Threads automatically being marked as read

[ChristianJapan]

Once the list is cleaned up I kind of like it; specially across devices. But what confuse me now is that my own postings don't appear anymore in "New Posts" and "User CP".

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by Comeagain?

You'll want to mark all threads read when youre done for the day. After a few days I think you'll come to like it.

I agree. My UserCP shows all subscribed threads unread back to Jan. 26. Also, when reading threads and I click go to first unread it is going to Jan. 26 even though I marked all read yesterday.

A mark all as read looks like it will get things sorted after today.

[SilentPanda]

I auto-subscribe to all threads I post in. So my usercp was a mess yesterday. But I just clicked on "Quick Links" at the top right and then "Mark Forums Read" and now I wouldn't have even noticed anything changed.

[Dave Braine]

Reading through this thread, I'm not sure if I have the same problem as the rest of you, but since yesterday, I find that when coming back to the forum all threads are being shown as NOT read; ie every thread is as if there have been new posts since I last visited.

Being a member of other forums that do this, I had a look around the Site and at the top of the page on the "Navigation Bar" is Quick Links. If you go into that a click on Mark Forums Read, it solves the problem.

But why has this just started?

[r2shyyou]

Originally Posted by SilentPanda

I auto-subscribe to all threads I post in. So my usercp was a mess yesterday. But I just clicked on "Quick Links" at the top right and then "Mark Forums Read" and now I wouldn't have even noticed anything changed.

I do & did the same thing. All is pretty much the same with the exception that threads that I've subscribed to that have been recently posted in now disappear from User CP as soon as I've "read" them. I may actually like that better (or I may not...TBD) but it is something different that I've noticed.

Originally Posted by Dave Braine

Reading through this thread, I'm not sure if I have the same problem as the rest of you, but since yesterday, I find that when coming back to the forum all threads are being shown as NOT read; ie every thread is as if there have been new posts since I last visited.

Being a member of other forums that do this, I had a look around the Site and at the top of the page on the "Navigation Bar" is Quick Links. If you go into that a click on Mark Forums Read, it solves the problem.

But why has this just started?

I'm not sure if your post was originally a new thread that was merged into this one but to answer your question, this just started because a change was made to the forums just yesterday.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by Dave Braine

But why has this just started?

See post #13.

[Dave Braine]

I'm not sure if your post was originally a new thread that was merged into this one

No. it wasn't a new, merged posting, I just couldn't figure out whether we were talking about the same thing.

See post #13.

Yes, I saw that, but again, couldn't quite figure what it was trying to say. Is there now a setting in the User CP that I can choose, so that when I come back to the forum, those topics that have had replies since my last visit will be highlighted as before?

I've had a good look but can't see anything obvious.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by Dave Braine

Yes, I saw that, but again, couldn't quite figure what it was trying to say. Is there now a setting in the User CP that I can choose, so that when I come back to the forum, those topics that have had replies since my last visit will be highlighted as before?

I've had a good look but can't see anything obvious.

As arn stated in that post, there are 3 selections he could have made. Yesterday he switched from choice #1 to choice #3, which is why you're just now noticing a change. It's a forum-wide change, not something an individual member can select.

[Scepticalscribe]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

As arn stated in that post, there are 3 selections he could have made. Yesterday he switched from choice #1 to choice #3, which is why you're just now noticing a change. It's a forum-wide change, not something an individual member can select.

Ah, I see. Actually, I had thought it was just me, (or my wonderful computer) but, come to think of it, I did notice this and thought it a bit odd that every thread title was now in bold, and thus, appeared unread.

Well, that explains it. A bit distracting, but I'm sure we'll adapt to it, in time.....

[Macman45]

I'm pretty much back to normal now, having marked forums read....It did get a little crazy there for a while though.

[hallux]

Is it possible to keep #1 and just extend the timeout?

[Ledgem]

The change caused a flood of older threads to appear in my user control panel, but aside from that it seems like the forum is functioning as I'm used to with other message forums. I know it'll be a bit of an adjustment for users who built work flows around the previous forum behavior, but I think that this behavior is more amenable to navigating in one tab, taking long periods of time between actions, and following discussions that aren't highly active. There's no longer a rush to view all threads of interest within a single login session. It doesn't penalize faster user actions, either.

Just as a bit of a tip to users who aren't used to this forum behavior, this button:


will bring you to the newest unread post in a thread. This button:

brings you to the newest post in the thread. The first button (bringing you to the newest unread) wasn't terribly useful when the forum would automatically mark posts as read, but it's very useful under this setup.

