Wildcard: admin ?

[Parker]

> Nothing in what you quoted above said that,
> although perhaps it is true.

> You wrote: "The script considers a new
> visit to begin once you've been away from
> the board for at least thirty minutes, so if
> you return to the board before half an hour
> has elapsed, the "new" notices
> will not have updated."

> That has nothing to do with what you wrote
> above; they're not connected.

> Don

This: "so if you return to the board before half an hour has elapsed, the "new" notices will not have updated" to me implies that if you return after half an hour has elapsed, then the "new" notices will have updated, meaning that any "new" tags that were present at the first visit will disappear, and any posts made subsequent to that time will have "new" tags.

At least, that's how I interpret it.

[Don Schlesinger]

> At least, that's how I interpret it.

Yes, I suppose that's what it means, but if it does operate that way, it's pretty stupid. To me, "NEW" should mean "new to the reader," and anything not yet read is "NEW" to me.

Of course, that creates other problems, since, after I read messages and they turn gray, they spontaneously turn back to red, so they look like I haven't read them when, in fact, I have.

And, I've extended my History.

Computers -- you gotta hate 'em!

Don

[Magician]

I haven't had any experience with WebBBS other than as a poster, but I have a pretty good idea of how it works. As a software developer, I get these sorts of comments from users all the time...

> It just seems to me that something that's
> new oughta stay new until I say it ain't
> new anymore. I of course being the customer!

Yes it should. And, believe me, the WebBBS authors would have liked it to work that way too.

> No? Seems to me that if the software can be
> programmed to be non-user friendly, then it
> can be programmed otherwise.

No it can't.

[Then I try to explain why... this is where the user usually stops following the conversation and starts getting frustrated, angry and argumentative. < sigh > Here goes...]

The software stores the time you last visited the site in a "cookie" on your computer. When you return, it retrieves the "cookie" and compares the time you last visited with the time each message was posted in order to decide whether to add the "New" designation to it.

In order to do a better job, it would have to record whether you have read each message. This is a lot more information than a simple time stamp, and the cookie mechanism isn't at all good at managing that sort of thing. So it'd have to be done another way.

["But the links change from red to grey after I've read them, it's just this New thing that doesn't work properly."]

Your browser is keeping track of which messages you have read in its history, just as it does for all web pages. Your browser changes the colour of links to read messages from red to grey. The WebBBS software can't access your browser's history. Aren't you glad that websites don't have access to a complete record of your browsing habits?

["But sites like Amazon.com can keep track of what things I've looked at."]

Sites like Amazon.com store this information on there own servers. They also require you to log on so that they can uniquely identify you.

["So what can you do to fix it?"]

< sigh > I knew you'd say that.

[Wildcard]

and the discussion at this point is moot.

If I (the user) see something that is obviously in disagreement with my logic, then I choose to speak out...not a popluar thing sometimes, but hey...I'm just trying to find out if something can be fixed or for someone to tell me it ain't broke in the first place.

If you are providing a tool for the reader, such as the NEW tag, and its purpose is to alert the reader to a new post...why would the programmer or software creators convolute that nice feature into something that begins to contradict the original intent of the tool? Why should they care if I log on and off 10 times a day, and break the 30 minute barrier and nuke the NEW? I care not to follow any clock to preserve any tool in cyberspace.

I follow the cookie thing, Amazon, etc, etc, but on this end I just wanna cruise along and not have to know why or how it works, just that it works. Therefore, in my mind (what of it I have left), the process was not clearly thought out by whomever created the tool to begin with.

Like the AC in my car...don't know how it works, but am damn glad when it's in the 90s here that it does! However, when it fails, it can be fixed!

And, the casual user (me), should not have to know that I need to click on some inocuous link at the bottom of a page (WebBBS 5.00) to resolve a question I have. That's why we have the FAQ to the left, no?

Gotta let this one go.

Regards,
Wildcard

[Magician]

Since you got to complain about the way people treated you in your job, permit me to do the same. :-)

If the A/C in your car doesn't work the way you want it to ("wouldn't it be great if it came on 10 minutes before I got in"), and you take it to a mechanic and tell him to make it work that way, he will laugh at you and tell you that's impossible.

If your software doesn't work the way you want it to ("that's so stupid, it should stay 'new' until it's not 'new' anymore"), and the developers explain to you why it can't work that way, then the developers are incompetent and don't understand the way people work.

I'll get off my soap box now.