This happens quite frequently. I do get alerts from my stories and posts most of the time, but occasionally I have to look through my post history to see that I have other replies, but I don't get alerted to them. Why?
This happens to me occasionally. I'm pretty sure it only happens when I don't notice that the new posts continue onto a new page (i.e. I don't read all new posts). No new alerts are sent for a thread until you have read all posts since the last alert. Do you think something akin to this could be the cause for your missing alerts?
I've fairly frequently encountered this, and have formed the totally groundless theory that when the software is overloaded, the alerts are the safest thing to drop on the floor, and that it was therefore coded to do that. I really doubt that my theory is valid.
I've noticed more what @Komposten was referring to - if I don't read all the way to the end of the "new" posts, then I don't get notified if new posts are added on after those ones. I think of it as the software having a bit of a snit "Well, you couldn't even take the time to read those ones, so I guess I won't bother you with these!"
You know, @Komposten's theory is plausible and would explain a lot. Two possible solutions of this is the case: 1) Increae the number of posts listed on the what's new pages. 2) Mark all as read.
I can adjust the number of posts displayed per page sitewide. It's a backend administrator setting. I'm not sure what the optimal number would be, but if it would make the alert issue less pervasive, I'm open to trying it. I don't use the page extensively myself, so I don't know how many is too many.
Hm. Just to make it clear, I'm talking about the "new posts" option, this one: https://www.writingforums.org/find-new/ Not the alerts. Alerts refer only to threads one has replied to or is watching. New posts are all the posts since last visit. Which is different, as you know. I don't mind how many posts are shown by page, as long as all the new posts since last visit are shown no matter how many pages they take. I only get six pages of "new posts" when I don't visit for a while, but when I go through them and refresh "new posts", more new posts show up. So I'm thinking there's a forum limit to "new posts" shown. I would like to have an option of choosing "show all new posts since last visit", if possible, even if it shows 18 pages. (I've been in a forum where I'd have 18 pages of new posts, but it served me right for not visiting more often.) Ideally, there should be an option where the user could define "show a maximum of x new posts". I don't know if it's possible within the forum settings, though, or if it would take too much memory space in a server or some other technical issue like that that makes it impracticable.
Ah, I see, this is something different. I'll look into what you're describing, it does look like it limits the pagination to six pages. I actually find this rather odd. It doesn't appear to be an adjustable setting but I promise I'll look into it. It is worth noting that posts older than thirty days are considered read/old. I also suspect there's no practical way to make this a customizable setting on a per user basis. @Miller0700 @Komposten were you referring to alerts or to the updates to the new posts page?
I was referring to alerts. E.g. yesterday I saw on the New Posts page that there had been activity in the That Moment-thread but I had no alert in my alert box (even though I watch the thread). Though I'm pretty sure this was just a case of me not reading every post in the thread the last time it alerted me. However, if others experience it even if they read all posts in the threads then it must be looked into.
And you are subscribed to the thread, correct? I agree with your assessment. There have been several reports of related issues, but I haven't been able to confirm if the issue is as you described, simply not reading a thread fully and thus having no additional alert, or if there's a real software bug here. I think we really just need more information.
Don't know if this is in the same boat, but I'll see a new post on the Recent Activity page and when I go to the thread that new post isn't there (can also happen via the Alerts list). It's like there's some sort of time lag? Or it could be that I'm new and not used to the forum :/ .
@ajaye I'm not sure why this is, it does need to be looked into further. I thought it was our caching mechanism but I disabled that months ago and thought the issue was fixed. Thank you for reporting it. @Rosacrvx @Komposten The number of new posts displayed on the new posts page is set by the same setting for the site's search results. It was set to 200 results at 20 per page but I've increased it to 600. That should cover up to 30 pages/600 new posts and also extends normal search results. I can extend it further if needed, but it eventually becomes an issue of site speed and server resources.