Do “Alerts” have a shelf life?

cams

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What’s up NES, been a bit since I logged on, maybe a month or so, was just taking a break from the wonders of the internet for my own sanity.

When I logged in today, it showed I had around 21 alerts in the upper right hand corner, but would only let me view 6 of them. Do these alerts sort of time themselves out after a while or am I experiencing a different tech issue?

Thanks and hope folks are good.
 
I don't know what the expiration/marking mechanism is,
but I would never do anything but click on Show All,
and then start separate tabs for every line item with a teentsy yellow star.

In particular, looking at the drop-down menu of alerts
produced by hovering over the Alerts link is a fool's errand.

Just memorize the number <n> of outstanding alerts,
click on Show All,
and verify that the most recent <n> items have yellow stars.
 
Why is that easier? I usually just scan down the alerts using the drop down menu (not the show all) just looking for any quoted posts or questions someone may have asked me.

Today the icon showed 21 alerts, the drop down and the show all only revealed 6 of them. I did notice the yellow stars, haven’t seen that before, and assumed that was a recent alert. It’s possible the others were over a month old and just evaporated with time.
 
It’s not that important I guess, new alerts are showing up fine and still there. Old ones must have migrated.
All good.
 
Why is that easier?
It's not "easier" - it's reliable.

It's probably "easier" to grab a Glock
that you've stuffed in your underwear
by sticking your finger in the trigger guard,
but that's a good way to shoot yourself in the nuts.


I watch threads so that I can read new posts in them.

Until or unless I see it documented exactly what causes
  • the Alerts count to reset to zero, and
  • yellow stars to wink out, and
  • the Alerts pulldown to clear the yellow highlighting on new threads,
I have to assume that I get only one bite at the apple:
  • One left click on Alerts
  • One left click on Show All
With that kind of hot mess GUI design,
doing anything else risks missing a new post.


(Now in fact, when I click on Alerts when the number is 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5,
and I can see 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 items in the pulldown yellow-highlighted,
then I'll generally middle-click on each in turn (bottom to top),
to launch them in separate tabs. But if the number is higher,
then you can't see all the items in the Alerts pulldown,
and the only safe thing is to click on Show All.

I think I've seen the yellow highlighting disappear from the pulldown items
(and the count clear) if I move my mouse off the pulldown, click elsewhere,
and click on Alerts again to bring it back. I certainly don't trust the NES software
further than I can toss a rack of servers not to clear that "unseen count"
and lose the "unseen map"; not without me seeing how it's documented to work.

If the truth comes out in this thread, swell. But I ain't got time to scour the site
(or some XenForo docs) to look for it...).

I usually just scan down the alerts using the drop down menu (not the show all) just looking for any quoted posts or questions someone may have asked me.

Today the icon showed 21 alerts, the drop down and the show all only revealed 6 of them. I did notice the yellow stars, haven’t seen that before, and assumed that was a recent alert. It’s possible the others were over a month old and just evaporated with time.
(I thought I'd posted a thread in this Tech Support subforum
asking for the yellow stars to be made at least 3 times bigger.
It took me years to notice them in the first place).


If you're just cherry-picking the alerts that look interesting,
or if some other way of using the GUI used to work for you,
that's great. I'm sorry that I don't understand the system well enough
to guess how you can have a count of 21, with only 6 items.

Given that I don't want to miss any alerts,
it really sucks that I can't peek at the forums on vacation
unless I have the time to catch up completely.

A ski condo in Vermont with free WiFi? Sure.
The front porch of a public library in the Adirondacks? NFW.
 
With that kind of hot mess GUI design,
doing anything else risks missing a new post.

The easiest way to insure you don't miss threads with new posts, is to post a reply in the thread, a simply "." will get your avitar on the thread. Then after reading all the forum titles and having finished that forum, mark all threads as read for that forum. Next time on, any new posts in threads will be flagged as new posts and the ones with your avitar on them are the ones you want to read.

