Most users ever?

[Mike Dauphinee]

Yeah Jim, it is just minutiae and doesn't really affect posts themselves. Just chatting it out though, glad you don't mind. I see them as either a tool for the user to see how popular a place is in regards to posting (which is where I come up with the misleading statistic reason) or a tool for Admins to use in management.

As far as new posts, I thought that was a function of user cookies and/or individual settings, not a global function. If I was to not log on for a month, I don't think it would show only the posts in the last 40 minutes as new.

Thanks for the discussion though, this kind of administrative stuff always interest me.

[Bruce Page]

Mike, it would show every post for the month. Walk away from the computer for more than 40 min. and those posts are no longer available as a “new post” function.

[Mike Dauphinee]

I guess we use forum functions differently and that is okay. Personally, I don't see that as a useful function. I am not so much interested in all posts in the last 40 minutes as I am in certain topics. The forum software performs very well individually in that respect. For instance, if they are busy in the Bow Clamps area, I could care less. (not saying anything bad about Bow Clamps, just an example)

I would note once again that if there is high posts per hour, the 40 minute window would provide WAY too much information. So, the way you use it is probably just about right for SMC. I understand why it is the way it is better now and thanks. I guess I just never used that function that way.

Thanks for the explanation.

[Jim Becker]

The last visited timestamp in the profile affects "new posts" status so when you "time out", anything you didn't read loses it's "new" status for your account. It's not held in a cookie and that's why it's accurate no matter how many different computers you log in from. (Handy for folks like me who in a sense use three different computers)

[Mike Dauphinee]

Okay, I see how you might find that useful. But I think we are talking two different functions from the OP. The "New Posts" button is simply a search function that is predefined. Your programmer can set the search criteria without upsetting a realistic "Users Online" function....two different things. I kinda thought we were getting a bit off in what we were talking about. Once again, different ways to use the forum software and that is not bad for diversity.

[Jim Becker]

Mike, I "think" that the same flag that provides the time stamp for "new posts" is also used for the "Users Online" marker. That's held true for other vB forums I've visited, too, but I don't know the internals. That's Aaron's territory!

[Mike Dauphinee]

Jim, that is a change your programmer made. An Administrative decision to show posts for the last 40 minutes. They are not tied together. The Forum can do the 2 separately and by default does. It is a choice to tie them together and makes information less useful and that obfuscates forum statistics. Having that button just show the default 3 pages of recent post (time related to the point of click) and having the Most Users Online (and currently active) during a set time period are two mutually exclusive forum functions. No argument by me that you have chosen to set them the same, just pointing out what they do and how vB is set up since you were discussing that. vB is a pretty open setup, it is the way it is because SMC decided it would be that way. I suppose sometimes all some of us want to understand is why we want to keep it so inaccurate or if we could get it to be more accurate. Maybe the original reason is no longer necessary. Maybe it is and that is okay too. For my part, I just ask because I use the software a certain way and it is inaccurate.

Thanks for the open discussion. I am sure Aaron could come along soon and clear it up for both of us.

Mike

[Aaron Koehl]

Mike,

We use the default settings for this software.