Forum Sorts

[Bobby]

I don't know when this problem started, but all my forum topic displays are not sorted. I went to the bottom and experimented, and nothing seems to sort right. I even tried sorting by Author and that was wrong. I am using Firefox, but tried IE7 and no difference.

What's up?

[Ron]

Hi Bob,

What kind of sort are you speaking of?

[Bobby]

Sorry for not being more specific. When you view a forum, you see columns "Topics", "Replies", "Views", and "Last Post". I had come to expect that the default sort for the page was by Last Post, so that you see the most recent post on the top of the list.

But lately the display of posts seems to be almost random, and when I go down to the bottom to override the Sort By, nothing happens. Even sorting by Author doesn't work.

I am not sure when this started happening, but for me it is consistently wrong now, no matter which forum I pick, etc.

[Bobby]

Another factor: forum post displays from Search seem to be correct - I think it is only the main forum browse where the sort is lost.

[Ron]

Go to "User Control Panel" (UCP - upper left on the menu there) >> "Board Preferences" tab >> "Edit Display Settings" and you'll find your default settings there. You'll be amazed at what you can do in your UCP.

Can't imagine why it would change out of the blue. Maybe delete your board cookies too (bottom right on the main index page).

[cdeemer]

Actually the same thing happened to me! I assumed the change was done at the administrative end (and I like the old way better).

[Bobby]

I went into the UCP and everything looked correct. So I deleted cookies, and now the sorts seem to be OK. Something happened or changed. The problem, though, was that there was NO sort - it was not just the wrong specification (i.e. choosing wrong column or ascending/descending) but it was totally random. Odd...

[Ron]

Hm, well, can't rule out cookie corruption. cdeemer, everything back to normal for you?

[Bobby]

I spoke too soon. After I cleaned out cookies, THIS forum was correct. However, the rest aren't. This doesn't make sense. I have tried page reloading, etc. If I look at, for example, the Computer topics, the first entry is from August 15th - both creation date and last post date.

[Ron]

I think you're confusing the "stickies" with "new" topics. In the "Computer Issues" forum, the upper most topic was created on August 15. The stickies are meant to stay at the top of the forum topics section. There's nothing wrong with your cookies or anything. It's the way most forum software performs. Stickies, Announcements, stay at the top, there's nothing wrong with any sorts.

Everyone navigates forums differently. Try different ways and, once you find a way that suits you, it will be second nature when arriving.

[Bobby]

OK - I guess that was it. I am another victim of the multitude of icons!

A possible suggestion would be to have a bar or separator between those out of sort order (stickies, etc.) and the normal posts.

As a user I want to see what is new at the top. I have no problem with a separate area for stickies, but I would like it to pop out at me more, rather than have to check the icon.

Thanks Ron!