Topic: Recent Posts/Topics Empty?

[Gossamer]

So, I have a Recent Posts/Topics block set up that pulls topics from just one of my forums.  I'd love for the topics it pulls up to be displayed their permanently (just filtered out as new threads get added to said forum), but after a day or so of members posting in other forums it went empty.  These forums would not get updated all that often, so I'm just wondering if there is a way to change the number of posts the forum looks back or if maybe there's a better option I should be looking at? 

[Gossamer]

Any ideas?

[Nathaniel]

The topics posted in a board not selected in the 'Include boards' list for that recent block, should have no effect on the output of that block. So your answer is that the default block works as you want.

Check that you have configured the 'Include boards' list properly for your block.

[Gossamer]

I just double-checked the included boards.  I have the "Current Events" board selected, with the block set to display the five most recent topics.  The forum has a ton of topics in it.  I recently transferred my forum from IF to Invisionfree.  At first, the block was empty, but when I posted a new topic it populated with that one topic.  The topic remained in the block for a few days, during which my members were actively posting in other forums.  After a while it vanished and the block now displays the "no posts were found" message.

Here is a link to my forum in case that helps: http://www.markedrp.com

Edit: And I have a second recent posts/topics block on my portal page that is suffering from the same problem.  This one pulls forum news.  On the first day of our forum, it showed the 4 most recent topic.  Yesterday it showed the 2 most recent topics.  Today, it just shows one topic.

[AngelinaBelle]

How many posts per day does your forum get?

[Gossamer]

Seems to be anywhere from 60 to around 120 or so.  Sometimes a bit higher.

[AngelinaBelle]

Then it is perfectly understandable that this would happen.
SimplePortal's Recent Posts/Topics block uses the ssi functions ssi_recentPosts and ssi_recentTopics.  And these only go back so far

Code: [Select]

  'min_message_id' => max($modSettings['maxMsgID'] - $something * min($num_recent, 5),0),
Where $something is (I think) 35.
So if there are more than 35*5 messages since the latest on your "news" board, they won't come up in the search AT ALL.
 
It works great if you want THE LATEST POSTS, but not if you want the latest posts from a little-used board.
 
The simplest work-around is to use a larger $something.  Increase it 1000 if you want to!

[Gossamer]

Thank you, that fixed it!  Would increasing that number to something very high (say 5000 to 10000) have negative effects on the forum's load time?

[AngelinaBelle]

This would depend on a lot of things. Like how fast your database is and how many users are hitting it at the "same time".
 
You will have to do that experimentation yourself, I'm afraid.

[Gossamer]

Thank you, I'll have to play around with it.  But at least now I know where to go.