Messaging not working

"This is the way the owner told us to do it to solve the performance issue it was causing."

That is all well and good - it's the timing and lack of announcement of the change that is most annoying.

We've had several rounds of a red banner telling us to check messages while the message indicator was turned off and then back on. It is no wonder that members now think the indicator is broken when there was no announcement that it was changed to only be updated upon log in or clicking on the message tab.

<p>"<span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:open sans,sans-serif; font-size:14px">If you are searching profiles or wandering the forums or doing anything besides checking/reading messages you will not know if you get new messages."</span></p>

<p><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:open sans,sans-serif; font-size:14px">When you want to check your messages, just go check the messages. If you logoff the site and go to the beach for the day, you will not know if you get new messages. If you are sleeping at night, you will not know if you get new messages. Everyone is free to login and check them as often as they like.</span></p>

<p><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:open sans,sans-serif; font-size:14px">This is the way the owner told us to do it to solve the performance issue it was causing.</span></p>

Wait... what?

You have to click on the message tab before the counter appears? No point of having a counter at all then.

OHW - they recently changed the way the message indicator works - now it only updates when you first log in and any time you click on the Messages tab.

If you are searching profiles or wandering the forums or doing anything besides checking/reading messages you will not know if you get new messages.

If you get a message while on the site why would the message indicator not show that you have a message? Mine has worked like that numerous times in the past.

<p>"<span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma,verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:14px">had an message already an hour old and it only notified me once I clicked on messages."</span></p>

<p><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma,verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:14px">That is how it works now. It is working correctly.</span></p>

Still not working correctly. Luckily I check my mail every few hours, but had an message already an hour old and it only notified me once I clicked on messages.

If they fix it, then it affects something else, and now that breaks ... we can't have it all!!

this having to log out to check for messages, then click on it twice for the bird to go away is getting to be bullshit, come on SLS get this fixed

How dare you complain about mediocrity. You take what you get and like it. It’s not like they took 100% of your money. Oh wait…….

What?? Are you never satisfied.? You were notified , the message page opened, just not the message. That sounds like 98% efficacy.

Well its Friday and guess what? I am showing I have messages bird fling and a count of 1. Open it and see I have a message. But the fucking message will not open even after attempting 3x to open it. Why can't the damn people in charge of this web site get it to work correctly better than the 98% they say it does?

Mayhem - yeah, my default for exiting messages was always clicking on Forums. Now I'm trying to remember to click on the Messages tab after reading messages to make sure I've read them all before wandering the forums. And then I click on the Messages tab right before logging off to make sure there's nothing new.

<p><a href="https://www.swinglifestyle.com/profile/lookup.cfm?usercode=50284075">mayhem8</a>,</p>

<p>I spoke with the developer. They will get it updated so that the red counter will stay in sync with the actual unread messages while you are on the mailbox page and you will not have to refresh or reload the page.</p>

P&W - Since I'm usually in the forums when online, I usually just click on the forums link to exit Messages. Apparently this doesn't update the counter.

Mayhem - after you read a message, click on the Messages tab rather than the arrow in the upper left of the message to return to the message list.

Not sure why but returning to the list via the arrow doesn't update the birdie/message count indicator.

Wayne - The Mailbox page works fine, but once I've read the unread messages and go back to the main/home page, the red circle with the initial # of unread messages still appears as though I either have another new message or haven't read them all.

I click on Messages (and go to the mailbox page) and see that I in fact have read them all, and then when I go back to the home page the red circle finally goes away.

<p>mayhem8,</p>

<p>The counter above the messages tab updates when you login to the site and when you load the www.swinglifestyle.com/mailbox/ page. So if you are on that page and refresh the page, it will update the counter. Note that while you are on this page, the content will update in real time. So if someone sends you a message you will immediately see it appear without having to do anything and the numbers in the blue circles on that page will update in real-time.</p>

I'd be OK with just the bird flying rather than a number. You have to click on Messages to read them anyway, and on that page it can have the number/s of unread messages. What's more important is just a timely indicator that you have one or more new messages and not how many.

Perhaps once they address their capacity/reliability issues they could revist it, but something simple that works is prefered over something more complicated that doesn't. What they have now doesn't really work any bettter than the red banner they had up.

I also find that the message number doesn't clear after I read the message\s and have to go back and read it again to clear it. I haven't tried a browser refresh but if I have to do that to clear the counter, it's broken.

Yeah, a simple change log thread, sticky at the top of the website forum and locked to protect tender sensibilities. That'd be a remarkable improvement.

It’s not better, it’s not how it works now. Bottom line…it’s broken.

How is this any better than turning off the indicator and posting a red banner telling us to check Messages for new messages?

Functionally it's not.

"It only checks and updates the counter at login and when you select the Messages tab."

So now we're annoyed because we have to go to the Messages tab a second time to clear the indicator AND we're unaware that the indicator doesn't really indicate new messages.

How is this any better than turning off the indicator and posting a red banner telling us to check Messages for new messages?

At least with no indicator I'd check often if I was logged in for a while and especially before logging out. Most of us assume that the indicator still works as before - updating when a new message is received. With the indicator apparently working I don't check again once I've cleared all the new messages.

Notifying us of major changes to how a feature works would really be appreciated.

thesungoesdown - I agree this is less than ideal. The problem is that SLS hasn't addressed (as far as I can tell) the underlying capacity issues. It's well known that the higher site usage on Fridays and Saturdays cause site availabilty/reliability issues.

Polling, or automatically checking for messages on a scheduled basis, consumes resources. This can exacerbate the site availability issues during times of high traffic. Hopefully SLS can resolve the capacity issues so that the polling can be executed in a more reasonable timeframe.

So, let me see if I understand this. I can be online for an hour or 2, get a message, and not be notified until I log out and log back in, or cluck on the message tab? So, someone sends a message at 7pm, I don't check messages, and log out at 10pm. Log in at 6pm the following day is when I get notified I have a message? Who though that was a good idea?