read vs. unread threads

[Edward]

Dear moderator(s),

It used to be able to tell if a thread had new posts in it or not (i.e. posts that I hadn't read yet). In the main forum page, if I had read all the posts in a given thread, then that thread's subject would be a different color (purple I think). If a someone posted a new post the thread since I last read that thread, then that thread's subject would be blue. This is very similar to how links change colors on a "normal" webpage depending on how your browser's set up and whether or not you've visited the destination of that link in the last x days.

This is no longer true. In fact (and I'm not trying to point fingers, just bringing this to your attention) the new bulletin board system, very unwisely, makes all links the same color! It does this via a Cascading Style Sheet which includes the code:

#all A:link { COLOR: #001090; }
#all A:visited { COLOR: #001090; }
#all A:active { COLOR: #001090; }

You can see above how all links, regardless of whether I've visited them or not, are blue.

Is this something you all can easily change? Does the new bulletin board system let you set these defaults? I found having visited vs. unvisited links being different colors to be very helpful in browsing your forums.

It looks like the color of the envelopes (yellow vs. red) beside each thread is supposed to address this issue. However, these envelopes do not seem to be "updating" for me. I'll read a thread and return to the main forum page only to find that the envelope is still red. Perhaps the color of the envelope is determined by some crazy server-side database that's tracking my moves through the Apolyton site or a bunch of cookies on my machine. Whatever it is, it's not working or it's working very slowly (as in more than fifteen minutes to "realize" that I've read a particular thread).

Would it be possible to reinstitute having links change colors based on whether or not you've visited them - or is this something that the new bulletin board software doesn't allow.

Thanks,
Edward

[MarkG]

first of all, the # in front of those lines means that they are commented. they do not work

second, if you read a thread and press the back button to go to the forum it is certain the red icon will stay red since you're seeing the cached version of the page

[Paul]

I certainly did like the fact that visited threads in the old forum had a different color. And I would like to see that back, because I don't always look at all the forums every time I visit the site.

[Edward]

MarkG,

Thank you for your suggestions.

<hr>
CSS comments are enclosed in /* */ marks as in

/* comment */
/* A:link { COLOR: #001090; } */

Putting a hash mark in front of a CSS statement declaration applies that rule to all document elements with the specified ID.

In Apolyton's case

#all A:link { COLOR: #001090; }
#all A:visited { COLOR: #001090; }
#all A:active { COLOR: #001090; }

makes all links in elements whose ID is "all" blue. Since Apolyton's code goes on give the whole page body the ID "all"

&lt;body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" id="all" leftmargin="2" topmargin="2" marginwidth="2" marginheight="2" link="#000080" vlink="#000080" alink="#800000">

the entire page gets the "links are blue regardless of whether you've been there or not" rule. This means that visitors have to use their browser to turn off CSSs and page defined colors in order to see a difference between visited and unvisited links. Does vBulletin let you set a different color for visited vs. unvisited links?

<hr>

Thanks for your insight on page caching. Keeping that in mind the red vs. yellow envelopes work pretty well. If I read a thread with a red envelope, it turns yellow when I return to the main forum page. I can even close all my browser windows and come back to Apolyton later and the envelope colors still work. If I quit my browser, the red vs. yellow envelopes revert to their last "saved" state (perhaps the first visit of the day?) and some of the yellow folders incorrectly become red again. I can live with that.

Thanks again for your help!

[Paul]

I notice that you have now changed it so that visited threads have a different color. Would it also be possible to add the number of posts to the thread urls like on the old forums? That way a thread would show up as unread again when a reply was made to it.

[Edward]

Paul,

It's been my experience that the threads keep their same ID, even after new posts are made.
<hr>
MarkG,

A thousand thanks for changing the visited link color. This is going to sound very ungrateful and picky but might you be able to make the colors more different? On my screen they look almost identical:
unvisited: #00190 &nbsp;darkish blue with a breath of cyan
visited: #000080 &nbsp;a very slightly darker blue

If Apolyton needs to keep all links blue for aesthetics or consistency's sake then a greater difference in darkness would be good:
unvisited: #00190 &nbspe darkish blue with a breath of cyan
visited: #000055 &nbsp;more blatantly darker blue

I think purple would be even better:
unvisited: #00190 &nbspe darkish blue with a breath of cyan
visited: #330066 &nbsp;purple

This would help me (and probably others out there) tell the difference more easily.

Thanks you for your consideration,
Edward