Change in "read/unread" status

GAD

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I've changed the forum to report how threads and forums are marked "read" or "unread" which will cause a bit of confusion the first time you look at the forum.

The way this was implemented was with cookies and was clunky at best, and for someone who uses multiple browsers on multiple machines, led to inaccurate results.

The new way uses the database on the server and so is far more accurate since it records what you've seen in the database and thus reports more granularly and results in consistent results across systems and browsers.



The downside is that the first time you log in after I made the change, a bunch of threads and forums will appear to be unread even though you've read them. Just click on them again and they will clear. This should not happen again.

With the new system, unread threads older than 10 days will be timed out and default to "read". I can change this threshold if need be, though that's usually done in an effort to conserve database and processor resources on the server.
 

GAD

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Note that you can also go to "Forum Tools" on the top right and mark an entire forum read. Again, you shouldn't have to do this more than once unless you don't read all the threads and want to make the whole forum at once.

You can also do this for all forums at once from the main page using "Forum actions", "Mark Forums Read" on the top under the LTG logo.
 
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GAD

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Finally, if this doesn't work the way we think it should, I can always set it back. I think it may end up being frustrating because the cookie method seemed to mark everything since your last visit as read, while this may require clicking on a thread in order for it to be read. I'm not sure i like that from a user perspective, so let's see how it goes for a few days.
 

fronobulax

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For me, cookie method also had some time dependency. I would log in, note some unread material, spend way too much time composing a response to something else and then when I finally popped up, the unread material had been set to read.
 

AcornHouse

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I’ll probably be on the minority side, but I don’t care much for the new system. In order to “clear” the new status, you have to read every new post, not just go to that forum. Or, as mentioned, go into the forum settings and manually “mark as read”.
Previosly, as long I opened a particular forum, I could read just the thread I was interested in, and the ones I didn’t were also changed to “read” status.

My 2¢.
 

walrus

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I’ll probably be on the minority side, but I don’t care much for the new system. In order to “clear” the new status, you have to read every new post, not just go to that forum. Or, as mentioned, go into the forum settings and manually “mark as read”.
Previosly, as long I opened a particular forum, I could read just the thread I was interested in, and the ones I didn’t were also changed to “read” status.

My 2¢.

I agree with this. It seemed more intuitive and simpler the old way.

Also, if I look at a new post like I just did with this one, when I go back to the "new posts" list it's immediately gone. It used to be just "non-highlighted", so I could go back to it if I wanted. Only after I got out of LTG and came back would it come of the "new posts" list.

walrus
 

AcornHouse

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But, GAD, we thank you for your service. If we don’t try things, we don’t know if there’s a better way.
 

fronobulax

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I'm thinking the two (now three) previous comments are because of the transition. I had posts back to January 8 that were marked as unread. It took time and effort to get it so I was caught up and everything marked read. But since then things are working exactly as I expect - I can't find any posts marked as unread that I had read and I'm not missing new posts. So far that is an improvement over last week where posts I had not read would be marked as read if I stayed logged in enough with no activity.

Some of this may be how we do things. I manually scan every forum for unread markers and then in each forum I look for unread threads and then I read them. This works for me because as a Moderator I really want to look at everything. But in the old system using the New Posts link gave me different results as did What's New so the PITA aspects may also be related to what we each do to identify the posts we want to read but haven't.
 

AcornHouse

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I'm thinking the two (now three) previous comments are because of the transition. I had posts back to January 8 that were marked as unread. It took time and effort to get it so I was caught up and everything marked read. But since then things are working exactly as I expect - I can't find any posts marked as unread that I had read and I'm not missing new posts. So far that is an improvement over last week where posts I had not read would be marked as read if I stayed logged in enough with no activity.

Some of this may be how we do things. I manually scan every forum for unread markers and then in each forum I look for unread threads and then I read them. This works for me because as a Moderator I really want to look at everything. But in the old system using the New Posts link gave me different results as did What's New so the PITA aspects may also be related to what we each do to identify the posts we want to read but haven't.
No, I understand how it works. What I was saying is that if you don’t read EACH AND EVERY POST, they keep their unread status. Sorry, but there are some posts I just don’t care about. In the old system, they would still get marked as read, as long as I visited the forum as a whole, reading the ones I want to.
With this new system, I will have to manually clear them.
 

