read the posts. They shouldnt be disappearing just because you logged on.

Same thing happening to me, Iceman. I figured it was part of the site's design, doesn't bother me.

Ill mention it to tetsuo

I posted about a similar problem earlier. It rarely happens but it happens to me every 3-5 days.

Yes, I see the problem.

Apologies to brichek - I didn't fully understand what you were getting at in your last thread re: this issue.

I've identified a patch that can fix this problem and the best I can do is try to apply it at the weekend (the site will therefore be down Sat. approx. 4am US time).

The patch will keep a window of unread posts in the database at the server end of things, so no matter where you log in from you will always get a consistent view.

What are people's suggestions for a window size (i.e. the number of topics that remain showing 'unread' until the oldest ones start dropping off)?

It should be a great addition to the site, and I look forward to supplying it to you.

Disclaimer: These patches are tricky AND risky to apply, so no guarantees, unfortunately!

I think 1 week may be too short and 2 weeks may be too long. I wouldn't mind 2 weeks but I think somewhere in between would be good too.

Sorry, just to clarify: I'm talking about the number of unread topics to be retained, not some function of time.

oops, my mistake. I don't have a clue for this one. I think you are the best one to decide that. I would only suggest keeping more than you initially think and see how it goes and adjust from there.

I've applied the patch, so the list of unread posts should be maintained at the database on the server now, instead of in a cookie.

Hopefully this will solve the problem described in this topic.

Please let me know of any problems.