Tracked threads not showing up as unread (part 2 - electric boogaloo)

About a year back I had a problem where threads I have set to tracked wouldn’t show up as unread. This was resolved for quite some time, incidentally after I unignored a user I had ignored, but has now resurfaced - incidentally after I ignored a user.

See:

I also made a post on the Discourse Meta forum about it at that time, but never got a response. All the same, I’ve made a new reply there indicating the problem has resurfaced:

I’m posting this here too because the mod team here seemed to have more luck getting/keeping in touch with the Discourse team, and I’m not sure if the WK discourse has any instance-specific stuff going on that might be affecting this. Given the timing I can’t help but feel like ignoring users is connected to this, rather unfortunate that I seemingly have to choose between the forum functioning as it should and being able to not interact with users I want no interaction with.

2 Likes

I‘m not getting proper notifications either, which I find pretty annoying. I do have a few users that I ignore, but I didn’t change anything in that respect (ignored them a while back already) so I’m not sure there is a connection. But it’s an interesting thought!
Thanks for your time and effort dealing with this :+1:

1 Like

I have a sneaking suspicion it’s not so much that you need to change anything regarded to ignored users, but it’s an issue that occurs when you have users ignored. It was a problem while I had a user ignored before, then cleared up when I unignored said user, and now popped up again very shortly after I ignored someone.

If you’ve been having this issue the whole time while having some users ignored, that’s not necessarily more proof that it’s connected but it does fit, at least.

1 Like

I set the poll thread on watching

I get enough notification

But I agree, it’s probably because of ignoring or blocking users, as I haven’t done that yet, and for me, everything works fine.

Hey Yamitenshi! I’ve sent an email to Discourse and included your post! We will let you know what they say when they offer a response.

-Nick at WK

4 Likes

Small update: the POLL thread is now miraculously being tracked okay again, for whatever reason. Maybe specific interactions with a topic update the last read post, while simply reading the last post doesn’t? Weird.

Will update if anything else changes, like another thread acting up

1 Like

Thanks for the update on the tracking! Glad to hear it’s working again.

The Discourse team is looking into this bug and asked the following questions about the issue: Is the main problem that you’re not seeing the blue counter dots beside the topics like below or is there any other section(s) on UI that has a wrong or not updated count output or topic color stayed as light grey without any red line that separates the unread topics?
image

Based on your last post it seems like the color of the threads is staying gray and no new unread numbered bubbles are appearing. Is that right?

2 Likes

It’s both the counter that’s missing, and the affected threads don’t show up in the Unread tab.

I think the topic also stayed greyed out like fully read topics, but I’m not 100% sure on that. I’ll be sure to confirm if/when another thread has issues.

Okay, I will relay that information to the Discourse team and see if they have any other questions for you. Thanks for keeping us updated on this issue and if you see it happening with other threads.

1 Like

For me, I usually don’t use the Forum main page but rely on the count next to my avatar (in the top right corner, next to the search widget) and the list of entries in the drop-down menu (that are inserted for new posts in “watching” threads). But I was not notified on a number of occasions. At some point I would get a notification in the drop-down, which made me then realize that there were older posts in the thread that I was not notified on, although the thread was set to “watching”.
(I also think that I once checked the Forum main page and noticed a number of entries with new posts that were correctly indicated on that page but not added to the drop-down menu).

1 Like

Got another one!

{
        "id": 52023,
        "title": "TIL (Today I Learned) Thread",
        "fancy_title": "TIL (Today I Learned) Thread",
        "slug": "til-today-i-learned-thread",
        "posts_count": 3851,
        "reply_count": 2539,
        "highest_post_number": 3858,
        "image_url": "https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/optimized/4X/9/8/0/9802b041680547ba5b31c65bb04cda058d1c3c36_2_953x1024.jpeg",
        "created_at": "2021-06-16T14:34:53.139Z",
        "last_posted_at": "2024-03-13T23:34:28.846Z",
        "bumped": true,
        "bumped_at": "2024-03-13T23:34:28.846Z",
        "archetype": "regular",
        "unseen": false,
        "last_read_post_number": 4215,
        "unread": 0,
        "new_posts": 0,
        "unread_posts": 0,
        "pinned": false,
        "unpinned": null,
        "visible": true,
        "closed": false,
        "archived": false,
        "notification_level": 2,
        "bookmarked": false,
        "liked": true,
        "tags_descriptions": {
          
