BBS forgets what I've read

Does anyone else have a problem with the BBS forgetting what you've read? Every once in a while, I'll go to the main index and it'll claim that there is some number of messages that are new. I'll go into that forum and there will be many times more there that it claims I have not read. But I've already read them all, except for the few that the main index claims. It's really annoying. I'm using multiple computers to access the system. Might that be the problem? (Not that I see it every time I switch computers.) I do try reloading the forum index page, but it doesn't change.

Yeah I have the same problem and so do many others. It's a known bug in the BBS and nobody knows where it comes from. Basically you've got a persistent cookie on your machine that corresponds to some settings on the BBS backend which indicate what messages you've viewed. Somehow those settings aren't being saved/restored properly.

It's a bit annoying but it's usually only off by maybe 10 or 20 posts to me. When I see it's happened, I just start reading from the top and going back until I recognize the posts.

Yeah, this bug seems to hop from user to user. For instance, it happened to me a few months ago then went away for a while. Hasn't happened to me since.

The scary thing is that it's been happening for a long time now but no one at wwwthreads has seen it, it hasn't been reported in their bug report forums.

Recently, Paul did a major overhauls which included re-doing the web server and database software along with the BBS software, but it didn't help if you're still getting the bug.

Try doing a full wipe of your cookies and cache, that sometimes helps.

I'm pretty much certain it's a database problem, not the PHP front end generator or the cookies mechanism.

Yeah, but he upgraded the database recently, too. What sort of a database problem do you think it is?

I'm pretty sure it isn't a database problem. As I have documented before I have:

- machine A using IE6 where the problem rarely happens (was using IE5.5 before with same behaviour)
- machine B where using IE6 will almost always trigger the problem, using Netscape or Mozilla almost never causes the problem (machine B also used to have IE5.5 with the same behaviour)

Yeah, but he upgraded the database recently, too. What sort of a database problem do you think it is?



As Far as I can tell, the cookie stores a name, password, language and last visit time. As such, it's dependant on the database on the web side to store what you have or have not seen at any given time. I'd say it HAS to be a database issue. The db could be struggling to keep a record of what is and is not read. Hmmm... Maybe not just the DB. It might be that the BBS code itself is sending an out of date cookie, that then corresponds to an older entry in the database. It might also be a local client time issue, although I doubt that is the full cause... All of my machines are ntp-synched to within a second of each other, and I see it from time to time.

I'm going to turn on a bit of cookie tracking to see about that issue here locally, as I've been seeing it more and more often.

Also, I wonder if the machine the BBS is physically residing on has ntp running on it, or some other manner of time synchro.

The time on the front page exactly matches that of my public-NTP-server-set computers. Within a second, at any rate. Which would imply that it's also public-NTP-set.

Ironically, the BBS has forgoten that I read THIS thread already. I had not seen this problem in a month or so, before today.

Recently, Paul did a major overhauls which included re-doing the web server and database software along with the BBS software, but it didn't help if you're still getting the bug.

In case anyone's interested, I just had it happen to me on the Rio Receiver BBS -- the first time I remember that happening.

Peter

I've been having this problem using IE and Netscape on both a PC (NT, and now 2k) and a Mac.

Ironically, the BBS has forgoten that I read THIS thread already. I had not seen this problem in a month or so, before today.

Here is another bizarre occurrence - the post I'm currently reading is unread.

Borislav