Thanks again for the consideration and change, arn!

[Tilpots]

Not a fan of this change at all. Wish I could down vote.

[arn]

Originally Posted by Tilpots

Not a fan of this change at all. Wish I could down vote.

What don't you like about it? Anything specific?

arn

[Macman45]

I think it was just the initial "What's going on" reaction for most...Once tamed it's fine.

[Tilpots]

Originally Posted by arn

What don't you like about it? Anything specific?

arn

Yes. I liked being able to distinguish recent posts from old ones. A quick glance would let me know immediately what was new. Especially useful for me in the Marketplace. Pretty much every time I click on a new subforum, every thread is bolded, too. Not sure how that's useful for anyone? I'd rather be able to distinguish recent activity from all activity. Unless your constantly scanning the forums, this option doesn't seem very helpful. I log in a few times a day, and it's really not doing anything for me.

[arn]

Originally Posted by Tilpots

Yes. I liked being able to distinguish recent posts from old ones. A quick glance would let me know immediately what was new. Especially useful for me in the Marketplace. Pretty much every time I click on a new subforum, every thread is bolded, too. Not sure how that's useful for anyone? I'd rather be able to distinguish recent activity from all activity. Unless your constantly scanning the forums, this option doesn't seem very helpful. I log in a few times a day, and it's really not doing anything for me.

So you like that after a certain timeout that some posts are automatically marked as read?

arn

[Dave Braine]

As arn stated in that post, there are 3 selections he could have made. Yesterday he switched from choice #1 to choice #3, which is why you're just now noticing a change. It's a forum-wide change, not something an individual member can select.

Thanks for that, GGJstudios. All seems back as it was now.

[Tilpots]

Originally Posted by arn

So you like that after a certain timeout that some posts are automatically marked as read?

arn

Yes. I like to be able to click on a forum and see what's recent at a glance. I don't see the benefit of logging on in the morning and seeing that I haven't read basically anything. I knew that already when I logged in.

As for what length of time you had it set previously, I'm not sure. It was at least a few hours I believe??? Do you know?

My usual way of following the forums is to follow threads I've posted in by running this search I've bookmarked. (I wish there was a built in way to do this on the forum. If I'm not on a computer with my bookmarks, I can't run this easily.) Then I'll hit Forum Spy to see what's current. Then I'll check the other Sub Forums, looking at the recent stuff first. That's where I think this change falls flat. It makes you read more rather than being visually obvious.

[r2shyyou]

Originally Posted by Tilpots

Yes. I liked being able to distinguish recent posts from old ones. A quick glance would let me know immediately what was new. Especially useful for me in the Marketplace. Pretty much every time I click on a new subforum, every thread is bolded, too. Not sure how that's useful for anyone? I'd rather be able to distinguish recent activity from all activity. Unless your constantly scanning the forums, this option doesn't seem very helpful. I log in a few times a day, and it's really not doing anything for me.

So why not just mark all forums as "read" right now and then, starting right after that, everything will work exactly as you want? Or am I missing something and it won't work the way you want?

Originally Posted by arn

So you like that after a certain timeout that some posts are automatically marked as read?

arn

Personally, I'd much rather there not be such a timeout since having it means I wouldn't be able to tell which ones I'd actually read and which one had, err, read themselves.

Not to discredit anyone else's opinion but I much prefer this setup, though only after having marked all forums as "read" so that, as Tilpots noted along with others, not all threads show up in every forum & subforum as "unread."

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by Tilpots

Yes. I like to be able to click on a forum and see what's recent at a glance. I don't see the benefit of logging on in the morning and seeing that I haven't read basically anything. I knew that already when I logged in.

As for what length of time you had it set previously, I'm not sure. It was at least a few hours I believe??? Do you know?

I think with the new system you can just "mark all as read" before you leave the forums each time and get the behavior you want. At least that is working for me. I really like this as it gives me complete control rather then posts being marked as read when I have not read them.

The problem before, and this is what lead to the change request, was that it would mark all as read after a certain length of "inactivity." So if you spent ten minutes or so in a post researching and composing a lengthy reply, you would submit your post and come back to find all other posts marked as read, even though you had not read them.

[r2shyyou]

Originally Posted by Tilpots

My usual way of following the forums is to follow threads I've posted in by running this search I've bookmarked. (I wish there was a built in way to do this on the forum. If I'm not on a computer with my bookmarks, I can't run this easily.) Then I'll hit Forum Spy to see what's current. Then I'll check the other Sub Forums, looking at the recent stuff first. That's where I think this change falls flat. It makes you read more rather than being visually obvious.