        },
        "views": 29846,
        "like_count": 18161,
        "has_summary": true,
        "last_poster_username": "Rrwrex",
        "category_id": 9,
        "pinned_globally": false,
        "featured_link": null,
        "has_accepted_answer": false,
        "can_vote": false,
        "posters": [
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Original Poster",
            "user_id": 88128,
            "primary_group_id": 162,
            "flair_group_id": null
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 67767,
            "primary_group_id": 220,
            "flair_group_id": 220
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 7436,
            "primary_group_id": 220,
            "flair_group_id": 220
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 98352,
            "primary_group_id": 125,
            "flair_group_id": 125
          },
          {
            "extras": "latest",
            "description": "Most Recent Poster",
            "user_id": 71460,
            "primary_group_id": 220,
            "flair_group_id": 220
          }
        ]
      }

And it does indeed show up with the same styling as fully-read topics:


(it’s the TIL thread)

Another thing I’ve noticed: I will occasionally see the Unread tab in the topics overview appear with a counter, like Unread (1) but when I click on it nothing’s there. I’m not 100% sure it’s related to this issue, but I suspect it is.

Interestingly enough the Unread tab is gone after clicking on it, so I’m guessing (but this is very much me spitballing) Discourse notices there’s a new reply to a topic I’m tracking (just as part of polling for new updates), updates the overview with an Unread counter accordingly, but then doesn’t actually register the topic as having unread posts because the last_read_post_number is higher than highest_post_number, so when I navigate to the Unread tab it fails to actually fetch anything.

EDIT: and another one

{
        "id": 41235,
        "title": "Improving our mental health together :two_hearts:",
        "fancy_title": "Improving our mental health together :two_hearts:",
        "slug": "improving-our-mental-health-together",
        "posts_count": 2632,
        "reply_count": 2025,
        "highest_post_number": 2712,
        "image_url": "https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/optimized/4X/a/f/2/af2d071ee0ca48fd9d9317cef8f2a2d75f527cad_2_1024x530.png",
        "created_at": "2020-01-07T15:53:55.829Z",
        "last_posted_at": "2024-03-14T00:24:08.379Z",
        "bumped": true,
        "bumped_at": "2024-03-14T00:29:21.588Z",
        "archetype": "regular",
        "unseen": false,
        "last_read_post_number": 4398,
        "unread": 0,
        "new_posts": 0,
        "unread_posts": 0,
        "pinned": false,
        "unpinned": null,
        "visible": true,
        "closed": false,
        "archived": false,
        "notification_level": 2,
        "bookmarked": false,
        "liked": true,
        "unicode_title": "Improving our mental health together 💕",
        "tags_descriptions": {
          
        },
        "views": 19247,
        "like_count": 13310,
        "has_summary": true,
        "last_poster_username": "latelamen",
        "category_id": 9,
        "pinned_globally": false,
        "featured_link": null,
        "has_accepted_answer": false,
        "can_vote": false,
        "posters": [
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Original Poster",
            "user_id": 4960,
            "primary_group_id": 95,
            "flair_group_id": 95
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 15232,
            "primary_group_id": 170,
            "flair_group_id": 170
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 67368,
            "primary_group_id": 161,
            "flair_group_id": 161
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 9728,
            "primary_group_id": 129,
            "flair_group_id": 129
          },
          {
            "extras": "latest",
            "description": "Most Recent Poster",
            "user_id": 69207,
            "primary_group_id": 171,
            "flair_group_id": 171
          }
        ]
      }

Thank you @NicoleIsEnough & @yamitenshi! Discourse said they are looking into it. I will pass along this information you sent as well!

2 Likes

Hi again! We have an update from Discourse for you. They were able to perform some resets and said the mentioned topics unread state should be back in a good shape again, and that includes the unread notification dropdown. Could you check to see if it’s acting properly on your ends?

2 Likes

Seems to check out at the moment. Not sure if a reset is going to fix the underlying issue though, threads behave normally until presumably something goes wrong somewhere, and then they’ll stop giving proper notifications until the post count has caught up to whatever Discourse thinks my last read post is.

Hard to say, but it’s also undoubtedly a very difficult problem to debug because it’s so unpredictable. For now things seem to be fine on my end, I’ll keep you posted if the problem occurs again

2 Likes

Well, that didn’t take long :smile: I noticed a new one after the Unread tab was acting funny

{
        "id": 64911,
        "title": "*ekg's 2024 Japan Trip Travel Blog :fish:",
        "fancy_title": "*ekg’s 2024 Japan Trip Travel Blog :fish:",
        "slug": "ekgs-2024-japan-trip-travel-blog",
        "posts_count": 79,
        "reply_count": 54,
        "highest_post_number": 79,
        "image_url": "https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/optimized/4X/7/3/a/73aba92ef0faffc9729fab7b85047a08d97a3dec_2_1024x319.jpeg",
        "created_at": "2024-02-17T08:52:38.416Z",
        "last_posted_at": "2024-03-20T23:11:55.407Z",
        "bumped": true,
        "bumped_at": "2024-03-20T23:11:55.407Z",
        "archetype": "regular",
        "unseen": false,
        "last_read_post_number": 4467,
        "unread": 0,
        "new_posts": 0,
        "unread_posts": 0,
        "pinned": false,
        "unpinned": null,
        "visible": true,
        "closed": false,
        "archived": false,
        "notification_level": 2,
        "bookmarked": false,
        "liked": true,
        "unicode_title": "*ekg's 2024 Japan Trip Travel Blog 🐟",
        "tags_descriptions": {
          
