Forum non-issue: Mark All Viewed
Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)
Posts: 23,514
Back when the new forum hit, several of us complained about the way that unread posts treated to "Mark All Viewed" didn't really get marked as viewed but resurfaced when new posts were added to a thread. In other words, if someone starts a thread that you're not interested in and you mark it as viewed, then a post comes along that you want to read, clicking on the link takes you to the first post that you didn't actually read, rather than the first one added after "Mark All Viewed."
Now I have to admit, I've come to like this new behavior. The reason is that if I see a post that follows a bunch of stuff I didn't read, I might be missing valuable context. And although I might be a hundred posts behind, it's really no trouble to jump to the last page and pick up the thread of the conversation to regain the lost context.
So forum issue or forum non-issue? I'm leaning toward non-issue.
-Phil
Now I have to admit, I've come to like this new behavior. The reason is that if I see a post that follows a bunch of stuff I didn't read, I might be missing valuable context. And although I might be a hundred posts behind, it's really no trouble to jump to the last page and pick up the thread of the conversation to regain the lost context.
So forum issue or forum non-issue? I'm leaning toward non-issue.
-Phil
Comments
If it's not actually marking the posts as viewed, then it should at least be renamed. How about "Clear Unread"? Actually, I would like this to go a little further: instead of putting the link at the top, put it down with the post listing (upper right corner, maybe). In the Recent Discussions, My Bookmarks, and My Discussions views, the behavior would be to clear all. In the Categories view, the option would be per-category and would *only* clear the unread flag for that category. Similarly, if viewing a single category, the link would clear only that category.