Why do Forum Counters Reset to Soon

[Gidders]

I've just been away for the weekend and when I logged on there was something like (cant remember the exact numbers)

80 posts in 23 threads
120 new comments & 41 new photos

I called up the new threads and having worked my way through those that interested me (and taken a couple of phone calls) when I went back to the home page is said

0 posts in 0 threads
0 new comments & 1 new photos

Now I know this is controlled by cookies but I haven't closed my browser in the interim so whats going on Its happened on me before and its most frustrating

[Ollie]

The website doesn't know you've still got your browser window open. As far as it's concerned, it's given you the page and it doesn't know any more than that. Hence the need for cookies! The only reason that a website 'knows' to log you out when you've closed your browser window is because when you revisit it, you have a different 'session id'.

Therefore, in order to keep the 'Who's Online' list 'up to date' and prevent huge complicated database problems, the website presumes that after x amount of inactivity (can't remember how much exacrly on this site) that you are no longer there and so closes the session.

Basically, the website doesn't know whether your browser has closed or not. The only way to keep the website knowing that you are still there is to put it on a page such as who's online, which refreshes every minute or so and so keeps the connection to the server.

Hope that's fairly clear - can't answer your question without getting a bit technical I'm afraid!

Ollie