I can’t figure out how to use the “mark topics unread” feature. In the keyboard shortcuts panel I see that there’s the Shift+u shortcut for it, but in any situation where I type that it does absolutely nothing. The shortcuts window doesn’t help with this, which is actually a more general symptom – the list there is too flat, with not enough context to explain where to use each shortcut.
Come to think of it, I don’t know how to activate this feature with the mouse, either. I literally see nothing else on the site that refers to it; other than the checkbox in Preferences → Interface, which I have of course checked.
All of the above applies equally to this site (meta) and 5-10 ish other discourse powered sites I follow. What am I missing?
If you have otherwise “Mark unread”, the topic would look like it is unread and stay indicated as such (black). Unread numbers would show up as well if you do something like “track all topics in Support”.
What confuses me, and I believe also what confused me before I posted, was that the topic does not immediately appear in the lists where it should. Like, my “home” page is New, but when I come in and there are unread topics, there is a separate Unread tab with a count. But after I do Shift+u in a topic, I’m thrown back “Home” and there is no Unread tab. But then it appears if I wait a while and refresh.
It’s the same async or polling approach that always infuriates me with Gmail
It is getting a bit confusing for me too – if you think there’s a bug or a UX issue somewhere, perhaps you can try laying out some steps (step 1, do this, step 2, do that) to reproduce what you think is odd. This way our team can try and walk through the same experience and determine if this is intended.
I’m sorry if I confused you by referring to the New list. I only said that to give more context.
So here’s what happens, step by step.
I log in to a discourse site
I view my discourse home page, which I always choose as New
But when looking at New, if there’s anything Unread, I
also see the Unread tab available. Tonight, there’s nothing
unread and no Unread tab.
There’s a new topic that looks interesting, so I open it.
It is indeed something I want to read, but … long, and
tonight I have no time. So, now comes the critical part:
I want to make sure I see it again. Since my Home is New,
if I don’t do anything, I’ll never see it again. That’s what
I’m trying to address by using Mark unread feature.
I click on the Mark unread button, or I hit the shortcut.
Doesn’t matter, same result.
Browser returns to my discourse home, i.e. New. The topic
is no longer there, which is expected. But/And !!
THERE IS STILL NO UNREAD TAB. Reloading doesn’t help. So,
I just lost handle on the topic, I’ll never see it again.
Is it clear now? I have feeling I’m just not understading what
the feature is supposed to do, but the name Mark unread certainly
suggests it should become unread, so visible in the Unread tab/list.
I think there may be a little misunderstanding in which topics appear in unread. I would explain it as “topics you are tracking or watching that have unread replies”.
Maybe the problem is that the notification level of the topic didn’t change before you marked it as unread. Maybe you can try changing that in the notification dropdown on the topic before you mark it as unread. (It may also be helpful to reload the site after you marked something as unread. Sometimes I have the impression Discourse needs that to show the topic again.) For me, the topic is back in new after that.
If that works it might make sense to change your tracking preferences, for example, to track topics as soon as you enter them. Then you don’t need to do that every single time you enter a topic you want to read later.
Your suggestion wouldn’t work for me because there are many, many topics which I enter and then I want to abandon. Usually there are more such than those I want to follow, though that depends on the site. [And, being a single track mind, I really, really must have the same settings on all sites.] So it would save me work for the interesting topics but unfortunately create more work for the uninteresting ones.
Nonetheless I’ll try to change the tracking status manually for the sake of debugging.
Added in update: thinking about it more, if things are as you suggest, I have to return to my original question — what doesMark as uread do? It’s not the same as Track or Watch (wich you want me to try in addition to Mark as unread), so what is it? What changes about the behavior of the topic when I do it?
update 2: I should add that I also have “Consider topics new when I haven’t viewed them yet”. Maybe this is unusual and doesn’t play well with the Mark unread thing?
update 3: in fact — I think you nailed it! Today I opened a New topic and I took the time to keep reading until it was set to Tracking. Then I hit Shift+u and yes, after teleporting to the home page, I can see it under the Unread tab. So, making sure the topic is Tracking first is the key.
I can fine-tune the time after which topics are set to Tracking automatically when I read them, and I’ll need to remember to always look at the bell icon under the progress bar before hitting Shift+u. I think this much is doable even for the single track mind. Thanks!
