Read, But Unread

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Viking Horse

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This may seem like an absolutely stupid question, and for that I'm sorry, but I have trouble turning up anything with the search function. Anyway, every time I come back to this site, topics I haven't even seen yet are marked as read. Is there some sort of cut-off feature that makes posts over a certain time not count (and is there any way to turn it off)? I fiddled about in the user options, but I didn't see anything that looked helpful.
 

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I'm not sure about the "read" flags, I've noticed the same thing myself and always assumed it had to do with when I'd previously last visited the board. Sorry, I've no idea how you'd adjust this or if it can be adjusted.

The board's search function can feel limited sometimes, especially when you need to search for a short word... an alternative used by many is to go to Google.com and enter site:absolutewrite.com "search string"

-Derek
 

Viking Horse

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Yeah, the short word thing is a little annoying, but, for the most part, I just assumed that the search function is hard to use just because there are so many posts on the site (not that that's a bad thing, of course).

As for the "read" flag, I was just comparing it to some of the other boards I visit (for politics, gaming, etc.). On those, when you come back to posts you haven't read, the topic names are a darker color blue than the one's you're up to date on. It works the same way here, except some of the topics and posts I haven't yet seen aren't marked in that dark blue "unread," only the more recent ones. (You may have understood that already, but I just thought I'd try to make it clearer for anyone else who came by.)
 

MaryMumsy

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In my experience, when you leave the site and then come back, whatever was there when you left is in light blue (even if you haven't read it). Only the stuff that has come up while you were gone is in dark blue. I don't know if there is any way to change that, but it seems like that is what happens. When I am on a board I always look at the first few light blue ones to see if there is anything I missed.

MM
 

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The board considers you as having left it after twenty minutes of no activity. This means that if you close your browser and then realize that you wanted to read one more thread and open it back up again, or if you go to a different site and come back to AW all within twenty minutes, it doesn't consider you as having left. But if you're composing a long response that takes longer than twenty minutes to write, the board assumes you have left because as far as it's concerned, you haven't had any activity in the twenty minutes. You might notice that someone's green light stays on for twenty minutes after they actually leave.

Anyway, as soon as the board counts you as having left, all the posts that were unread are changed to being read, and it starts counting from that point, yes.

(BTW, sometimes if you close your browser and reopen it soon after, it resets everything to the last time you opened AW, and I don't know why that is, but it's a different issue altogether)
 

Rebekkamaria

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It says in the FAQ that the admin can change the way the posts become read. Is there any way for us to do it (I tried to look for it from the settings, too)? It's actually a bit difficult for me to read the forums because I'm so used to other forums where the posts stay unread until you either go to that specific subforum or read the actual thread. Here, everything turns read fairly quickly (after 20 minutes of inactivity?) even if you haven't even visited the subforum. I'm constantly confused by what I've already read and what I haven't read. I would at least like it to keep everything unread for the duration of my stay that one day. Thank you in advance for an answer.
 

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It says in the FAQ that the admin can change the way the posts become read. Is there any way for us to do it (I tried to look for it from the settings, too)?

I'm sorry, there isn't. The board changes so rapidly that the current timeout works best for the largest number of members.

I would at least like it to keep everything unread for the duration of my stay that one day. Thank you in advance for an answer.

One option is to not log in until you decide to post/reply.

Another option is to use the Today's Posts links under Quick Links

If you're interested in a particular thread or forum, you can use the Subscribe to Posts option. If you subscribe to an particularly active thread or to a Forum, please use the option to have the subscribed threads appear in your User CP rather than emailing you.

See: FAQ: Everything You Wanted to Know About Thread Subscriptions
 

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(BTW, sometimes if you close your browser and reopen it soon after, it resets everything to the last time you opened AW, and I don't know why that is, but it's a different issue altogether)

That's because the browser is looking at your local cache.
 

Rebekkamaria

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Thank you for your answer, Medievalist. I'll see what fits best for me. :)
 

kentsmith

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I realize this is an older thread, but I thought it would be helpful to keep the older information together with my question.

As a new member of this community, I have been trying to navigate the multitude of great threads on the board. I just recently realized something that was noted by a prior poster in this thread: no matter what you do, the forum will automatically mark everything on the entire board as read even if you have never even seen the subforum for those posts. Wow. I can honestly say I have never been a member of a forum that behaved that way. On other forums, I can take my time to review subforums to see what I have missed since I last visited the board. Here I find myself taking screen captures of 3-4 subforums to keep a picture of the bold (unread) entries so that as I review the forum entries, once they are all marked read I can at least look at my screen shots to remember which ones have NOT been read yet.

I have subscribed to the sub forums that I want to track, but now I have to switch between the emails and forum just to figure out which entries I have not yet read.

It seems kind of crazy that everyone on this board would have to do that. So there must be something I'm missing.

In a prior question, Medievalist answered:
The board changes so rapidly that the current timeout works best for the largest number of members.
I'm not sure if he meant there is a server limitation for tracking everyone's unread entries, or something else.

I'd love to contribute more to this forum and learn with everyone else, but it is so difficult to track what I have not already read, that I'm not sure how to be most efficient.

Hopefully, there is an easy solution. Thanks in advance for any guidance.
 

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I realize this is an older thread, but I thought it would be helpful to keep the older information together with my question.

As a new member of this community, I have been trying to navigate the multitude of great threads on the board. I just recently realized something that was noted by a prior poster in this thread: no matter what you do, the forum will automatically mark everything on the entire board as read even if you have never even seen the subforum for those posts. Wow. I can honestly say I have never been a member of a forum that behaved that way. On other forums, I can take my time to review subforums to see what I have missed since I last visited the board. Here I find myself taking screen captures of 3-4 subforums to keep a picture of the bold (unread) entries so that as I review the forum entries, once they are all marked read I can at least look at my screen shots to remember which ones have NOT been read yet.

AW is more than ten years old, with many thousands of active members and millions of posts. Using a timeout cookie is the least processor expensive/database intensive option.

I have subscribed to the sub forums that I want to track, but now I have to switch between the emails and forum just to figure out which entries I have not yet read.

Use the Subscribe thread option that posts the threads you have subscribed to in your Settings/CP only.
Go to Settings-->Subscriptions, select the threads you wish to change, and choose "Through my control panel only" from the Selected Threads menu on the right of the panel.

If you attempt to read everything you'll go mad. There are posts here that go back to 2004.

You can use the New Posts link in the dark blue strip at the top to read what's new since you last logged in.

If you don't want the board to time out while you're reading, log off. You can read as long as you want, without anything being marked read or unread.
 

kentsmith

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Thanks so much for the very clear description of the issue.

I will give those proposals a try and see how it goes.
 
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