Would it be feasible to let us munge our cookie/user data?

November 17, 2000 12:23 PM

Would it be feasible to let us munge our cookie/user data? Specifically, the last date/time visited? It'd be something of a work-around for when the front page refreshes during topical views, and there's no indication of what threads contain new data.

I tried editing the cookie directly, but all those percentages confused me. :-)
posted by cCranium to Feature Requests at 12:23 PM (7 comments total)

I'm going to keep posting under this thread, so it's nice and easy to not worry about.

Four times in the past two weeks, I've hit metafilter, posted in a thread, and returned to the front page and lost my time of last visited, and lost the X New indicators of threads.

I'm mostly just whining. :-)
posted by cCranium at 2:18 PM on November 20, 2000

While I'm busy talking to myself, I'm mildly curious about something. This isn't a "Please Matt, hurry up and do this." it's a "Why do things work this way?" type question. (Just in case anyone's still listening. :-)

When I'm in a thread detail, and hit back on my browser, the page will occasionally reload, as opposed to just rerender what was there previously.

Is the cookie check Javascript based? Would this run when the page is finished rerendering (an onLoad() event or somesuch) that compares the cookie and refreshes the page?

If that's the case (uhh... this is bordering on the "Please Matt..." area addressed above, but it's all just curiosity, honest :-) would moving the cookie functionality into ColdFusion stop this error?

Hitting back on the browser wouldn't necessarily cause a server-hit then, and the page wouldn't update. The ultimate result is that I could wander off to a meeting for a few hours, come back and still have the threads marked with new items I had 2 hours ago, until the point that I manually refresh the page.
posted by cCranium at 8:41 AM on November 27, 2000

cCranium, from what I can tell the cookie check is ColdFusion, i.e. server-side, so it's just a annoyance of IE that it occasionally looks for the page again on the server when you hit the back button. About 80% of the time it works right for me, but I think IE re-requests the page after a certain amount of time (or browsing, if perhaps the page has been pushed out of the Temporary Internet Files cache).
posted by pnevares at 12:15 PM on November 27, 2000

Ah, cool, thanks for looking into that for me.

I then have a new feature request, if you're able to get a chance (uhh... that's directed at Matt, not pnevares :-). A toggle in user preferences to open thread details in a new window. I currently right-click to select that option, but a permanent toggle would be nice too, if you have some time eventually.
posted by cCranium at 2:05 PM on November 27, 2000

cC, I do the same, but use the handy, IE-only (why does Netscape not copy this?), shift click to open a new window. Just open metafilter, hold down shift and click to open each thread in a new window. I could add a small new window graphic.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:34 PM on November 29, 2000

My problem is that for the most part, when reading MeFi, I'm in passive mode. (Despite my post count :-) Just leaning back, clicking away. It's a bit of a relaxation time for me, and shit-clicking requires a hand on the keyboard.

It isn't a vital feature, to say the least, so only if you're bored (ha! :-) some day. I can easily make do otherwise.


posted by cCranium at 5:14 PM on November 29, 2000

I've been trying the shift-click today while at work (since I'm reasonably upright most of the day anyway) and it's really a very good idea. Thanks!
posted by cCranium at 10:59 AM on November 30, 2000