DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Testing. 1, 2, 3... => Topic started by: Raineypark on July 16, 2003, 03:51:09 PM
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When you're looking at the Home page, at the "Cousins Online" section, you see the names of the 'visible' listed.
If you click on Home, and refresh the page, the order of the names frequently changes....even though no one has left or joined in the meantime.
If there are more or less names, I can understand the order changing...but what makes it change when it's still the same group of names? What determines the order in which the names appear?
Yes....I have too much time on my hands. ::)
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I've noticed and wondered too.
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I've noticed and wondered too.
Rainey (and others)...have you ever noticed how dom never seems to know the 'technical answers'?
DOM...FESS UP...WE KNOW YOU'RE REALLY BILL GATES TWIN SISTER-IN-LAW ;D
I love you honey :-* :-* :-*
Patti
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What determines the order in which the names appear?
I think the most recent additions are added to the left side, but I noticed that after a member has left the forums without logging out their name just hangs in a spot for a while. The same goes for the order in Who's Online. In other words, they're not really here but their name continues to appear while other member names start moving over it. It might have to do with the default/session length setting from the last time they logged in, but that's just a guess. Or I could be completely wrong about the order. [idontknow]
But some members do leave the forum and return again shortly.
NOW who has too much time on her hands?! ;)
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Rainey...now that there's "Who's Online", I usually use this (instead of Home, then bottom).
But I did "Who's Online" then "Home", scrolled to bottom to see visible cousins, and it was the same 4.
Patti
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But generally, doesn't one's own name usually appear first in line? I'm almost always first on MY screen so I'm assuming everyone else is usually first on their own.
But even THAT isn't absolute because every once in a while somone else's name will suddenly appear before mine!
I think this should be looked into by a team of experts in the subject.....let's get to the bottom of this very important and fascinating topic.... ::)
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But generally, doesn't one's own name usually appear first in line? I'm almost always first on MY screen so I'm assuming everyone else is usually first on their own.
But even THAT isn't absolute because every once in a while somone else's name will suddenly appear before mine!
I think this should be looked into by a team of experts in the subject.....let's get to the bottom of this very important and fascinating topic.... ::)
I'm not usually visible, but since you asked I changed my preference to see what happens. The ordering I saw was the same as I described before, except my name started out on the far left. Each time a visitor showed up they started out on my left but the next time I checked they had moved over me, with my name back on the far left, but they remained in the order of their appearance here (with the oldest on the right). But one cousin's name was still showing up though s/he had left the forums already, so that name stayed on my right the whole time with the others moving over it until it eventually disappeared.
That's my hypothesis for the ordering of visible names. I nominate you to make yourself visible in order to test it. ;)
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Rainey guess in the million or so times i've been on this forum
never even noticed the order but i have seen someone's name
on the list and the post will say they are off line must be [ghost]s
jennifer
i have little time as i'm sure you all do too but this forum
beats valium or worse
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Okay Midnite.....I'm officially visible. Now watch...not one person will join or leave for as long as I sit here! :(
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Okay....from one click to the next (probably not more than a couple of minutes) the order of names went from this:
Raineypark...Ben...Gerard...Bob The Bartender
to this.....
Raineypark...Crazy Jenny...Bob The Bartender...Gerard...
...Ben!!
Now what is the pattern in this? Crazy Jenny is added and the three guys reverse order?
I suggest a blue-ribbon panel of the most senior experts in this field should convene to study the phenomenon and deliver a paper on their findings at the next meeting.
(WAYYYYYYYYYY to much time on her hands! [vryevl])
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Now what is the pattern in this? Crazy Jenny is added and the three guys reverse order?
I suggest a blue-ribbon panel of the most senior experts in this field should convene to study the phenomenon and deliver a paper on their findings at the next meeting.
