'Unread posts' for members of the Coffee Shop forum: merged topics, for improved clarity

[whole diary]

[grahame]

A question asked ... 'If I come to read a long thread such as "Problems with IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) trains since April 2021", how can I jump to start reading from where I got to last time?'

Answer - from this of threads on a board, click on the 'new' button and you'll be taken where you want. 

Blindingly obvious once it's pointed out - but until you realise it's clickable, it's not.

Note that posts read via "Recent Posts" and "See the latest post of this member" may not be marked as having been read, so may come up again when you click on "new"



Edit note: Correcting another of grahame's occasional typos. Chris.
Edit note: Put 'new' in quotes to clarify that the new button is the 'new' button - Red Squirrel

[rogerw]

Just what I wanted, and so simple. Thanks for investigating this.

[Oxonhutch]

Graham, I would ask you to a little less obtuse to some of us who don't quite get your message. Please highlight where and in what form this 'new' button is. I cannot for the life of me find it! I am browsing on Chrome in a Windows 10 environment.

[grahame]

Graham, I would ask you to a little less obtuse to some of us who don't quite get your message. Please highlight where and in what form this 'new' button is. I cannot for the life of me find it! I am browsing on Chrome in a Windows 10 environment.

When you are seeing a list of subjects on a board, a white word "new" on a blue background appears to the right of the subject.   Here's the example from my earlier post.   At the time I took this screen capture, I had not read all the posts on E-scooter trails, nor all the posts on "Death on the Downs Link" so these blue and white buttons appeared just to the right of the subject.



Full navigation example:

1. Ensure you are logged in.  "Unread" facilities cannot be available to guests if we don't know who you are.

2. Go to forum home page - http://www.firstgreatwestern.info

3. Select the board that you are interested in, such as "Intro and chat", "Who's Who on Western Railways", "Smoke and Mirrors" ...

4. Sticky threads, then the most recent updated thread on the board, will be displayed as per the example above, with the new button alongside any you have not fully read (or at least called up to read)

5. Click on the word "new" to take you to the older unread message in that thread


In this case, your operating system and browser should make no difference ... though stranger things have happened.  If, for example, you're logged in on Firefox but visit as a guest on Chrome, then you will not get the buttons on Chrome.

[johoare]

Thanks to Oxonhutch for asking this to save me doing so. I also could not for the life of me find the "new" button after reading this 

I've found it now after your further reply Grahame.

[GBM]

1) Show new replies to your posts.
2) Show unread posts since last visit.
3) Click here to try all unread topics.

For me, just one option to show all unread posts and topics please.

Unless that is a major programming exercise

[Bmblbzzz]

I don't see option 3 on my screen.

[Marlburian]

Nor do I. Having the first two options is fair enough, though I nearly always opt for the second. (I have much the same choice in another forum that has more traffic than the Coffee Shop  and I like to glance at everything that's new, though much of it doesn't interest me. Now and then I check replies to my posts and occasionally find I've missed one.)

[ChrisB]

Neither do I.

Nor do I use either of the other 2, so it doesn't bother me as I don't look there.

[infoman]

Leave it as it is,its like trying to change the theme tune to match of the day,

and I think most senior members of society DON'T LIKE CHANGE.

[grahame]

I suspect that the extra option is offered only to those who have specifically told their broswer to return pages in English and don't accept default site languages (which for the Coffee Shop is English).  However, it's well tied up in the code so that is an educated guess.   As well as logging in as an admin (which gives me more and more dangerous controls!) I have logged in as an ordinary users and still see just the two options.

Changing this area of the code, with lots of "if" "then" "else" stuff, would mean there would need to be a lot of testing to ensure that there were not unintended consequences.  And whilst it might suit "you", other users may not like the change / facility loss.  I am going to leave it - but that is not to say "no change ever".  Suggestions appreciated.   For example, given a month of Sundays a dynamic page to cope with phones better.

[broadgage]

Whilst I see little need for the options referred to, they do no harm and are easy to ignore. Attempted alterations may increase the risk of unwanted consequences.
If it works, leave well alone.

[GBM]

Basically yes, TWO options shown top left, but.
When clicking the top option of the two (Show unread posts since last visit) gives me a third option -
No unread topics found since your last visit. Click here to try all unread topics.

So a third option.