Failure to Update

[vebaguru]

When I log into the message boards, it tells me that the last time I was on was July 9th. However, I have logged in several times since then, but for some reason the board is not updating. The only problem caused by this (of which I am aware) is that I want to use the "View New Posts" option, and it goes all the way back to July 9th rather than to the most recent time I was on. Is this a problem others are experiencing? I am using Mozilla Firefox version 2.0.0.16.

Is this problem related to the post about the "need to log in multiple times"?

[Dave Baker]

Hmmm. I might have caused the trouble, by extending the time during which a user is able to visit the message boards without needing to log-in again (entering email address and password). I'll take a look.

[vebaguru]

I notice that I still have the same problem. Could it be a browser incompatibility? I am using Mozilla Firefox and occasionally have problems with certain websites.

[J Simmons]

I use Mozilla Firefox and have the same experience as vebaguru, but if you hit the logout and then later re-login to the message board, it will only bring up only those since your logout.

[Dave Baker]

When I log into the message boards, it tells me that the last time I was on was July 9th. However, I have logged in several times since then, but for some reason the board is not updating.

Are you using the same computer (not one at work and one at home) for all the message board visits?

[Jim Norman]

Dave,

I am having the same problem, it shows me last logged in on Aug 12, that was my last day before vacation, next day I logged in was Aug 25th, and almost daily since then. Also using Firefox, v3.0. I don't think it was doing this before Aug 12th in my case.

Jim

When I log into the message boards, it tells me that the last time I was on was July 9th. However, I have logged in several times since then, but for some reason the board is not updating.

Are you using the same computer (not one at work and one at home) for all the message board visits?

[WDIK]

Not to pile on, but I have experienced the same problem. My "new" posts go back to July 11th. I am using Internet Explorer.

[pmacduff]

Dave - if it will help you...

I'm in IE like WDIK, also showing last log in on Sept 11th and am usually in at least once a day....

[JanetM]

Dave,

I was gone form office Saturday 9/13 till today 9/17. I use IE and today when I logged in it shows posts going all the way back to 8/26 as new since my last visit.

[Dave Baker]

Not to pile on, but I have experienced the same problem. My "new" posts go back to July 11th. I am using Internet Explorer.

WDIK, are you saying that when you click on "View New Posts", you get a list of messages that go back to July 11?

Also, when you're at the home page of the message boards (http://benefitslink.com/boards - or click on ">BenefitsLink Message Boards" toward the top left of any page), are you seeing this phrase: "Logged in as: WDIK"?

Also, when you're at that page, are you seeing this phrase: "Welcome back; your last visit was: ______"? If so, what's the date and time that's showing in that phrase?

Thanks!

Dave

[Dave Baker]

I was gone from office Saturday 9/13 till today 9/17. I use IE and today when I logged in it shows posts going all the way back to 8/26 as new since my last visit.

Janet, when you say you "logged in" today, do you mean that you were at the home page of the message boards and you clicked on "Log Me In" next to the words "Welcome guest"?

Or do you mean that you powered up your computer today, started Internet Explorer and then opened a bookmark or clicked on a link on some other web page in order to get here to the message boards, without going through any sort of log-in process that asked for your email address and your password?

Dave

[WDIK]

WDIK, are you saying that when you click on "View New Posts", you get a list of messages that go back to July 11?

That is what I am saying.

Also, when you're at the home page of the message boards (http://benefitslink.com/boards - or click on ">BenefitsLink Message Boards" toward the top left of any page), are you seeing this phrase: "Logged in as: WDIK"?

Yes, I am.

Also, when you're at that page, are you seeing this phrase: "Welcome back; your last visit was: ______"? If so, what's the date and time that's showing in that phrase?

I am seeing that phrase. The date and time indicated are "July 11 2008, 04:18 PM".

Thanks for your attention.

[Bill Presson]

WDIK, are you saying that when you click on "View New Posts", you get a list of messages that go back to July 11?

That is what I am saying.

Also, when you're at the home page of the message boards (http://benefitslink.com/boards - or click on ">BenefitsLink Message Boards" toward the top left of any page), are you seeing this phrase: "Logged in as: WDIK"?

Yes, I am.

Also, when you're at that page, are you seeing this phrase: "Welcome back; your last visit was: ______"? If so, what's the date and time that's showing in that phrase?

I am seeing that phrase. The date and time indicated are "July 11 2008, 04:18 PM".

Thanks for your attention.

Dave, same here, with essentially the same date.

Seems like around that time, everyone was having to log in every time they visited instead of remaining logged in. I believe you made some changes to the "cookie keeper" that kept people from having to log in each time. I think that may have frozen everything in time.

FWIW

[Blinky the 3-eyed Fish]

Dave, I have a problem too, although it is different than the others. The Benefitslink website came to life and stole my identity, credit cards and my car. Can you tell it not to do that anymore?

[pmacduff]

too much mercury Blinky?