No need for either a blue-ribbon panel or senior experts. The explanation for the pattern is quite simple. So simple, in fact, that its explanation will hold off so that you all might ponder it for a while longer. ;)
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Could you, perhaps, give us some indication just how much pondering on our part is required before you JUST EXPLAIN IT FOR PETE'S SAKE?!!!!! [angryf]
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Well...I've tried the Sherlock Holmes approach...
It's NOT by how many posts, NOT alphabetical, NOT date person registered....let's try curses/cures
Patti
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Could you, perhaps, give us some indication just how much pondering on our part is required before you JUST EXPLAIN IT FOR PETE'S SAKE?!!!!! [angryf]
I was away from my computer all day, just got home a short while ago, and I'm just glancing over the forum before I go to bed. An explanation will have to wait until sometime on Saturday. ;)
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Well...I've tried the Sherlock Holmes approach...
It's NOT by how many posts, NOT alphabetical, NOT date person registered....let's try curses/cures
Sherlock is looking in all the wrong places. :(
Here's a BIG clue: think about what most people use in their right hand (left, if they're left handed) when they're using their computers...
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Okay....so it's mouse-click driven.......so that means.......it changes when you move around the forum?......what board you're on, perhaps?
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Okay....so it's mouse-click driven.......so that means.......it changes when you move around the forum?......what board you're on, perhaps?
See, you didn't really need me to explain it after all - though it doesn't really matter what someone is doing - only that they clicked on any sort of link on the forum. ;) But for what it's worth, I'll give the complete explanation:
As everyone has no doubt noticed, the forum's system keeps track of every mouse click. Information regarding these clicks is stored in a table in the database named log_online. Among other things, each entry specifies whether the click was made by a member or guest (if by a member, then that person is identified), what action the link took (brought the person to a category, board, post, profile, etc.), and what time the click took place. Each time this same person clicks on a link, the info about their previous click is deleted from the table and replaced by an entry with the new info.
Now, keeping all that in mind, whenever someone accesses the forum's opening page, the BoardIndex, a rountine in the BoardIndex.php script gathers the info stored in the log_online table, sorts it most recent click to oldest, and that's the order by which members' names are listed in the "Cousins online" section.
As to why our own names are usually listed first but not always, well, if you've ever scrolled all the way down to the bottom of any page on the forum, you might have noticed that each page says how long it took the system to create it - usually something like "Page created in 0.438 seconds." The system actually measures time in milliseconds (thousandths of a second). More often than not, the person who accessed the BoardIndex by clicking on the "home" link in the main menu, logging in to the forum, etc. will be the most recent click added to the log_online table between the time it takes the system to log clicks and the BoardIndex.php script to access that table in the database. However, because time is divided into thousandths of a second, occasionally another member's entry will have been added to the table before the BoardIndex.php script calls the info from the table. In that case, that member (or possibly even those members) will have their name(s) listed before the name of the person who accessed the BoardIndex page.
And while I'm at it, I might as well explain that the reason the name of a member who has actually left the forum (either by logging off, closing their browser, or surfing to another site) lingers for a time afterward is because the system allows for a period of inactivity before checking to see whether a particular person has left the forum or just hasn't clicked on any links. If after that time it discovers they are no longer on the forum, then their entry in log_online will be deleted and their name will no longer appear in the "Cousins online" list.
Now, aren't you all happy that you asked? [wink2] And now you shouldn't have any more sleepless nights, tossing and turning, wondering just how all of this works. ;D
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Thanks Pepe......enlightenment is always a wonderful thing... [idea2]
Gee.....now I feel REALLY badly about being late with that last tuition payment. [undb]
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Where do all the guests come from? When it was first closed to guests, you had some sort of explanation about someone who hadn't logged in yet, or had logged off but was still being counted, or something like that.
But lately, there regularly can be 3 or so guests, which has had me quite puzzled.
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But lately, there regularly can be 3 or so guests, which has had me quite puzzled.
Believe it or not, a lot of them are people who are trying to register. Barely an hour of the day passes that there isn't at least one entry in the forum's error log from someone who has tried to register only to find out that they can't.
The others are still members who are logging in or out of the forum.