Phantom posts

[Cochese]

Noticed this about when the forum took a dump, and it's still persisting.

The forum is telling that there is a new post in a thread, and it's a phantom one. It will take the last person to post in that thread, and say they made another post at a random time recently. You click on the thread and it's the same post you've already seen.

Sorry, that's about as best as I can describe it. For example, my 'Which ZCIP material...' thread was last posted a few days ago by Stytooner, yet it's showing that he posted again just an hour ago.

[jking]

The specific post you mentioned is a poll. I'm wondering if anytime someone votes, it shows up as an updated thread.

[JR]

The specific post you mentioned is a poll. I'm wondering if anytime someone votes, it shows up as an updated thread.

Correctamundo.

[LCHIEN]

I have noticed that is true of Polls.
People have open ended polls (no end date).
Someone comes along, who hasn't taken the poll before, and answers the poll.

In that case, it appears that VB updates the last post date to the time the poll was taken.

so your profile flags it as a new post for you even though no post was made.
When you look at it, it just shows the last old post from long ago.

The thread you mention about material for a ZCTP, that was a poll, I believe.

I always put a two week limit on polls, it doesn't totally prevent it happening but it does prevent really old polls from showing up on people's new post list.

[Cochese]

Makes sense. I've noticed it on a number of threads I've either viewed or responded to, I'll have to go back and check if that was a common denominator.

[pelligrini]

It is because of the Poll.

There's an option in VB in the AdminCP under Poll and Thread Rating Options:
Update Thread Last Post on Poll Vote
If you set this option to 'Yes' the thread's last post time will be updated when a vote is placed, thereby returning it to the top of its parent forum listing.

Note that this option can cause confusion. The last post time of a thread will be changed with no visible post.

[Black wallnut]

I'll hazzard a guess that it is. The other thing that may cause it is if you clear your cookies and or cache at the end of your browsing session. An additional tidbit about polls. If a poll is open for an extended time it soon somehow becomes a target of spammers; after deleting a number of spam posts to a poll thread I will close the poll. When I have done so the spamming stops. So those that wish to include a poll should limit the time that it is open.

To test Dave's theory.....

[sweensdv]

I believe that if someone goes in and edits one of their earlier posting in a thread that that also show up as the last posting to the thread. It could be that that is the case in some of the threads you have noticed this happening in.

[Black wallnut]

I believe that if someone goes in and edits one of their earlier posting in a thread that that also show up as the last posting to the thread. It could be that that is the case in some of the threads you have noticed this happening in.

Good guess, in fact one that I once thought about however then as now I choose to do a simple experiment to see and once again disproved it. Edits have no effect. The correct answer lies with the post being an open poll and someone voting.

[LCHIEN]

Good guess, in fact one that I once thought about however then as now I choose to do a simple experiment to see and once again disproved it. Edits have no effect. The correct answer lies with the post being an open poll and someone voting.

I agree, I have not seen that edits will update the last post time. They definately do not.
Only poll-taking does that. Or of course, a valid new post.