GAD

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No, I understand how it works. What I was saying is that if you don’t read EACH AND EVERY POST, they keep their unread status. Sorry, but there are some posts I just don’t care about. In the old system, they would still get marked as read, as long as I visited the forum as a whole, reading the ones I want to.
With this new system, I will have to manually clear them.

I understand and I agree with you. I would like the forum to be read by my visiting the forum and not necessarily have to visit each thread therein. That’s actually what I don’t like about this. I’ll see if it’s tweakable.
 

adorshki

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I understand and I agree with you. I would like the forum to be read by my visiting the forum and not necessarily have to visit each thread therein. That’s actually what I don’t like about this. I’ll see if it’s tweakable.
Here's what I'm seeing:
If I click on "New posts" I get a banner that says "the threads below contain unread posts". (although they don't)
I used to only see new posts regardless of whether I'd left any unread, they are after all 2 different things.
And have logged out and logged back in abut 10 minutes ago, still get "unreads" and those stop at 1/15/20.
Maybe just a side effect of the tweaking?
But very similarly to Frono's method, when I come to the site I come to the home page and scan the "last post" column for the date to see if there are any new posts in a given sub-forum.
When finished with the morning read will close forum window, when re-visiting later in day I could simply check for new posts.
Admittedly I'm probably in the minority percentage of folks who like to read "the whole paper", but I know there's a couple of us out there, like Walrus.
So, just offering some more user feedback.
 

geoguy

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Also not a fan of this new read/unread system, in case anyone is counting votes.

One other peculiarity (not sure if it is related to this topic) . . . while moving back & forth between a thread and the directory of posts in that forum, I'll occasionally get a banner that says "if this is your first visit . . . " suggesting that I've been unintentionally logged out of LTG, and need to log back in once again.

This has happened a few times in the last two or three days. FWIW.
 

GAD

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This may help those of us who don't like the way the new system works. On the bottom of the main page there is a "mark forum read" link that resets the entire forum to "read". I've found that adding that click to the end of my browsing session makes the forum behave the way I expect. It's an extra click, and that sucks, but so far I find it helpful.

Screen Shot 2020-01-17 at 5.32.51 PM.jpg
 

chazmo

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I understand and I agree with you. I would like the forum to be read by my visiting the forum and not necessarily have to visit each thread therein. That’s actually what I don’t like about this. I’ll see if it’s tweakable.

If it's something we can turn on/off, maybe a new profile setting to allow both ways?
 

adorshki

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If it's something we can turn on/off, maybe a new profile setting to allow both ways?

And in the meantime, I do see new posts when I came back in just now, and am preety sure the date thing with unread posts is a byproduct of the tweaking.
Given GAD'S past performance I have no worries.
Much like when I bought my 3rd Guild, I didn't even bother to play it..
:glee:
 

GAD

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If it's something we can turn on/off, maybe a new profile setting to allow both ways?

I love the idea, but sadly not. It's a site-wide setting that is reflected in all profiles.
 

walrus

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No, I understand how it works. What I was saying is that if you don’t read EACH AND EVERY POST, they keep their unread status. Sorry, but there are some posts I just don’t care about. In the old system, they would still get marked as read, as long as I visited the forum as a whole, reading the ones I want to.
With this new system, I will have to manually clear them.

I understand and I agree with you. I would like the forum to be read by my visiting the forum and not necessarily have to visit each thread therein. That’s actually what I don’t like about this. I’ll see if it’s tweakable.

Yes, this is also me. You guys articulated it nicely.

walrus
 

geoguy

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This may help those of us who don't like the way the new system works. On the bottom of the main page there is a "mark forum read" link that resets the entire forum to "read". I've found that adding that click to the end of my browsing session makes the forum behave the way I expect. It's an extra click, and that sucks, but so far I find it helpful.

Screen Shot 2020-01-17 at 5.32.51 PM.jpg

I think the downside to that approach might be that new posts made after you visited a particular forum during that session might be marked as "read", even though they had appeared after you moved on to another part of the site.

Admittedly a first-world problem, but still . . .
 

fronobulax

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In the old system, they would still get marked as read, as long as I visited the forum as a whole, reading the ones I want to.

OK. That NEVER happened to me and if I had written the software I would consider that I bug I had to fix.

I do use "Mark All Posts As Read" when there are things I don't need to look at.

I only access LTG on one device so maybe multiple devices or mobile devices are part of the difference.
 
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