Can't See or Remove the Notification That I Have an Unread Visitor Message

[David Baxter PhD]

One of our members has reported the following:

I've tried to view this message, but I can't see anything, and then that red notification at the top doesn't go away.

It's been like this on my cell phone as well as on my PC.

I assume it's a glitch, or that the message somehow expired? Or maybe it was erased/deleted somehow by the person who sent it?

My reply to her was:

Can you try deleting the cookies for the forum from your browser on your computer (and also on your mobile device)?

Visitor messages are automatically deleted after 30 days currently, although the time frame can be changed; this is as measure to keep the database storage from becoming too large, especially for members who haven't logged in in several months. This may have been the cause.

Nobody else has reported this to me and I don't use visitor messaging in my profile so I'm not sure where else the problem might be. Try the cookies thing and let me know if that does the trick.

1. If anyone else has experienced this problem, please post here to let me know.
2. If you would prefer that the time frame for purging Visitor Messages be extended, please let me know that as well.

 

[H011yHawkJ311yBean]

I tried in Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer (up-to-date versions)

I have Windows 7 (up-to-date version)

Same thing happened on iPhone (up-to-date version)

I already tried removing cookies/history and it still happens.

I tried to post the pics to you in the message I sent, but it only allowed me to send an URL instead of allowing the other option (like in the forum) of downloading from the desktop/files on the computer.

here is what it looks like constantly at the top of the Visitor's Messages page...

here is what it looks like on my likes/thanks...

I think something went wonky, like is it possible that that private message is still showing on the programming side that you admins can see, but that I can't access or see?

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I'll look into this when I am back at my computer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[David Baxter PhD]

First, regarding the other issue you mentioned, i.e., number of Thanks and Likes, the totals are still showing correctly in your posts (postbit):



In your profile, the totals are not displayed anywhere as far as I can see in anyone's profile. The Thanks/Likes tab in the Profile only shows a list of thanks/likes given over the past 30 days. This is to minimize page load time and database size.

Similarly, with Visitor Messages, these are cleared after 30 days, again to reduce page load time and database size.

The remaining problem of a notification showing for a Visitor Message that has been deleted I'm still working on. I suspect that's because when Visitor Messages are removed, the notifications for those messages are not properly cleared.

 

[H011yHawkJ311yBean]

Thanks for all your help! Ya know, if you aren't feeling well, someone else could do it. It's not a life-changing emergency or anything and it's not causing me any alarm... I just wanted to let someone know...

Maybe Steve can take a crack at it. I think you might need your rest, Dr. B!

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I have reset the value for that variable in your account, JGJB, so it should now be showing zero.

The problem arises because the add-on that deletes old visitor messages neglects to reset the number of unread visitor messages variable. I will notify the author of that add-on and in the meantime I've disabled it on this forum.

 

[H011yHawkJ311yBean]

Yes! That did it!

It's all good now! *touchdown*

 

[David Baxter PhD]

The author of the mod has already updated it so now only read visitor messages are deleted/purged. Unread messages remain until the member reads them.