        },
        "views": 629,
        "like_count": 329,
        "has_summary": true,
        "last_poster_username": "Fukumaru-ka",
        "category_id": 76,
        "pinned_globally": false,
        "featured_link": null,
        "has_accepted_answer": false,
        "can_vote": false,
        "posters": [
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Original Poster",
            "user_id": 69434,
            "primary_group_id": 209,
            "flair_group_id": 209
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 43569,
            "primary_group_id": 188,
            "flair_group_id": 188
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 7436,
            "primary_group_id": 220,
            "flair_group_id": 220
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 49611,
            "primary_group_id": 192,
            "flair_group_id": null
          },
          {
            "extras": "latest",
            "description": "Most Recent Poster",
            "user_id": 195271,
            "primary_group_id": 120,
            "flair_group_id": 120
          }
        ]
      }

EDIT: and another one as of just now

 {
                "id": 55506,
                "title": "Wordle anybody?",
                "fancy_title": "Wordle anybody?",
                "slug": "wordle-anybody",
                "posts_count": 1828,
                "reply_count": 542,
                "highest_post_number": 1832,
                "image_url": null,
                "created_at": "2022-01-27T05:17:48.913Z",
                "last_posted_at": "2024-03-21T11:12:52.421Z",
                "bumped": true,
                "bumped_at": "2024-03-21T11:19:20.705Z",
                "archetype": "regular",
                "unseen": false,
                "last_read_post_number": 4459,
                "unread": 0,
                "new_posts": 0,
                "unread_posts": 0,
                "pinned": false,
                "unpinned": null,
                "visible": true,
                "closed": false,
                "archived": false,
                "notification_level": 2,
                "bookmarked": false,
                "liked": true,
                "tags_descriptions": {},
                "views": 8061,
                "like_count": 4759,
                "has_summary": true,
                "last_poster_username": "NeoArcturus",
                "category_id": 9,
                "pinned_globally": false,
                "featured_link": null,
                "has_accepted_answer": false,
                "can_vote": false,
                "posters": [
                    {
                        "extras": null,
                        "description": "Original Poster",
                        "user_id": 56554,
                        "primary_group_id": 212,
                        "flair_group_id": null
                    },
                    {
                        "extras": null,
                        "description": "Frequent Poster",
                        "user_id": 47680,
                        "primary_group_id": 200,
                        "flair_group_id": 200
                    },
                    {
                        "extras": null,
                        "description": "Frequent Poster",
                        "user_id": 14244,
                        "primary_group_id": 196,
                        "flair_group_id": 196
                    },
                    {
                        "extras": null,
                        "description": "Frequent Poster",
                        "user_id": 562,
                        "primary_group_id": 82,
                        "flair_group_id": null
                    },
                    {
                        "extras": "latest",
                        "description": "Most Recent Poster",
                        "user_id": 207400,
                        "primary_group_id": 117,
                        "flair_group_id": 117
                    }
                ]
            },
1 Like

And there’s another one

{
                "id": 65187,
                "title": "[Voting now!] The Intermediate Manga Club",
                "fancy_title": "[Voting now!] The Intermediate Manga Club",
                "slug": "voting-now-the-intermediate-manga-club",
                "posts_count": 242,
                "reply_count": 168,
                "highest_post_number": 242,
                "image_url": null,
                "created_at": "2024-03-11T05:31:12.722Z",
                "last_posted_at": "2024-03-26T12:21:53.284Z",
                "bumped": true,
                "bumped_at": "2024-03-26T12:21:53.284Z",
                "archetype": "regular",
                "unseen": false,
                "last_read_post_number": 4502,
                "unread": 0,
                "new_posts": 0,
                "unread_posts": 0,
                "pinned": false,
                "unpinned": null,
                "visible": true,
                "closed": false,
                "archived": false,
                "notification_level": 2,
                "bookmarked": false,
                "liked": true,
                "tags_descriptions": {},
                "views": 2017,
                "like_count": 1973,
                "has_summary": true,
                "last_poster_username": "seanblue",
                "category_id": 73,
                "pinned_globally": false,
                "featured_link": null,
                "has_accepted_answer": false,
                "can_vote": false,
                "posters": [
                    {
                        "extras": null,
                        "description": "Original Poster",
                        "user_id": 108372,
                        "primary_group_id": 211,
                        "flair_group_id": 211
                    },
                    {
                        "extras": null,
                        "description": "Frequent Poster",
                        "user_id": 7436,
                        "primary_group_id": 220,
                        "flair_group_id": 220
                    },
                    {
                        "extras": null,
                        "description": "Frequent Poster",
                        "user_id": 128125,
                        "primary_group_id": 196,
                        "flair_group_id": 196
                    },
                    {
                        "extras": null,
                        "description": "Frequent Poster",
                        "user_id": 137496,
                        "primary_group_id": 43,
                        "flair_group_id": 43
                    },
                    {
                        "extras": "latest",
                        "description": "Most Recent Poster",
                        "user_id": 15571,
                        "primary_group_id": 223,
                        "flair_group_id": null
                    }
                ]
            }