=---> the Alerts count to reset to zero

If you click on alerts, click again and it shows all, if you click on an alert from there, you go to the thread and when you back arrow, come back to the show all alerts. Things stay the same there UNTIL YOU LEAVE. Then new alerts all are reset.

  • =---> yellow stars to wink out
  • They go out when you leave.

  • the Alerts pulldown to clear the yellow highlighting on new threads,

  • when you leave the alerts they reset. The alerts stay listed for 5 days as far as I can determine, but will not show as new alerts until there is one.
I have to assume that I get only one bite at the apple:
  • One left click on Alerts
  • One left click on Show All[/QUOTE]
Correct. Don't rely on alerts, rely on the read/unread threads.

Given that I don't want to miss any alerts,
it really sucks that I can't peek at the forums on vacation
unless I have the time to catch up completely.

If you read a thread, it will reset to the as read before, and not show as new posts when you leave that forum. If you go away and there is a new post, and you come back it will then show to you as unread and you can click on it and pick up where you left off in the thread. If you mark all threads as read in one forum, change forums and come back to the original forum, IF there is a new post it will be so indicated and be on the top of the stack.

If I've been confusing, please point out which part and I'll try to clarify.
 
The easiest way to insure you don't miss threads with new posts, is to post a reply in the thread, a simply "." will get your avitar on the thread. Then after reading all the forum titles and having finished that forum, mark all threads as read for that forum. Next time on, any new posts in threads will be flagged as new posts and the ones with your avitar on them are the ones you want to read.
I'm willing to accept the personal responsibility for
remembering to clicking the Watch Thread link
in the upper RH corner of the page when I find a thread of interest.
I certainly won't truck around crapping up the forums with null posts
just for my own convenience.

(I let watched conversations EMail me about new replies,
but I don't use EMail alerts for watched forum threads).

But yes, I default to auto-watch threads I reply to.
It's only useful for threads to which I post (what passes for) actual content.


On the other hand, I don't browse forums every day or every session.
I browse (sub)forurms much less than once a week -
only for new (to me) interesting threads (even if they're over a week old).

I do watch a few subforums for brand new threads,
but very very few (and they're low-traffic).
Ham radio, Mass. laws, ...
I've been green for a few years but
didn't even look at the karma forum until this year.

And I certainly don't mark entire forums as read.
I don't depend on that to manage threads I'm reading.

I'd be mangling the flags - and effectively lying to myself -
if I even marked a thread as "read" when I haven't even looked at it.
I certainly wouldn't mark a forum as "read".

=---> the Alerts count to reset to zero

If you click on alerts, click again and it shows all, if you click on an alert from there, you go to the thread and when you back arrow, come back to the show all alerts. Things stay the same there UNTIL YOU LEAVE. Then new alerts all are reset.
Interesting, thanks.

My browser is pretty reliable, but I'd rather fan the alerted threads into separate tabs
than pray that a browser crash/reboot won't reset the alerts.
(Note that I have the browser configured so that it won't do I/O
on a new tab until the first time I visit the tab.
So creating a dozen new tabs doesn't beat the server or browser to death).

I have to assume that I get only one bite at the apple:
  • One left click on Alerts
  • One left click on Show All
Correct. Don't rely on alerts, rely on the read/unread threads.


If you read a thread, it will reset to the as read before, and not show as new posts when you leave that forum. If you go away and there is a new post, and you come back it will then show to you as unread and you can click on it and pick up where you left off in the thread. If you mark all threads as read in one forum, change forums and come back to the original forum, IF there is a new post it will be so indicated and be on the top of the stack.

If I've been confusing, please point out which part and I'll try to clarify.
It's helpful, but it assumes a usage model utterly foreign to me.
Maybe 95% of the users mark entire forums as "read",
but that's not how I roll.

Thanks again very much for the extended explanation.
 
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