Guild Launch News
Upcoming Forum Changes in Version 6.8
In Version 6.8 we have spent considerable time completely reworking the "Read" and "Unread" flags for the forums. The current system has a flaw in that the read flags are stored in user cookies, so changing machines, using multiple Guild Launch sites, logging in multiple times in a day, and cookie issues noticeably effect how the forums behave. We've attempted to remedy this in the past, with varying amounts of success, by improving the existing system. This behavior has been a thorn in our side and we're removing that thorn in 6.8
For Version 6.8 we gave up on the band-aid approach and have nearly completely ripped out and replaced the read/unread flag system. The new system has the following improvements:
1. You can login and out as many times as you like and the unread flags will stay.
2. Visiting multiple forums will not effect the unread flags.
3. Cookie issues will not effect the unread flags
4. Using multiple computers won't effect the read flags
5. Users have options to mark all topics read for individual guild sites and for Guild Launch as a whole.
With those improvements there are also some caveats. An important thing to note is that *all* of these caveats are actually *worse* in the current system. They are just something that many of you will want to know in order to understand how the read/unread flagging works.
1. Any post older than 5 days will be considered Read. How is this better than the current system? Well, if you login then logout and log back in all previous posts are marked read. This is far worse than a 5 day lag period.
2. The recent posts page shows posts made in the last 48 hours and shows you which ones you have read. How is this better than the current system? Well, it's the same deal, if you login then logout and log back in the recent post page completely clears out. This is far worse than a 48 hour lag period.
What if I'm gone for a week? We are adding a date search to the forum search so you can look at posts made during a specific time frame. This should cover vacations and things of that nature.
Why do we need this lag period at all? It keeps us from storing the status of every single post for every single user indefinitely. This gives us a logical cutoff in time where we can trim the database of "read flag" info. We always build our system with the idea that an individual guild site may get very large. So performance is critical. This read lag implementation improves performance dramatically and solves the major problem that nearly all database driven read/unread systems encounter when their forums get very large. And since most people visit their sites fairly often the won't even notice the read flag lag is in effect. So, you won't have to worry about performance degradation if you have a lot of forums and posts and we won't have to worry about it here on the Support site and on the Launchpad site either.
In using the system here in our development environment we are 100% sure that the new system is an improvement and is far more intuitive and we look forward to launching Version 6.8 on August 12th.
-Stephen
For Version 6.8 we gave up on the band-aid approach and have nearly completely ripped out and replaced the read/unread flag system. The new system has the following improvements:
1. You can login and out as many times as you like and the unread flags will stay.
2. Visiting multiple forums will not effect the unread flags.
3. Cookie issues will not effect the unread flags
4. Using multiple computers won't effect the read flags
5. Users have options to mark all topics read for individual guild sites and for Guild Launch as a whole.
With those improvements there are also some caveats. An important thing to note is that *all* of these caveats are actually *worse* in the current system. They are just something that many of you will want to know in order to understand how the read/unread flagging works.
1. Any post older than 5 days will be considered Read. How is this better than the current system? Well, if you login then logout and log back in all previous posts are marked read. This is far worse than a 5 day lag period.
2. The recent posts page shows posts made in the last 48 hours and shows you which ones you have read. How is this better than the current system? Well, it's the same deal, if you login then logout and log back in the recent post page completely clears out. This is far worse than a 48 hour lag period.
What if I'm gone for a week? We are adding a date search to the forum search so you can look at posts made during a specific time frame. This should cover vacations and things of that nature.
Why do we need this lag period at all? It keeps us from storing the status of every single post for every single user indefinitely. This gives us a logical cutoff in time where we can trim the database of "read flag" info. We always build our system with the idea that an individual guild site may get very large. So performance is critical. This read lag implementation improves performance dramatically and solves the major problem that nearly all database driven read/unread systems encounter when their forums get very large. And since most people visit their sites fairly often the won't even notice the read flag lag is in effect. So, you won't have to worry about performance degradation if you have a lot of forums and posts and we won't have to worry about it here on the Support site and on the Launchpad site either.
In using the system here in our development environment we are 100% sure that the new system is an improvement and is far more intuitive and we look forward to launching Version 6.8 on August 12th.
-Stephen