A problem with the photos thread in JetBlast

[eticket]

Hi Mods/Experts,

Can I pick your collective brains please?

I do the indexing of the of the photos thread (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?p=3878523#post3878523) in jet blast and I have found that any links to the last post on a page, will actually take me to the top of the next page and not to the post itself. (I have tried both Firefox and IE.)

For instance on the bottom of page 24 is a post by windy militant so I have created a link using the code below:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2710189#post2710189

However as you will see it actually goes to the top of page 25 instead.

Another example is that of kookabat on page 5 which is the second to last post on the page and here the link works perfectly:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2127499#post2127499

However the last picture on page 5 is for Blacksheep and this produces a link that goes to the top of page 6 instead:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2135283#post2135283


I have run some tests based on other threads in other forums on PPRuNe (including Jet Blast) and they all work perfectly. It is only the photos thread that seems to have this problem.

Is it possible that the photos thread has become corrupt in some way? Are there any simple ways of rescuing it?

The only other method of linking that I can think of is to use the show single post technique based on displaying a particular post number in a thread. I have applied this technique to a couple of posts/links as an experiment. However I am concerned that if someone deletes say post #132 then all the subsequent posts might renumber themselves and my links then won't work properly as they could well display the wrong person.

Do you know if in this situation subsequent posts will be renumbered and if they are do you know if any links are also updated to reflect the new post number?

At the moment it is a bit of a mess and my once every six weeks updates will have to turn into a weekly check so I could really do with some advice to come up with a workable solution. The links were working properly up until December when I first noticed a problem with some of the links. It was only this evening that I sat down and worked out that it was the last post on every page that had a problem.

With many thanks in advance,

eticket

[Saab Dastard]

eticket,

I'm using FF 2.0.0.11, and I have no problem with any of your links - they all go straight to the photos, not to the top of the page. It takes a while, as the photos are retrieved from the 'net, but it gets there!

Bear in mind that page numbers are virtually meaningless, and where a post exists on a page will vary from PC to PC, depending on how the browser is set up and the options set by the user in PPRuNe.

For example, Blacksheep's photo is post #100, and appears smack in the middle of page 3 on this PC - and on my other PC it is near the top of page 3.

The usual answer is to clear your cache and cookies (at least any and all from PPRuNe).

SD

[green granite]

Interestingly the windy militant link is ok but the Blacksheep one does go to the next page.

[Dutch1911]

Interestingly the windy militant link is ok but the Blacksheep one does go to the next page.


I get the same result. IE 6.0

Page numbers are variable, as previously posted. Also if posts are deleted, they are renumbered. This is a problem with photos as mods remove any "non photo" posts.

[Saab Dastard]

While posts may be re-numbered if previous posts are deleted, that should not matter, as the link does not refer to the post number, but the system id of the item itself.

The full link is, for example:

http://www.pprune.org/ forums/showthread.php?p=2710189#post2710189 - as you can see, there is no reference to the post number - this would be generated when the thread is composed on the page.

I have to admit that the above is partly my assumption about how it works, and I stand to be corrected.

SD

[eticket]

Thanks everyone.

It seems from your comments that when viewed on an 'optimally' set up computer a link to a final post on a page in the thread should still work. However in practice in the real world it can't be relied upon and some people are having problems. (I have tried clearing the cache and cookies on my mac and windows machines but still get a problem.)


There are three methods of linking from the index that I can think of:

a. Link to the external picture hosting account/location. (This was tried originally but resulted in problems when people wanted to remove their photos. Either myself or a moderator had to then edit the index in addition to the poster removing their original post, which with 30+ pages was no longer easy to find.)

b. Link to the post number in the thread. I understand from the comments above that theoretically this could have problems if an earlier post is removed as all subsequent posts will be renumbered.

c. Link to a post by its system number. ie. link to the 3,456,789th post ever to appear on PPRuNe. (This is the current way that the index is set up but it is much slower to display the correct post on screen than method b.)

If anyone can think of any other possibilities that I can try out I would be grateful.

One thought that I have had is this:

If I created a new thread, with the index at the front, might a subsequent merging of the two threads by a mod create a clean thread and get rid of the 'problem' that has now appeared in the original one or would the corruption be carried across? I suspect that there is only going to be one way to find out.

Thanks again for your help,

eticket

(I am sorry but I will now be without the Internet until Monday so I won't be able to reply until then.)

[PPRuNe Towers]

The are a vast number of posts on that thread that are totally invisible to the normal punter. They've been deleted by mods because they are superfluous to the point of the thread. One example would be the juvenile baying and testosterone induced posturing whenever a female ppruner posts her pic.

It may well be that you an never find a way around 30 or 40 per cent of the posts being invisible and potentially messing up any count system.

I'd capture the pic url's and create a new, clean thread over time.

Regards and thanks for all the work,
Rob

[Saab Dastard]

I had a check with a non-mod account that I use for testing, and it does exhibit the problem you describe for Blacksheep but not, interestingly, for windy militant.

One other possibility is to index to the post itself -

e.g. http://www.pprune.org /forums/showpost.php?p=2135283

NB - I inserted a space here (org /forums) to ensure the complete url was displayed. Note also that deleting the "&postcount=100" should render it immune to post re-numbering issues.

Of course this would require additional indexing effort!

SD