Online forums, about the software and user experience

[punkncat]

I have a general question regarding the platform on which forums like this operate.

I am a member of another hobbiest forum. Been there quite some time and so far as I know they haven't had a major change in the platform they are utilizing in years. They did make some changes to their privacy policy not long ago that prompted me to stay logged out of the site, and have to actually go and log in each time in order to post.
The last couple of times that I have visited I will peruse without logging in, just sort of lurking, and then will log in if I have anything to contribute. I started noticing that while logged out, and while logged in I was seeing slightly different information/threads on the forums. For instance in one thread I had previously posted in something along the lines of the last 15-ish posts were completely different than what I would see logged in. In the prior case a previous reply of mine does not show until AFTER I log in.

Being curious, I created a whole other account, different computer, and utilized my phone's hot spot to connect such that it wouldn't see me from the same place/IP. When logged in to that persona I am seeing things more in line with the same way I see them logged out as my normal user name.
I am not currently, but have been a paid/premium member of the site, but haven't been in a couple of years. There are no issues, I am not under any moderation that I am aware of, but I do find the situation rather strange.

Is it possible within the forum software to "create" a different flow of information or what certain people can or can not see? Akin to the way you can do similar on FB for people you don't want to see everything you post. I think they call it restricted.

[ReconSWS]

This is the conspiracy of THE ENTIRE INTERNET. Literally every single thing you see tracks you and caters you content. The internet of old is dead! Run for the hills!

[RuleOfSines]

While that is a trivially easy thing technically, in many cases that is more likely an example of a caching system misbehaving/the way you are navigating the site is unexpected.

Properly caching content is difficult, especially when you have to logged in/out users into account, while also trying to keep the site up-to-date. This site suffers a bit( or at least did, haven't tried poking it in a while) from caching issues, where content won't be visible until a log out or in, or posting in a thread to make it 'refresh'. Worth noting that the software this site is running on is very popular.

[punkncat]

This is the conspiracy of THE ENTIRE INTERNET. Literally every single thing you see tracks you and caters you content. The internet of old is dead! Run for the hills!

I know this is meant at least partially in fun, but yeah the internet isn't "dot com" for nothing.

[punkncat]

Ha, lol, figured it out.

They were in the midst of changing to a new software and look. I had to double check the addy to see I was in the right place. Apparently just an issue as that was occurring I would guess.