It seems to be spreading quite fast :confused: given the numbers the Unread tab shows and the amount of topics actually showing up as unread, I suspect there’s another one but I’m not sure which it is

@RachelG out of curiosity, is the Discourse team still looking into this, or did they consider the issue solved with the earlier reset? Because if it’s the latter, they should probably know resetting is a very temporary measure at best, and the forum starts misbehaving again within hours

Also, looking at the last_read_post_number across the affected threads, the number seems to be in roughly the same range for all of them, but increasing slowly for every newly affected topic. Not sure if that’s of any help to them, but it might help in tracking down the issue.

EDIT: okay, I may have something. Could be a coincidence, but maybe not

This latest affected thread has last_read_post_number 4502. As it happens, another thread I’m in is currently on post number 4503, but that post has been made by a user I have set to ignored - as has post number 4502 for that matter.

I’ve noticed before when the last post in a topic is made by an ignored user, the topic stays marked as unread, but I have a sneaking suspicion the correct last_read_post_number for the thread in which the ignored user has the last post might be saved to another topic (how and why, no idea). Gonna keep an eye on that to see if that lines up, it can’t take long for another thread to be affected.

1 Like

Hey yamitenshi! I’ll pass this along again! Hopefully they can come up with a better fix for the issue.

-Nick at WK

2 Likes

Hmm, not sure my theory holds up

There’s a new affected thread but it has the same last_read_post_number as the one I noticed before:

{
        "id": 57863,
        "title": "Short Grammar Questions (Part 2)",
        "fancy_title": "Short Grammar Questions (Part 2)",
        "slug": "short-grammar-questions-part-2",
        "posts_count": 1959,
        "reply_count": 1634,
        "highest_post_number": 1972,
        "image_url": null,
        "created_at": "2022-07-24T13:10:40.111Z",
        "last_posted_at": "2024-03-27T07:42:52.368Z",
        "bumped": true,
        "bumped_at": "2024-03-27T07:42:52.368Z",
        "archetype": "regular",
        "unseen": false,
        "last_read_post_number": 4502,
        "unread": 0,
        "new_posts": 0,
        "unread_posts": 0,
        "pinned": false,
        "unpinned": null,
        "visible": true,
        "closed": false,
        "archived": false,
        "notification_level": 2,
        "bookmarked": false,
        "liked": true,
        "tags_descriptions": {

        },
        "views": 20046,
        "like_count": 5554,
        "has_summary": true,
        "last_poster_username": "WeebPotato",
        "category_id": 17,
        "pinned_globally": false,
        "featured_link": null,
        "has_accepted_answer": false,
        "can_vote": false,
        "posters": [
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Original Poster",
            "user_id": -1,
            "primary_group_id": 1,
            "flair_group_id": null
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 104653,
            "primary_group_id": 113,
            "flair_group_id": 113
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 11653,
            "primary_group_id": 220,
            "flair_group_id": null
          },
          {
            "extras": null,
            "description": "Frequent Poster",
            "user_id": 55816,
            "primary_group_id": 177,
            "flair_group_id": null
          },
          {
            "extras": "latest",
            "description": "Most Recent Poster",
            "user_id": 84875,
            "primary_group_id": 41,
            "flair_group_id": null
          }
        ]
      },

That said, it’s possible this one also ended up misbehaving at the same time and I just didn’t notice. Hard to tell.

1 Like

We got an update from the Discourse engineering team and they have (hopefully) pushed a fix for this issue!

From the engineer:

“This is a tough one, somehow web browsers are telling us they read a post that does not exist. I made a fix that ensures we always validate the information we get from clients and that it auto recovers. It should land on your site some time next week.”

-Nick at WK

4 Likes

Awesome! That must’ve been hell to debug :smile:

3 Likes