Mark unread marks the latest post and notification as unread even if these are unrelated

Contribute UX

AI-generated summary

The “Mark Unread” feature is being discussed, specifically how it handles notifications. Moin found that when marking a topic as unread, it not only marks the latest post as unread but also re-triggers the latest notification, even if they are unrelated. [zogstrip](/t/-/342182/2, /t/-/342182/6) confirmed this behavior, stating that any notification triggered by a mention, quote, or assignment will be re-triggered when marking a topic as unread. It was discovered that this is indeed a feature, as seen in the Discourse code. Moin is now suggesting that likes be excluded from this behavior.

1

I was a little confused when I used the mark unread feature recently. I clicked the button at the bottom of the topic so I could get back to it later.

At first, everything seemed to work as expected: the topic was added to /unread, I had an indicator in the sidebar, and there was an unread count next to the topic. However, I noticed there was also an unread notification about a like.

Screenshot_20241213_013137_Firefox
Screenshot_20241213_013137_Firefox2304×1219 251 KB

When I opened the topic, all the unread indicators disappeared, but the one for the like remained.

Screenshot_20241213_013256_Firefox
Screenshot_20241213_013256_Firefox1920×1014 123 KB

It turns out this is connected to a post from May: DiscoTOC - automatic table of contents - #434 by Moin. The notification about the like was also created in May.

Screenshot_20241213_013852_Firefox
Screenshot_20241213_013852_Firefox1796×482 103 KB

How is “mark unread” expected to work? Should it mark the last post in the topic as unread? Should it mark the latest notification as unread? Should both happen if they are about the same post, for example, because you were mentioned in the latest post? Should both happen if the notification is about a post you wrote and received a like six months ago?

2 Likes
2

I’m an avid Defer (how it used to be called :sweat_smile:) user and this quirk has always bothered me.

Whenever there’s a mention / quote / assign (or anything that triggers a notification) in the topic, it will be re-triggered when you click “mark unread” :slightly_frowning_face:

I’ll have a quick look :eyes:

1 Like
6

Was made aware that this was indeed a feature :sweat_smile:

Marking a topic as unread will re-trigger the last notification in that topic :man_shrugging:

8

So I move this to Contribute > Feature and ask for likes to be excluded?

(and someone should tell ask.discourse that it’s a feature :slight_smile: )