Hi all,
It's been a busy week and we're rapidly approaching Friday full steam on, so here's a bit more info before I get lost in a pile of to-do's about the whole 'unread posts' situation...
Unread Posts ... and Watched Threads
As we mentioned previously, our new forum software unfortunately does not support the same feature on our current forum for 'unread posts', a function that allows you to see any replies made to threads where you have posted previously.
The good news is, there is a 'work around' that offers the same functionality, just in a different way - and perhaps even better, it allows more control over what threads you wish to continue receiving replies for.
The new forum has a feature called
Watched Threads, which allows you to mark a thread (topic) as 'watched', and track it from a few quick links. This will also generate an alert whenever someone replies (although only 1 alert for any number of new replies, unless you look at the thread, and then you'll get an alert for the next new reply...etc!) so you can see replies in a topic you're watching.
The forum software allows you to select topics to watch, and to unselect topics to watch too, so you can pick and choose about topics you want to see any new posts in (even if you've not replied in it), or you can stop watching a topic if you don't want to know of every new post (handy for something like the 'What are you listening to?' topic).
The forum software also allows you to automatically begin watching a topic when you create it, or when you reply to it - and thus you'd be notified of any new replies, and see them in the 'Watched Threads' search button.
Unfortunately, by default, the new forum does not turn this on for you, however we have 'forced' it to be switched on during the conversion, so that you will find all replies and new topics are automatically watched, and you do not miss out on this function.
You can control several aspects of the watched topics features too, including disabling 'Alerts' for watched topics from your alert settings, and instead just tracking them through the search option:
You can also disable topic watching completely in your profile, or control it on a reply/thread basis on the reply/new thread form:
Forum preferences
Thread/reply control
So, as you can hopefully see, the feature isn't gone, just implemented a little differently. Plus, this new method has the added bonus of watching topics you're not posting in anyway, and removing watched topics when you're bored of watching them or receiving notifications for them.
As we said, this will be turned on by default when we move so people don't miss out on replies rather than opting in, however as we noted before, any topics you previously took part in will not be converted by the system, so you may wish to find threads you've took part in (from your profile page) and re-watch any threads you don't want to miss out on.
Hopefully this explains a little better for those concerned with using 'unread posts' on the current forum, and we hope you find it a little more improved with better control of what threads now unlike our current forum.
Just as a little bit more info too, the forum does show some nifty little bits to help you manage threads you've taken part in and watched threads, as shown in the image below:
Your avatar appears over the original posters avatar indicating you have replied in this topic, and hovering over also informs you how many times.
The small pair of glasses icon to the right of the topic name indicate that you are watching the thread too, and will receive notifications for it/show up in the replies search.
Thanks all!
