New Forum Gripe

[Guest]

It's great to see the forums (or should that be fora?) up and running again. However one significant side-effect of the changes is that browsers can no longer track read messages across sessions.

In the past I relied very heavily on the browser's facility of showing links I had already followed in a different colour as an indication of which threads I was actively following, and where I was in them.

The new magic number in the URL (?is this a session identifier?) prevents this from working, hence there is no distinction between those messages I have and have not read.

This will soon make the forum very difficult to use as message volumes climb back to their pre-break levels.

 

[Guest]

Yes, the random string in the address is a session ID. If you bookmark (add to favourites) the forum to include the ID in the URL (web address) then it should known which you have looked at before. Also it will know who you are, if you have posted in that session. The sessions are set to expire after 30 mins for security.

Once we've cleared out the old (broken) cookie code out of the current script, it should just be a matter of adding our own cookie routines. Your session ID will then be stored in the cookie, so you wont have to log in every time. This will hopefully also allow preferences to be stored, and info such as how many messages have been posted since your last visit.

Paul (IPC Developer)

 

[Guest]

But it would be beneficial to the users - us - if the colours could be reinstated as before, even if the number of messages submitted since last viewing cannot.

Otherwise no problems.

regards,
Philip

 

[Guest]

Sorry about the previous, I meant to say to reinstate the number of new files since last reading the forum.

And where is my cursor to show where I am typing - or is that my computer?? There is also a delay in showing on-screen what has just been typed. Or again, is it my computer??

regards,
Philip

 

[Guest]

I'll check with Paul in the morning, but number of files since last visit should be covered by the cookies. As for the other issues, suspect you have something going slow on your computer. Might be as simple as needing to reboot the browser, but I've probably put a curse on it now by saying 'simple'!

 

[Guest]

From a note I had I understood that this feature was to be re-introduced at a later date. I think that IPC decided to get the forum back on line and add the various "whistles" cookies etc. a.s.a.p afterwards.

They have done an excellent job getting it back on line after all the problems caused by idiots (often anonymous postings or with stupid pen names) who abused the system.

 

[Guest]

Re: Poor performance

Rather surprisingly the cause of the poor performance mentioned above appears to be one of the the ad banners being served.

There is something odd about the advertisement for "craftinsure" - it looks like an animated-gif but when displayed in IE5 (v5.50.4522.1800) it happily consumes 100% CPU - hence slowing down the typing into this message box!

Trying to display that 'gif' in Netscape(4.7) produces an error message - but it displays okay without the high CPU load.

On the subject of Netscape I can't get the BB to work at all in Netscape4.7 (are you using browser redirects?) but I am not sure that browser is correcly configured

 

[Guest]

Re: Poor performance

So what you are saying, Bedouin, is that my slow reponce to what I type could be due to the Craftinsure banner.

It can't be my computer, as it is doing the same this evening, as it did last evening. Also, and I must admit to using other forums, is that this slowness of showing typeing does not manifest itself on the ST forum.

regards,
Philip.

 

[Guest]

Re: Poor performance

All I can say for certain is that I was experiencing very slow typing response in the message entry box - and that was caused by the CraftInsure banner in my case.

Slow response to typing (as opposed to waiting for a response from the web server)is purely a local function so can only be caused by something running on your machine. I brought up a Windows Task Manager (in Windows NT/2000) and noticed that whenever that particular banner was displayed, the CPU load hit 100% and stayed there. Scrolling the banner off the screen resolved the issue. (I notice that the banner seems to have gone altogether now anyway).

I can't say what is causing the problem on your machine - but checking the CPU load (and memory usage) is a good first step to diagnosis.

 

[Guest]

Re: Poor performance

Bedouin, Thanks for the advice. Although I have done nothing different, this evening things are a lot quicker. I did go to ST forum last night, straight after posting to yours, and there was no problem there. So methinks the problem is on this site. Anyway, this evening is quicker, and I can see my cursor.

regards,
Philip

p.s. it takes a lot to convince some people about VHF, doesn't it? - with regard to your VHF replies.