Previously New referred to the number of new topics (first post in a thread) and Unread referred to the number of new posts (replies in threads). That subtlety hadn’t really sunk into my consciousness although I used it every day, possibly because the old forum didn’t differentiate between these.
The New/Unread counts/menu options have been replaced by a single New count/menu option which includes both new topics and new replies. Also in the left sidebar when there are new topics or replies in a category this is now shown as just a single number to the right of the category name.
I’m left wondering if this is good or bad?My brain wants to say bad because it seems like there’s less information and options than before, but then it reminds me that I’d not really understood the old options so why does that matter? I also wonder whether more information and options is always a good thing?
This feature is experimental in Discourse so it may eventually revert to the old way or it might evolve into something a bit different. I am able to turn this off if everyone really hates it. However, I wanted to enable it now because there is a possibility it might become the way things work in future, without an option to turn it off, and I wanted us to try it and comment before that happened (if it will happen).
Please leave comments on your thoughts about this. If there’s anything important to report I can pass this on to the Discourse development team.
I should also say that selecting the New option when there are new topics and new replies it displays an All/Topic/Replies page where you can select whether you want to see everything that’s new or just new topics or new replies. I guess this is sort of a middle ground between the old and the new?
Chris I noticed since you made this change that when I dismiss new I get another message to reply to with 3 options. Before dismiss new did just that with a single click! Personally I preferred the old way where new were just new and unread just unread, as I always read unread but not always new and just dismiss them.
Stuart
I thought there were previously two options because what’s now the third option (stop tracking) was already there?
Having said that, if you read all the unread posts then clicking Dismiss will only dismiss new topics so isn’t that effectively the same thing?
I am not sure about unread but when there are only new items and I click dismiss that used to be it, no further things to respond to. Now when I click dismiss with only new items a window opens with 3 options, two already ticked and a third untick and I have to OK this to complete the dismiss. Now I am wondering what happens if I view new first and then click dismiss I’ll have to change the options in the subsequent window or I’ll dismiss unread as well, OK if I read unread first but that depends on me remembering to read unread first.
Maybe its me but it seems an unnecessary complication having both together.
Stuart
I just switched back to the ‘old’ New and this is what is displayed when you click Dismiss…
So the stop tracking option was always there, unless the stop tracking option is a new feature unconnected to the ‘new’ New functionality. In any case switching back to the ‘old’ New doesn’t get rid of the popup.
I’ve never seen that maybe because I always read unread. Actually I think that’s useless as when I’ve read something if I no longer what to stop tracking I’d do that before returning from viewing and if more than one unread I’d never use this anyway.
Seems to me that the developers are trying to make folks lazy instead of crediting them with some common sense.
Stuart
I think it probably varies by forum. This forum is currently much lower throughput than it was in the past. Imagine that there were 50 unread threads each time you visited, then you might pick and choose the threads that were really of interest and then use this function to clear away the others that you’re no longer interested in tracking. When there are only a few active threads it’s manageable to handle the tracking for each thread individually.
Chris I use a few other fora which use discourse and so far have not seen any additional messages on dismiss but I will check, however it is very unusual for me to have unread threads which I do not want to follow to their conclusion so it is unlikely I would see any extra messages on dismiss because I’d hardly if ever use dismiss for unread.
Anyway It is what it is and perhaps I’m just being a tad pedantic today
Stuart
The ‘new’ New feature is very new and experimental so other fora probably haven’t enabled it yet. It seems to be quite popular amongst those who have enabled it so I’m expecting that it might become the default way before much longer.