Inconsistency in Forum View post count -v- Unread Posts

[#1]

I zero'ed the board at 16:44'ish and then a few minutes later noted that the board was now reading 4 Unread too. I'm starting to think that the Unread Count is a random number generator and only serves the purpose of winding up people trying to find the elusive posts. 

edit for spelling

[#2]

Crikey, why didn't I think of that

[#3]

There was 1 post caught in the spam filter yesterday at 15:53 but thats all.

[#4]

So I hope these observations are being passed to Lithium @jaread83 @LouisaMartin

[#5]

Lithium? Lithium?   I'm sure I've seen the name somewhere, but they don't appear to be very active these days. 

[#6]

@MauriceC,

Prompted by your question I went and looked up lithium...

Trace amounts of lithium are present in all organisms. The element serves no apparent vital biological function, since animals and plants survive in good health without it, though non-vital functions have not been ruled out. Lithium administered as any of several lithium salts has proved to be useful as a mood-stabilizing drug in the treatment of bipolar disorder in humans.

Just about sums up this forum environment!

[#7]

I see at least one Lithium engineer here everyday. You guys wont see them though as their status is set to be invisible. When we report these things we generally link them to the info you guys provide to help them diagnose issues.

[#8]

Looking and watching are both meritorious,  but my earlier observation was based on Action particularly in the form of bug fixes.  I now perceive little benefit in bothering to report issues as they just seem to disappear into the "tomorrow"  bit bucket.   

[#9]

Has something changed over the last few days?   Yesterday I saw what I believed was a high post count for a topic I was reading, but was unclear about the how / when of what I'd done - so ignored it.

This morning the Plusnet Feedback board was showing an unread count of 179 at Forum page level!  Looking at the Last Topic and Last Post entries, I was expecting to see a very lively debate on the price changes, but all I found were about 15 unread posts  across 3 topics  (NOTE: numbers may not be precise but are indicative!)  Having read those posts I went back to the Forum page to discover the unread total was now 122?   Now the number of posts I read may be slightly innaccurate but it was nowhere near the 57 difference in the displayed post count.

Been back and fore into the board several times since.  The count moves up and down with 122 as the new baseline.

Is this a massive surge of SPAM given the topics? 

At this level of inaccuracy might it be better to consider removing this feature until the root cause is identified and FIXED.

NOTE:  I like the feature and would be sad to see it go, but it's getting both embarrassing and frustrating in equal measure.

EDIT:  Just recalled that yesterday the problem was seen on the 'General Chat' board - and IIRC  the price change debate was orignally on that board (supporting the Spam theory)

Maurice

EDIT 2: Steadily during the day, the Unread Post count on the Forum page reduced to zero  (after allowing for the new visible posts)

Maurice

[#10]

Nothing has been changed as far as I know.

[#11]

@MauriceC, the unread posts were most likely to be the mods moving and merging all the threads and posts in regards to the conversations surrounding the price changes. When a post is moved to a new location, it becomes unread.

[#12]

@jaread83  If it is the case that a logical Mod activity such as Moving or Merging a number posts can create such an anomaly in the Unread Post count, then I would consider there is a flaw in the design / coding somewhere?.

Consider:  The Mods merge / move 20 posts - 15 of which I have read in their original location.  I would expect the Unread Post count in the new location to be raised by 5.  Either that or ALL of the merged / moved posts should be highlit as Unread in the new thread and probably as new entries in the Unread Topics / Unread Posts pages as well.   NOTE:  This second option is potentially as cumbersome and unwelcome as the original bug!

As it stands, the Board has NO item marked as Unread but on the Forum page it claims there 122 Unread.  Of course I can clear the problem by using the 'mark all posts in forum as read' option - but what will a less experienced user be expected to do?

Maurice

[#13]

There is certainly no consistency whatsoever here, and lack of input from Mods regarding posts quarantined as Spam has not been helpful either

Townman wrote:
Lithium administered as any of several lithium salts has proved to be useful as a mood-stabilizing drug in the treatment of bipolar disorder in humans.

There is nothing mood stabilising about this forum

[#14]

Still happening at forum page level community feedback site is showing the count as three but there are no unread post that I can detect either in unread postsor by going to the forum

[#15]

Lithium are looking into this and emailed myself and Louisa last night to let us know that they are still looking into this. We will let you know when we get some updates about this.