Forum feature - catch up on posts?

[gtmtnbiker]

One of the things I find lacking with the forums is the lack of "catch up" or "mark all posts read". I like to use the View New Posts link but I don't know what algorithm it uses because it will show posts that I have read as well as unread. After some period of time (unknown), the older posts will go by the wayside.

Are there any plans to upgrade to a newer version or perhaps a different forum software to provide more features?

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

If you on the right side of the main forum screen directly above the column header that says 'Last Post', there is clickable text that says, 'Mark Forums Read'. If you go into any particular forum, the clickable text then reads, 'Mark topics read'.

JY

[gtmtnbiker]

Thanks for the tip. I never go to the board index page so I didn't notice it before.

I clicked on it which marks that the forums are read but "view new posts" still show a bunch of posts. Maybe what's needed is "view unread posts" or something like that?

[Niode]

This is already part of the software. The links 'View unanswered posts' and 'view new posts' as well as the 'mark topics read' when you click on a subsection of the board index, EG Whatever or Nintendo, should perform the actions you wish.

Racketboy uses the PHPBB3 software so you could perhaps check out their website for more information on how the software works.

[Hobie-wan]

Not to pick on gtmtnbiker at all, but I've noticed issues when people use the 'view new posts' because then we get people answering questions that were answered 2 days ago and such. This also seems to keep people from seeing the thread that someone just created hours ago that would be just a few down using the normal thread view since there might have been 50 posts in various threads so its off the front page in 'new posts' view.

If you're in the regular thread view by just going to the forum, it does show you which threads have posts since the last time you visited (or marked a section read) and even lets you link directly to the first new post in that thread.

[gtmtnbiker]

This is already part of the software. The links 'View unanswered posts' and 'view new posts' as well as the 'mark topics read' when you click on a subsection of the board index, EG Whatever or Nintendo, should perform the actions you wish.

Racketboy uses the PHPBB3 software so you could perhaps check out their website for more information on how the software works.

I read through the PHPBB3 documentation which is pretty bad in my opinion (lots of sections marked TODOs). It doesn't really mention anything about the forum reading experience.

I did poke around the community forum over at phpbb.com and they do have the feature that I'm looking for which is titled "View unread posts". Not sure why racketboy does not have this feature (older version of forum software?).

I generally would like to see the posts I haven't read, cherry-pick the ones that I want to read based on the titles, and then mark everything as read. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

[Hobie-wan]

I did poke around the community forum over at phpbb.com and they do have the feature that I'm looking for which is titled "View unread posts". Not sure why racketboy does not have this feature (older version of forum software?).

I generally would like to see the posts I haven't read, cherry-pick the ones that I want to read based on the titles, and then mark everything as read. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Uh, case in point, did you see my post at all?

This is what I do every day. Click the 'first unread post' button on threads I want to read then 'mark topics read' in a section when done.

[gtmtnbiker]

Uh, case in point, did you see my post at all?

This is what I do every day. Click the 'first unread post' button on threads I want to read then 'mark topics read' in a section when done.

Yup, I read your thread but that's not what I'm looking for. In your case, you're going to each forum section that you're interested in, one by one. This is a bit more time consuming than the approach that I'm looking for which is common in other forums that I frequent. In each section, there are frequently stickies that clutter the top that a long standing member usually won't want to bother with.

If you go to the phpbb.com forum index (as an example), you'll see:


I click on "View unread posts" and I'll get a screen something like this:


It shows 99 threads that have new posts since last night. I read the ones that I want and then mark the forums read. Clicking on "View unread posts" will then show 0 unread posts.

So the feature that I'm looking for is at the global level and it seems to be present in the version of PHPBB at the developer's site.

For the time being, I guess the only thing I can do is to continue to use "View new posts" which shows a mixture of unread/read posts and the "Mark forums read" feature.

[Hobie-wan]

Hmm ok. I see what you mean. Though we have a lot less stickies than most forums. Oh well.