Does anyone know why

[joanmcq]

My unread threads will suddenly 'unbold' and show as read? I'll be perusing the forum or go to page 2 if I haven't been on here recently and all of a sudden I can't tell which threads I've read, and can no longer click through to the 1st unread post.

Not a huge issue, but annoying.

[Lion]

Me Too

I think it might happen after a certain period of time. If I have a lot to read or leave the Board open while I go to another task, phone call, etc., I can find no more bold when I return even when I know I had more new posts to read. I think just opening the Board but then closing down can change everything from bold as if it thinks I read them all, too.

[ChEAr$]

Are you sure

that you are still signed in?

Every so often it seems that every site I visit which requires a signin and password is asking me to sign in - again.

if you can't answer a message, it will be because of this.

[JohnH]

Seems like I recall someone saying this (changing of the bold headings) can happen if you have your cookies or temporary files settings configured in a certain way. As for what that all means or how to solve it, I don't have a clue.

[FEDUKE404]

Common problem

I raised this same question in an earlier thread:

http://www.thetaxbook.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18445

For whatever reason (I always do the "same" thing here) once or twice a month everything shows read and/or the blue "next" button is gone on threads I never visited.

"It's a puzzlement........"

FE

[joanmcq]

That thread must've turned unbolded before I had a chance to read it!

I know when I'm not signed in, which is rare. This board is good about keeping me signed in at all times.

[Gary2]

If you'll forgive a very general answer, many forum systems don't try to be perfect because of performance. While this particular forum is relatively small as things go, the underlying software chosen by our hosts is intended for sites with multiple forums and hundreds, if not thousands, of regular contributors. Instead, the site uses tricks such as relying on time stamps and keeping a limited set of per-thread/per-user information.

It's a trade-off of performance for perfect tracking. The alternative would be either unacceptable delays for redisplaying the thread index or unacceptably high server costs for our hosts.