How to mark all posts as read?

Product Support

AI-generated summary

In a support discussion titled “How to mark all posts as read?”, ludwikc asks how to achieve “Inbox:0” on Discourse, noting that unread topics remain marked even when no new messages exist. They include a screenshot showing a list of followed topics with scores and checkmarks, highlighting “Project: Business Partnership Experience” with a score of 40. pfaffman explains that while users can dismiss unread or new posts to clear their inbox (achieving “Inbox:0”), they cannot mark posts as read without actually reading them. Discourse tracks reading activity to credit both users and posts — if a user doesn’t read a post, neither receives credit, preserving the integrity of engagement metrics. This mirrors practices in email systems where archiving unread messages clears the inbox without marking them as read.

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Some of my users want to achieve “Inbox:0” on our Discourse.

Even when there are no new messages, all the topics that were not viewed/visited by the user are still marked as such.

How do I mark them all as read?

This is a screenshot of a webpage or application interface showcasing a user's activity, possibly a social media platform or a blogging site, where the user is following or subscribed to several topics or channels, such as "Project: Business Partnership Experience," "Monk Mode - wyboram sie na detox," "Hakerski manifest," "Fortuna spryzy zwyciestwa," "Best Sotap Apps," "UGMONK - analogowe Todo estetyczne wydawnictwo," "Hackersky Groupon," "Best Sotap Apps," and "Najlepsze wydawnictwo branżowe." The list is organized in a tabular format with rows and columns, and each row represents a different topic or channel, with a score or rank next to it, indicating the user's interest or engagement in each one. The image has annotations pointing to a specific row, highlighting the topic "Project: Business Partnership Experience" with an associated score of 40, a row with a green checkmark icon to the left, and another row with a green checkmark icon to the right, both of which have a score of 19. (Captioned by AI)
This is a screenshot of a webpage or application interface showcasing a user's activity, possibly a social media platform or a blogging site, where the user is following or subscribed to several topics or channels, such as "Project: Business Partnership Experience," "Monk Mode - wyboram sie na detox," "Hakerski manifest," "Fortuna spryzy zwyciestwa," "Best Sotap Apps," "UGMONK - analogowe Todo estetyczne wydawnictwo," "Hackersky Groupon," "Best Sotap Apps," and "Najlepsze wydawnictwo branżowe." The list is organized in a tabular format with rows and columns, and each row represents a different topic or channel, with a score or rank next to it, indicating the user's interest or engagement in each one. The image has annotations pointing to a specific row, highlighting the topic "Project: Business Partnership Experience" with an associated score of 40, a row with a green checkmark icon to the left, and another row with a green checkmark icon to the right, both of which have a score of 19. (Captioned by AI)2090×2496 179 KB

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You can dismiss unread posts so that they don’t show up on your unread list and dismiss new posts so they don’t show on your new list (so this is what counts as Inbox:0 on Discourse–I’m inbox:0 here and on my email accounts, where I regularly archive email messages without reading them, removing them from the inbox), but you can’t mark them read without reading them.

Discourse gives users credit for reading and posts credit for being read. If the user didn’t read the post then they don’t get credit for reading it. If the post isn’t interesting enough to read, it doesn’t get credit for being read.