Re: Message Base Question
By: Digital Man to Mortar on Sun Jan 18 2026 17:07:44

Message pointers determine what message you'll see in a new-scan based on their *import* date/time, not the date/time they were supposedly written (which is the date/time shown in the message header to users). So, not weird really. Someone just dumped some old messages into a network, it happens a lot.

Well, since the user can't see the import date (or can they?), makes more sense (IMO) to have the pointers use the date written date, which is more meaningful to the user.

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Re: Good Pointers
By: Mortar to Digital Man on Sun Jan 18 2026 07:21 pm

Re: Message Base Question
By: Digital Man to Mortar on Sun Jan 18 2026 17:07:44

Message pointers determine what message you'll see in a new-scan based on their *import* date/time, not the date/time they were supposedly written (which is the date/time shown in the message header to users). So, not weird really. Someone just dumped some old messages into a network, it happens a lot.

Well, since the user can't see the import date (or can they?), makes more sense (IMO) to have the pointers use the date written date, which is more meaningful to the user.

Except that messages are imported or sorted by "written date".
--
digital man (rob)

Steven Wright quote #27:
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Re: Message Base Question
By: Digital Man to Mortar on Sun Jan 18 2026 17:07:44

Message pointers determine what message you'll see in a new-scan based

on

their *import* date/time, not the date/time they were supposedly

written

(which is the date/time shown in the message header to users). So, not

weird

really. Someone just dumped some old messages into a network, it

happens a

lot.

Well, since the user can't see the import date (or can they?), makes more sense (IMO) to have the pointers use the date written date, which is more meaningful to the user.

I don't know how that would work, every message area would constantly have to be reindexed if that were the case...

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Re: Good Pointers
By: Mortar to Digital Man on Sun Jan 18 2026 07:21 pm

Well, since the user can't see the import date (or can they?),
makes more sense (IMO) to have the pointers use the date written
date, which is more meaningful to the user.

if you're having these kinds of problems you should really talk to
the sysop of the bbs. you shouldn't be experiencing any severe msg lags
like you mentioned.
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Except that messages are imported or sorted by "written date".

FWIW, sbbsecho seems to do a lot better job keeping messages in such an
order where, when read in the order posted, a discussion can be followed vs. some other tossers/tosser-shims I have used in the past.

I rarely notice ftn messages read in sequence seeming out of order here.
Usenet groups are about the only place I might notice it, and I suspect
that is something that happens before sbbsecho gets hold of the messages.


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Re: Good Pointers
By: Dumas Walker to DIGITAL MAN on Mon Jan 19 2026 10:16 am

Except that messages are imported or sorted by "written date".

Of course I meant to write "messages are *not* imported or sorted by written date"

FWIW, sbbsecho seems to do a lot better job keeping messages in such an order where, when read in the order posted, a discussion can be followed vs. some other tossers/tosser-shims I have used in the past.

I'm not sure why that would be. Maybe other tossers don't unpack bundes in the day-of-week order? I seem to recall that much older versions of SBBSecho didn't .

I rarely notice ftn messages read in sequence seeming out of order here. Usenet groups are about the only place I might notice it, and I suspect
that is something that happens before sbbsecho gets hold of the messages.

* SLMR 2.1a * Only sheep make baaaad puns.

--
digital man (rob)

Synchronet/BBS Terminology Definition #78:
SSH = Secure Shell
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Re: Good Pointers
By: Digital Man to Dumas Walker on Mon Jan 19 2026 01:45 pm

FWIW, sbbsecho seems to do a lot better job keeping messages in such an order where, when read in the order posted, a discussion can be followed vs. some other tossers/tosser-shims I have used in the past.

I'm not sure why that would be. Maybe other tossers don't unpack bundes in the day-of-week order? I seem to recall that much older versions of SBBSecho didn't .

Continuing ... (hit Ctrl-Z prematurely), looking now at SBBSecho, I see that it always start unpacking bundles from Sunday, then Monday, etc. It make more sense to start unpacking bundles starting with the *next* day of week to always unpack them in order. This matters most when there's multiple bundles from multiple days received all at once, which isn't a common occurrence, but possible.
--
digital man (rob)

Steven Wright quote #24:
Why do psychics have to ask you for your name
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Re: Good Pointers
By: Digital Man to Mortar on Sun Jan 18 2026 19:19:50

Except that messages are imported or sorted by "written date".

If that were the case, then I shouldn't be seeing msgs. from 2020. This seems to be a contradiction to...

Message pointers determine what message you'll see in a new-scan based
on their *import* date/time, not the date/time they were supposedly
written (which is the date/time shown in the message header to users).

In any case how they're imported is irrelevent from a users' perspective. It's how it can be manipulated once there that's important.

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Re: Good Pointers
By: Mortar to Digital Man on Tue Jan 20 2026 12:28 pm

In any case how they're imported is irrelevent from a users'
perspective. It's how it can be manipulated once there that's
important.

nelgin just can't run his system correctly . talk to the sysop.
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Re: Good Pointers
By: Mortar to Digital Man on Tue Jan 20 2026 12:28 pm

Re: Good Pointers
By: Digital Man to Mortar on Sun Jan 18 2026 19:19:50

Except that messages are imported or sorted by "written date".

If that were the case, then I shouldn't be seeing msgs. from 2020. This seems to be a contradiction to...

Right, that was a typo: I left out the word "not". It's a bad habit.
--
digital man (rob)

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