Pit Stop at the First Page on the way to the most recent post

[Buckster]

What's up with the pit stop at page one of every thread when going to the most recent post? When clicking on the blue arrow from the forum interface, or clicking on the link in an email notification, the forum loads page one fully, THEN proceeds to the page where the latest post is, and RARELY actually goes to the most recently unseen post - just sits on that page, waiting for me to scroll down.

I've cleared cache, made sure cookies are enabled, and all that jazz. I've noticed it happens on my desktop, laptop, tablet and phone - my conclusion is that this is something built into the forum behavior itself.

Why?

Is it to force the showing of more ads? I can't think of anything else that briefly but fully loading page 1 does, other than expose all the ads on it to gain a bit more revenue for the site.

If that's the reason, I can understand it, but it's bull. If that's not the reason, then it should be fixed - none of the other forums I go to have this going on, and most of them are running vBulletin same as this site, so there's just no reason for it. And if nobody else is experiencing this, then I apologize for the accusation, and will continue to try to figure out why every device I access the forum from is behaving in this manner.

 

[terri]

I can't speak for how the interface reacts from an email link, other than to comment that it's probably not the most direct way to get where you want to go. From the forum, though, instead of clicking on that blue arrow on the left hand side (and I'm now speaking about the page you see once you click on "New Posts" at the top of the main forum page), try going over to the right, and clicking on the red arrow next to the last poster's name. That directs you immediately to the most recent post made.

As far as seeing more ads, they appear on virtually every page where there is room for a sidebar, so it wouldn't matter if it were the first page of a thread or not. Start by playing around with this red arrow and see if that helps you navigate faster.

Others may have additional tips.

 

[Buckster]

What I'd really like to do is go to the next post that I haven't seen yet, which isn't necessarily the last post made.

On the ads, if it loads all the ads on page one, then moves on to the page where the most recent post that I haven't seen yet is, then it's loaded ads twice. I assume that the site owners get revenue for every time an ad loads, on the assumption that someone has clicked to specifically go to that page to read, and will then see those ads. So the page one ads generate revenue, but I had no intention of going to that page to see them, and as soon as the whole page has loaded, it jumps off that page without me seeing them anyway, to head to the page I really want.

Again, this is the only forum that behaves that way, so it's not like it's a vBulletin Board anomaly. The rest load just fine from the email links and blue arrows that indicate there's been a new post since last visit.

So yeah, I can (and have been) working around it, waiting out the additional page one load times, etc., but there's just no legitimate reason for it in the first place.

I understand nothing will change. Nothing ever does. Nobody really cares, based on willingness to address other forum issues brought up by the members over time. I get it: It's an inconvenience... yeah, yeah, yeah... we hear ya... here's a pat on the head... now run along...

Just makes me feel better to point it out, I guess.

 

[SquarePeg]

When I click on last post it brings me to the page with the last post. No stop at Page 1. This is from pc and ipad. I usually browse via the "Active Topics" link at the top and go from there. Have you tried deleting cookies or going incognito to see if that eliminates the problem?

 

[Buckster]

When I click on last post it brings me to the page with the last post. No stop at Page 1. This is from pc and ipad. I usually browse via the "Active Topics" link at the top and go from there. Have you tried deleting cookies or going incognito to see if that eliminates the problem?

The problem I'm having is not with "last post" (red arrow), but with "most recent UNREAD post" (blue arrow). This is determined by my cookies, so yes, I deleted them to freshen it all up. Happens to me in all browsers, on desktop, on laptop, on android tablet and on android phone. Going incognito won't help because it won't recognize me to take me to the most recent unread post by ME.

 

[sm4him]

Not sure what the deal is, Buckster, but I just tried it and worked perfectly for me. Clicked the blue arrow in another thread, and it took me immediately to the first post in that thread that I hadn't yet read. No pit stops, and no stopping at the top of the page.

 

[snowbear]

I'm not having a problem with it, either; I'm using Chrome and Windows 8. Firefox didn't go to the first unread post but it was close to it. I haven't used FF is a couple of weeks so the cookies aren't up to date.

 

[Buckster]

Must be something on my end then. My apologies.

I'll keep digging...

 

[snowbear]

Must be something on my end then. My apologies.

I'll keep digging...

Changed any settings in the browser or added any plug-ins, recently? Maybe try a different browser just to see what happens.

 

[snowbear]

UPDATE. I have had it stop at the top of a couple threads, and it "paused" once before going on to the unread post. I'm guessing the latter is probably a lag in my connection, which occurs sometimes. I am running an ad blocker so I don't see them, but I wonder if it might be some coding in the ad - more of a bug than a feature?

 

[DBA]

Must be something on my end then. My apologies.

I'll keep digging...

It's not just you, I find it highly annoying.

I've noticed that if the thread only has one page it'll take you directly to that post, otherwise you hit page one first and then redirect to the top of page two.


The cookie based "thread/post read" is also very annoying and old school. I switch between pc's and phone, so it's wiped every time. Please change it to the database option.


BTW who owns/runs this site?

 

[The_Traveler]

It happns to me when I click on a link in an email.

For example

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ether-dc-late-summer-early-fall-new-post.html


will not take me to the new post but to the head of the thread and then to the top of the page where the new post is, as opposed to the end where the actual new post resides.

 

[DBA]

The cookie based "thread/post read" is also very annoying and old school. I switch between pc's and phone, so it's wiped every time. Please change it to the database option.

Perfect example of this just happened again. My cookie (login) timed out and now when I click "New Posts?" I see a grand total of 27 threads, even though 2 hours ago I had many pages.