Hi,
Is there a way to get the message base to sort messages that come into an area in date format?
When reading I see messages that are not always in date order.
i suspect this is because of delays in messages getting distributed via qwk or ftn.
Would this be a message reader function onr an index procedure inside the database?
The date/time stamps on messages aren't very accurate (especially considering different timezones).
Re: Message Base Question
By: Digital Man to Tom Moore on Sat Jan 17 2026 19:28:34
The date/time stamps on messages aren't very accurate (especially considering different timezones).
Funny this comes up. I have my msg. pointers set to see msgs. for just the last six months. I was reading a bunch of msgs. yesterday and amongst the 2026 msgs. came several 2020 msgs, then back to the present. Weird.
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.
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.
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 basedon
their *import* date/time, not the date/time they were supposedlywritten
(which is the date/time shown in the message header to users). So, notweird
really. Someone just dumped some old messages into a network, ithappens 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".
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.
* SLMR 2.1a * Only sheep make baaaad puns.--
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 .
Except that messages are imported or sorted by "written date".
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).
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...
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