Users discuss the labeling and behavior of the /latest and /new navigation links in Discourse. Jonathan5 notes inconsistencies in naming (e.g., “Latest Topics” vs. “Topics”) and asks for ideal naming conventions. Lilly shares her custom naming (“Recent / Unread”) and mentions hiding sections from anonymous users via a theme component linked here. Moin clarifies that the link toggles between /latest and /new based on user preferences under Navigation Settings. Jonathan5 observes that while the link target changes, the label doesn’t — suggesting it should be customizable or better documented. Lilly admits confusion over the dynamic behavior and wishes to override user settings for consistency. JammyDodger introduces the experimental “new new view group” that combines new and unread topics. volanar suggests a more personalized activity feed like Invision’s. JammyDodger confirms recent UI tweaks to clarify link behavior, following an order: unread → new → everything. Overall, users agree the system is flexible but could benefit from clearer labeling and user control.
Now that we can customise the “Community” part of the sidebar I noticed that the default description for /latest is “Latest Topics”. On Meta, it’s “Topics”.
On my forum’s top menu tabs I called /latest “Latest Posts” (shorthand for topics with the most recent posts, I suppose) and /new “New topics” (shorthand for most-recently started topics). The default is “Latest” and “New”.
Has anybody come up with an ideal solution here? Maybe the defaults are ideal and I’m just not seeing it yet 
not exactly sure what you are asking but i renamed the Topics / Latest Topics navigation sidebar menu link on my forum as “Recent / Unread” because it toggles between new and latest. i also hid that top section from anon users and made a custom global section for everyone.
I think whether it toggels depends on the users settings
Navigation
When a topic list in the navigation menu has new or unread items…
Link to the filtered list
Could you explain that part? Does it not always just link to /latest?
I think I read you mention that before but can’t find it now. Could you link to it here, please? I’ll ask about it more there I expect!
It is part of her Customization > Theme component
Yes, that seems right. When a user ticks that box the link goes to /new (instead of /latest).
But the label doesn’t change (it still says “Latest Topics” in my case). Maybe that should be mentioned on the admin page when customising the sidebar. Or maybe there should be (or is) a way of customising the text for when it links to /new.
IDK i’ve renamed that Topic thing a dozen times now i think. 
i want to override the user settings for that thing simply because i can’t find a good name for that Latest topic link. wasn’t that the “everything” linked to that experimental topics filter setting? like i’m a bit confused myself with all these particulars for that navigation menu Latest link behavior. ugh
Haha I think we must be over thinking it! Yes I think it used to be “Everything”… I can see why they just call it “Topics” here now. I think I’ll follow that.
i love that we can customize all the things in there. but i’m not sure i like the dynamic behavior part or at least then putting control of that in the user’s preferences.
Another setting that may be of interest is the new experimental new new view group which combines new and unread together.
yea that is what i was talking about here but i remembered after that it’s different than the dynamic latest filter
This will not solve the problem of the user’s choice of content. Now, when visiting the forum, I do what I mark topics as read and viewed, only then I read topics. But I don’t want to read all the topics on the forum, but only those categories and updates that interest me. Much more useful would be a custom activity feed like invision
https://invisioncommunity.com/4guides/how-to-use-ips-community-suite/content-discovery/activity-streams-r69/
) make the behaviour a little clearer (and they also work for ‘New new view’ as well):