So that search is sort of like a "Participated" thread list, as opposed to a "Subscribed" thread list, or at least that's how it appeared when I altered your search to add my username in place of yours.

Question: do you auto-subscribe to every thread you post in?

I have the option set up where I'm automatically subscribed to every thread I participate in but with no email notification for new posts in those threads. Then, at least for me, simply clicking on User CP shows me basically the same list that your saved search does, with the exception of threads that I've manually unsubscribed from (e.g. front page news stories).

So your search shows me every thread that I've participated in, regardless of whether or not I've subscribed to them, and User CP shows me every thread I've decided I want to see updates for. At least that's how it seems to me.

Does that make sense? I may be rambling...

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Tilpots

Yes. I liked being able to distinguish recent posts from old ones. A quick glance would let me know immediately what was new.

As others have mentioned, you can manually mark all threads in a forum as read through the drop-down menu immediately above the forum: Forum Tools > Mark This Forum Read.

I think you'll also begin to adjust with time. Right now you're used to looking for bolded threads and forums, but once you get used to it, you'll likely do something very similar based on the time stamps. It's arguably not quite as quick and easy, but it works.

[arn]

Originally Posted by Tilpots

Yes. I like to be able to click on a forum and see what's recent at a glance. I don't see the benefit of logging on in the morning and seeing that I haven't read basically anything. I knew that already when I logged in.

As for what length of time you had it set previously, I'm not sure. It was at least a few hours I believe??? Do you know?

My usual way of following the forums is to follow threads I've posted in by running this search I've bookmarked. (I wish there was a built in way to do this on the forum. If I'm not on a computer with my bookmarks, I can't run this easily.) Then I'll hit Forum Spy to see what's current. Then I'll check the other Sub Forums, looking at the recent stuff first. That's where I think this change falls flat. It makes you read more rather than being visually obvious.

Ya, the normal way to do this is to auto-subscribe to any post you post into, and then look here: http://forums.macrumors.com/subscrip...ewsubscription

arn

[Tilpots]

Originally Posted by r2shyyou

So why not just mark all forums as "read" right now and then, starting right after that, everything will work exactly as you want? Or am I missing something and it won't work the way you want?

Because it just fills right back up with unread posts. You have to constantly mark them all as read to behave as they used to. That's pretty annoying.

Originally Posted by Weaselboy

I think with the new system you can just "mark all as read" before you leave the forums each time and get the behavior you want. At least that is working for me. I really like this as it gives me complete control rather then posts being marked as read when I have not read them.

The problem before, and this is what lead to the change request, was that it would mark all as read after a certain length of "inactivity." So if you spent ten minutes or so in a post researching and composing a lengthy reply, you would submit your post and come back to find all other posts marked as read, even though you had not read them.

Again, why add extra steps to maintain what was already the default setting? Shouldn't you remember what you've read and what you haven't anyway?

Originally Posted by r2shyyou

So that search is sort of like a "Participated" thread list, as opposed to a "Subscribed" thread list, or at least that's how it appeared when I altered your search to add my username in place of yours.

Yes! It's awesome, right? Members here much smarter than me figured this out awhile ago and I've been using it ever since. So great for staying up to date.

Question: do you auto-subscribe to every thread you post in?

Nope, don't need to. That search takes care of everything. That's why I wish it was a default part of the forum. It'd be handy for every member.

I have the option set up where I'm automatically subscribed to every thread I participate in but with no email notification for new posts in those threads. Then, at least for me, simply clicking on User CP shows me basically the same list that your saved search does, with the exception of threads that I've manually unsubscribed from (e.g. front page news stories).

So your search shows me every thread that I've participated in, regardless of whether or not I've subscribed to them, and User CP shows me every thread I've decided I want to see updates for. At least that's how it seems to me.

Does that make sense? I may be rambling...

Not rambling, you got it. Bookmark it and use it. So useful...

Originally Posted by Ledgem

As others have mentioned, you can manually mark all threads in a forum as read through the drop-down menu immediately above the forum: Forum Tools > Mark This Forum Read.

I think you'll also begin to adjust with time. Right now you're used to looking for bolded threads and forums, but once you get used to it, you'll likely do something very similar based on the time stamps. It's arguably not quite as quick and easy, but it works.

But I was perfectly happy with they way the forums acted for the last 7 years I've been here. I'm not interested in having to mark forums read every time I leave them. What you want basically serves little purpose, as every time you return to a Sub Forum, everything is unread. And if you can't remember what you've recently clicked on, well...