'Since your last visit' data very buggy

[Nuan8]

Many users have complained about the inconsistency of this feature. Many times a re-login will be required even though the cookie is still valid.

Sometimes it will say no new replies but there are, and clicking on the link shows that indeed there are new replies. Other times even clicking on the link will not show the new replies, even though they do indeed exist.

The most obvious failure of this feature to work is the 'new posts' link, which when a user comes back a day or two later obviously should have some new posts, but often it will say no new posts. Again, when clicking on the link, sometimes the new posts will be there.

So far I have not heard of anyone reporting a failure of the new PM function.

This seems like one or more bugs, but also may be caused by the method of getting the proper data, which I suspect is limited to reading cookies which are set in the browser. This method is quite limited, as many users will use multiple computers and/or browsers regularly. I myself use both my home and work computers regularly. The system does record when the user last logged on, and what he or she last read, so it seems to me there should be other, more effective ways to gather the proper data.

Several prominent users are reporting that they consider this issue to greatly limit their involvement, and consider this function to be very important to community building. Therefore this bug may be considered more serious.

[Nuan8]

Feedback from BobRay:
The "no unread replies" link is showing, but if I click on it, I see three new replies. It also shows "no new posts" and if I click on that, I see nothing (not even the three new replies) even though there are a number of other posts I have not read. This happens to me several times per week and it is pretty annoying. I'm sure there are others who are less active in the Forums because of this.