Need help using this forum

[michaelmars]

i can't seem to get the setting right [the way they worked on the previous board]. my goal is to click new content and see all new topics as well as responses added to old topics which were posted after i read the topic.

currently if i sign in and read only one topic when i come back none of the previous topics show under new content. i have tried both setting options in the setting screen.

[kcjenkins]

It sounds to me like you made a mistake that I made once, of clicking on the dark box at the front of the forunm name. Doing that marks everything as 'read'. Clink on the name of the forum you want to read, and then you can tell which ones have new posts by looking for the tiny orange box in front of them. Then, after you read all you want to read, if you skipped some, you can go back out, and click on the dark boz, and it will grey, and all the posts in that group will be marked 'read'.

[Catherine]

I've actually had the opposite problem. A couple of the topics keep showing up with the little orange box for "new" posts -- and when I click on the box, it brings me to the last post, which I read (and which was marked as read) the last time I was online. It keeps happening with the same few posts, too.

[Lion EA]

That happens for me when it contains a poll and maybe when it's been "stuck," can't remember for sure on that second issue.

[Kea]

The poll ones show up every time someone votes on it, even if they don't add a reply.

[Eric]

The poll ones show up every time someone votes on it, even if they don't add a reply.

Yes, that's right.

As for the original question, I'm not sure I understand the problem. I don't use the View New Content feature, so I'll have to do some poking around.

EDIT: ok, did a little poking. I didn't even know the "View New Content" button was there in the old version of the forum software.

It looks like what it does is shows you where new posts are made since your last visit. When I tested it, there were a number of new posts, then I logged out, logged back in, and checked again, and nothing was listed there at all. If I log out, wait a few hours, and logged back in, only threads with new posts since my last visit would be shown.

So, it seems to me that read/unread status doesn't affect the "View New Content" feature. It only compares the date/time of your last visit to the dates/times of forum posts to show you a list of anything that's happened since you were visiting last.

Now, I'm not sure if this behavior can be changed or not, I'll have to do some more poking.

[michaelmars]

you got it erc, the issue is if i mark all topics as read and later someone adds a new post to it, then that should show up as a new content-at least thats how i believe it worked before.

after i leave the forum i would mark all as read then when i came back and clicked new content every topic or answer that was new used to show up

[Eric]

I can't speak to how the feature worked before as I didn't even realize it was there before, but I will say that there are visual ques to show you which topics are new and which topics have unread posts on the topic list page without having to go to the View New Content page.

Below are examples in both of the forum skins.

In the ATX Community skin, you can tell which topics are new by the color of the icon to the left. If it's faded, then there are no new posts:

In the CleanCut skin, it's the same, and also topics with unread post have titles in bold font:

The View New Content feature seems to be entirely different. Read/Unread status doesn't come into the equation. I have topics in there that have already been read.. it just lists everything that's been posted since my last visit, whether I've already taken a look at it or not.