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Just because you drive a car doesn't mean you understand every component of the engine. Thread marking is just a mundane detail that people can't be bothered researching because they prioritize their time for other things, myself included. I had no idea how the system worked until this thread was opened. Just saying since you said you were surprised.
You're right I was surprised but I don't mean to justify it.
I think a more accessible "Mark forums read" link, as suggested above, would be simple and would go a long way to helping those used to that behaviour work more easily with LQ. (An per-user option to do this automatically on logout sounds good but may not be possible - it isn't something I've seen elsewhere.)
I'm not sure, but it looks like threads with replies also mark themselves unread. For example there's this thread. I was there today, saw it, it didn't change since that time, and it is unread again.
Some of the replies were edited yesterday. That would cause the old reply to show as unread.
I like the new system and find it more robust than the old one. +1 for keeping it
One difference that is a bit disconcerting, though, is that my new posts don't show up on clicking "View New Posts" as they used to. It is debatable whether they should (have we read them or not?!) but it was a nice reassurance that the post had been successful.
I like the new system and find it more robust than the old one. +1 for keeping it
One difference that is a bit disconcerting, though, is that my new posts don't show up on clicking "View New Posts" as they used to. It is debatable whether they should (have we read them or not?!) but it was a nice reassurance that the post had been successful.
When I click on "View New Posts" the new posts show up.
Distribution: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu
Posts: 13,597
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SecretCode
I think a more accessible "Mark forums read" link, as suggested above, would be simple and would go a long way to helping those used to that behaviour work more easily with LQ.
"Mark Forums Read" has been added to the side MyLQ nav. Note also that when LQ moves to the new platform (See AndroidQuestions.org, there will also be a top level nav when you are in the "What's New" view).
Quote:
Originally Posted by SecretCode
(An per-user option to do this automatically on logout sounds good but may not be possible - it isn't something I've seen elsewhere.)
It's not likely you will see this as a per-user option.
It still doesn't work for me. Yesterday I clicked to mark as read and checked that it had in fact been done. Yet today I find only posts before 17.39 on 7/12, not 8/12 are marked.
I don't like the position of the new right-side link, right above "my posts", which I use all the time. I'm a bit of a fumble-fingers and occasionally hit a wrong link, so I'm afraid I'm eventually going to accidentally clear out my session before I'm finished.
How about moving it down next to the "Log Out" link instead? I think it would fit better there thematically anyway.
Also, I've now confirmed that marking forums as read also marks as read every thread you're active in, even if there are still unread posts in them. Is there some way to exclude those, so we aren't in danger of overlooking any replies? I'd really like it if it could track threads you're actively participating in separately from the rest.
I don't like the position of the new right-side link, right above "my posts", which I use all the time. I'm a bit of a fumble-fingers and occasionally hit a wrong link, so I'm afraid I'm eventually going to accidentally clear out my session before I'm finished. How about moving it down next to the "Log Out" link instead? I think it would fit better there thematically anyway.
I agree. Have done the same.
Quote:
Also, I've now confirmed that marking forums as read also marks as read every thread you're active in, even if there are still unread posts in them. Is there some way to exclude those, so we aren't in danger of overlooking any replies? I'd really like it if it could track threads you're actively participating in separately from the rest.
I haven't tried this, but it looks like you can organize subscriptions into folders. Excluding certain messages from Mark Forums Read would defeat the purpose, no?
Distribution: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu
Posts: 13,597
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Originally Posted by DavidMcCann
It still doesn't work for me. Yesterday I clicked to mark as read and checked that it had in fact been done. Yet today I find only posts before 17.39 on 7/12, not 8/12 are marked.
I am not able to reproduce this and no other members seem to be having this issue. Are you sure you're logged in at all times during the process?
Distribution: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu
Posts: 13,597
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David the H.
Also, I've now confirmed that marking forums as read also marks as read every thread you're active in, even if there are still unread posts in them. Is there some way to exclude those, so we aren't in danger of overlooking any replies? I'd really like it if it could track threads you're actively participating in separately from the rest.
FWIW, there is really no concept of unread posts (unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying). By design marking a forum as read will mark all threads in that forum as read. Doing otherwise would be unintuitive and highly confusing.
Distribution: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu
Posts: 13,597
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After a little thought "Mark Forums Read" is a session ending action, so it probably makes sense for it to be near the Log Out link. It has been moved.
FWIW, there is really no concept of unread posts (unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying). By design marking a forum as read will mark all threads in that forum as read. Doing otherwise would be unintuitive and highly confusing.
--jeremy
I'll see if I can explain it more clearly.
Let's say I've previously participated in some threads. When I return later, there have been new posts in some of those threads, and naturally they show up as unread in the "My Posts" results. But if, for whatever reason, I decide to use the "Mark Forums Read" before checking for or accessing any of them, then they too get marked as read, and I might go on blissfully unaware that there have been new replies in the conversations I've been active in.
There's also a kind of race condition involved. If someone happens to post a reply between the last time I checked for updates and when I click the "Mark Forums Read", even if it's just a few seconds, then I may never know about it.
So I just think it would be good to have a simple exception for any thread the user has previously been active in. They would be unaffected by the "Mark Forums Read" and remain so until you actually visited them, or until the two-week timeout, or whatever you decide is long enough. Assuming such a thing is even possible, of course.
Distribution: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu
Posts: 13,597
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Thanks for the clarification. We have no plans at this time to treat threads you have participated in differently in the context of "Mark Forums Read". It's possible you'll want to make your subscribed threads the last stop before you mark read or enable email notification to ensure you do not miss a new post. As the system gets more use we'll continue to evaluate however, so additional feedback on the topic is always welcome.
Distribution: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, Fedora, Ubuntu
Posts: 13,597
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As an update, at this time we intend to keep the database-based solution in place moving forward. Thanks for the feedback so far. As mentioned in the last post, as the system gets more use we'll continue to evaluate it, so additional feedback on the topic is very much welcome.
There is still the bug where zero reply threads do not mark as read when you read them. Because I still have zero reply threads which I actually have to click the Mark All Threads Read in order for it to disappear.
I know it behaves by showing them unread every once in a while so that the user sees them again but this behavior is different than what I am describing. It's a bit of an annoyance.
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