Inconsistency in Forum View post count -v- Unread Posts

[#1]

It does seem to be an odd issue with the system caching those numbers, probably with load balancing. I have had word that this is being looked into by senior engineers still.

[#2]

Probably using the same Time Planner as the developers of the new Plusnet Billing system?  << Grin >>

[#3]

@jaread83,

Are you still looking for further evidence of this?  Sunday 9th April 14:04 BST.

[#4]

@jaread83   I'm seeing exactly the same thing on this board - Community Site Feedback.  Noticed  it first this morning around 09:30 but too busy to take screenshots.  'Stuck' count is also 2?

Maurice

[#5]

Thanks for the screenshots. I have sent them over and asked for an update on whats happening with this.

[#6]

This morning I see the problem on two boards (so far?)  Community Feedback - reported yesterday - and now on the Business board.

Screen shots attached.  Creeping paralysis

[#7]

I have linked these screenshots to Lithium too. Thanks for taking the time to gether this evidence.

[#8]

"Curiouser and curiouser" said Alice!

Checked my Notifications about 16:30 and got (see attachment).  Checked the post from Jaread83-test and there was no sign of it?

Now comes the curious bit!   Back at Forum level view and the 'stuck' counts on both 'Business' and 'Community Site Feedback' are now back to zero.

Perhaps the 'clean-up' fairies have been at work. 

[#9]

GRRrrrr.   And now its back again on both boards! 

[#10]

I did some experimentation yesterday and found the same had happened on the Business board. I manually read each thread so that there were no new items left and then there was a single 'new' item on the category view.

It could be a spam post, a post by an unverified user... or maybe something else.

[#11]

Further to this: I am going to speak to Louisa about this as this particular bug has been going on for long enough and I keep seeing it rear its ugly head every so often.

[#12]

Right, just to keep you guys in the loop:

I have sent a very detailed and long email off to Lithium support about this as this has been going on for a year now and it was claimed to have been fixed in August. Clearly, this has not been resolved and I have provided recent screenshots as well as a detailed explanation of what exactly is happening as well as my opinion of what the issue could be.

I am strongly inclined to think that the 'new' posts were by unverified users who have posted but the post would not be shown until the email is verified... but an unverified user posting somewhere would also trigger the notification feed an email to any subscribers which is why I suspect this to be the case.

I also CC'd @LouisaMartin into my email so she can keep a close eye on the situation. I am going to keep on this until it is resolved as this has been going on for long enough now.

[#13]

Thanks @jaread83.  As bugs go it isn't that serious, but it does interfere with keeping abreast of events on the boards that you have an interest in following.

As an aside.  Currently the 'stuck' count on both this board and the 'Business' board are again showing as '0' but 40 minutes ago they were '2' and '1'  - much like yesterday.  Seems to depend on which server you end up on per session?

[#14]

---

@MauriceC wrote:

"Curiouser and curiouser" said Alice!

Checked my Notifications about 16:30 and got (see attachment).  Checked the post from Jaread83-test and there was no sign of it?

---

Sorry, that was me. I registered an unverified account with a gobbledeegook email address and posted a test reply on a thread I was the only participant in to see if I would receive an email/notification from an unverified user (unverified users posts are invisible to everyone until verified - but the notifications are sent!). Unfortunately, my suspicions were true and this happened so that has been reported as a seperate bug (one that I have been working with Lithium to resolve and posting on their community about recently which has gained some attention from senior devs).

[#15]

Hi all,

Lithium have responded by telling me that the database has been repaired and the issue should not occur anymore. This was caused by threads or posts being moved and the number was stuck (not sure how exactly).

I am still sitting on the side of caution with this one so please let me know as soon as it happens again. If it doesn't happen again then that would be great but I shall be keeping my eye on this by trying to replicate it again by manually reading everything and checking the boards.

If you spot this issue again, provide the screenshots and a timestamp (thanks for those recent ones, it helped pinpoint the database issue) and I shall attempt to get the software core developers to have a look.

Thank you for your patience with this.