[JanetM]

Dave, I fire up the pc, click on book mark to get to benefitslink and click on message boards. I am on almost daily and system remembers me, it says you are logged in as JanetM.

[Guest Sieve]

Not wanting to speak for Dave, but that should mean, Janet, that you did not log out (upper left) before closing down the PC, which means that your "last visit" was when you last logged out and your "new posts" are all those after you last logged out. You have to log out to clear those functions. (Or do you actually log out (upper left) and still are shown as already being logged in when you hit the bookmark?) It takes a little longer to log in each time you re-enter the website, but at least "view new posts" is then meaningful.

But, Dave, for what it's worth ( . . . knock on wood . . .), I won't pile on because I have no problems -- at least I have no problems accessing the board, that is. The problems I do have are for another therapy session entirely!!

[Guest naveen]

Dave, I have a problem too, although it is different than the others. The Benefitslink website came to life and stole my identity, credit cards and my car. Can you tell it not to do that anymore?

The comments made in this post were made by a fish. There's something the matter with you if you listen to them.

Seems very Fishy !!!

[JanetM]

Larry, I understand your reasoning to the log out & log in part. But it begs the question, how come it didn't do this in the past? Have been on boards for quite a few years and this is new this summer.

Hope you therapy sessions are helpful. Tee hee.......

[Dave Baker]

I have been able to figure out the way the message board software works with respect to the update/log-in/session/your-last-visit-was interactions.

On the front page of the message boards, where it says "Welcome back; your last visit was:", the purpose is to show the time and date of your last "visit." (More on that in a moment.)

The message board keeps track of the time and date of your last visit because it needs that information to make the "View New Posts" link work for you. When you click on "View New Posts," you are shown a list of all topics that have either been started or to which a reply has been added since the time and date of your last visit. That's a nice thing if you want to keep up with everything new on any of the message boards.

A visit generally begins (i.e., is recorded by the message board software on the server side) whenever you open your browser and view any page on the message board. If your browser stays open (e.g., you leave your computer on and you haven't quit the browser application), a visit would begin when you use the browser to refresh/reload any page on the message board or when you click on any link to any page on the message board. In other words, the message board software knows that your particular computer is visiting the message boards whenever your browser loads a page on the message boards.

But a new visit doesn't begin if it's been fewer than 60 minutes since the last time you refreshed/reloaded any page on the message boards or the last time you clicked on any link to any page on the message board. This exception to the "new visit" rule means that you don't have to worry about the "View New Posts" link getting wiped out while you're sitting at the computer browsing the message boards. You can click on "View New Posts" several times as you sit at the computer viewing the message boards, and each time you get the topics that were added or to which replies were added since your last visit. In fact, the View New Posts list is updated on the fly; even topics that are new or newly changed in the few minutes since you sat down at the computer will appear on the list when you click View New Posts. (That's because those posts were indeed posted since the time of your last visit several days ago, etc.)

When it's been 60 minutes or more since your last click on the message boards, the "visit" time and date is reset (to the time and date of the last click, I believe). That means the View New Posts list will be completely different at your next visit, which is what you want.

By the way, if you were to leave your computer after browsing the message boards in the morning but then come back to browse the message boards in the mid or late afternoon, your View New Posts list that afternoon would no longer include topics that were new or that had been changed before your morning visit. If you hadn't had time during your morning visit to look at all the posts that appeared at that time on the View New Posts list but you want to be sure nothing falls through the cracks, all is not lost. The fall-back would be to use the "Today's Active Topics" link that appears (actually, more like buried) at the bottom of the message boards home page. The "Today's Active Topics" link in effect is a "View New Topics" that presumes your last visit was 24 hours ago.

Another interesting aspect of the "Today's Active Topics" link: when you click on it, the resulting page shows, at the bottom, a drop-down list next to the words "Get active topics for:". The drop-down list has options for "today", "this week," "past two weeks," "this month," "past 3 months" and "this year." So if you know where to find this drop-down list, you now have a way to pull up a list of topics added during any one of those time periods (and topics that have had replies added during that time period). That's what it seems to mean by the term "active."

To get this whole "Welcome back; your last visit was:" procedure to work right for you, you should do a one-time log-out and then log back in. Click the "Log Out" link that appears toward the top left of the screen where it says "Logged in as: Your-Username-Here." A log-out seems to definitely cause the message board software to consider your visit to end. Unless you do that, you might continue to see a time and date that's many weeks or months ago (and hence the View New Posts will include pages and pages of posts), due to the way I had misconfigured the message boards in an effort to solve a different problem (namely, people were having to log in several times during the same day).

Regarding the log-in problem, I think I have fixed that, too. It turns out to be a different setting than the setting that controls the time-out of a visit.

You should not be required to log in ever again, if you use the message boards at least once every 7 days (assuming your browser is configured to allow "cookies" to be stored on your computer).

That's almost certainly more than you wanted to know, but now you know!

Dave