Forum Changes: Which 'Marked Read' option do you prefer?

[HannahRage]

I've switched the forum over to a different way of tracking which posts you've read, to give people an idea of how it works, and want to know which one you prefer.

1) The previous option, which was based on cookies and automatically marked read anything you had visited, or anything in the forum after a certain period after you visit. This meant all threads will be marked read after a visit even if you didn't get around to them, but also means you don't have to worry about old threads you have no intention of reading.

2) The current option, which only marks a thread read if you actively visit it. This means you never miss a thread, but some threads will hang around looking 'unread' if you don't visit that section (there's also a changeover period with posts that you may have read recently before the tracking option changed).

[HannahRage]

This will run for a week, then I'll update the forum to the winning option.

[byroncallas]

Number 2, with extreme prejudice. :-)

[D Akey]

Really? I always thought it was when you visited and read the post that it shows up as read. Other than that, what's the point of the feature. There's no way one could possibly read every post in every thread. But it's a way of having an option to know.

I would perhaps recommend that you have a button similar to the MacMail program where you can click "Mark All As Read" if you want to be done with it. But for the rest of the users who want to go back and check something they missed (this being art and there's no expiration date on it), then one knows it's there if they want to look. There may be a favorite artist who, because they have not been in for a long time that they may have sneaked in and posted months back. And you still would like to see their work.

Also -- and this would benefit the website, there may be art posted in the forum that shows off what the program can do, which once buried would be of no value to anyone, regardless of how inspirational it might be for new AR users. Plus it might revitalize a conversation with a talented contributor who might otherwise just fade away thinking that nobody liked their work. Sort of to avoid the old, Marvin, the Paranoid Android response of, "Oh, what's the point. Stylus the size of a planet and they dispose of me like shareware."

I stand firmly behind Byron's "Make ArtRage Forums Great Again" stance. It's huge.

[HannahRage]

Really? I always thought it was when you visited and read the post that it shows up as read. Other than that, what's the point of the feature. There's no way one could possibly read every post in every thread. But it's a way of having an option to know.

Just to be really clear: Threads are always marked read as you visit, it's whether the remaining unread threads stick around between visits that matters

[Enug]

If I want to clear posts that I have not read I click on Mark Forums Read. I see it is under Forum Actions but I'm sure it was previously a separate link.

[D Akey]

Just to be really clear: Threads are always marked read as you visit, it's whether the remaining unread threads stick around between visits that matters

Just to see if I'm missing something here's what I'm seeing as the point: When I visit, I see a few posts. Those would be marked as [Read]. If I do not read other posts, I would hope they would not be marked as [Read] no matter how long they've existed as unread.

So if I'm understanding that correctly, I'm suggesting that a button to [Mark All As Read] would then give each user the option to either go back and pick out the ones they've not yet read to look at as convenient, OR the user could decide they're not something of interest and mark the progress up to current, rather than it being on a timer. It's a sorting method.

Bottom Line for me:
It's actually not a huge deal for me personally at this point because I'm usually up to date and I've had no real problems in the past finding new posts. It's more a hypothetical and if the posts exist and they don't get deleted, then it makes little difference to me how they're marked. I can look at a post and tell in a second whether I've read it or not. I was merely throwing my electoral votes behind Byron to parody a famous recent scenario in the political world. But Byron likes going through old posts and thought it might matter to someone like him who swims in the forums that way. He might find use in a feature that most others probably don't care about based on the frequency of our visits.

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On another matter: You were asking how long it takes to time out where I have to log back in to post something it takes longer to write, it happened writing that reply. Alas, I wasn't timing it. I never know how long it is going to take.

[HannahRage]

There's a 'mark read' option under Forum Actions up the top, as Enug pointed out. If nobody's really noticed that anything changed when I switched over, then it's probably too minor to worry about and we'll probably just stick with the second option (as votes are fairly even and there are some very strong opinions leaning that way )

[D Akey]

There's a 'mark read' option under Forum Actions up the top, as Enug pointed out. If nobody's really noticed that anything changed when I switched over, then it's probably too minor to worry about and we'll probably just stick with the second option (as votes are fairly even and there are some very strong opinions leaning that way )

@Hannah, For that "Mark Forums Read" does that blanket all the forums as read? I could try it but just thought it better to ask since we're talking about it.

@Enug, good spotting job! I missed that feature entirely after all these years of use. Never needed it I suppose. Good to know it's been thought of.

[HannahRage]

Yes, it wipes the slate clean, so to speak