Ability to jump to first unread post

[mcwumbly (Dave McClure)]

Continuing the discussion from How should I disable automatic redirection to the Last reply？:

@mcwumbly

If you scroll up far enough in a topic you have read to regain context, then its sometimes hard to get to the last post you read.

Both of these places could be added as shortcuts in the pop-up on the progress bar:
- First Unread Post
- Last Read Post

Maybe doing both of those is overkill… The first one seems more useful.

Here are a few mockups:

1. First Unread post is before you:
2. First Unread post is after you:
3. Simpler alternative
   Pre-populate number in the “go” box with the first unread post:

EDIT just found this old topic discussing some similar stuff:

[eviltrout (Robin Ward)]

I personally find all these confusing. I don’t want to end up with one of those interfaces that’s just really full of butons.

3 is cleaner but confusing as most of the time that field is pre-populated with the current post.

I think there is likely a better solution to this problem.

[sam (Sam Saffron)]

I personally think this work should be on hold till we implement a custom scrollbar.

A custom scroll bar has a ton of other advantages, it can use colors to denote areas that are unread, it can display month name or year to the left of the scrollbar as you scroll around. It can be virtual so it can encompass the full topic. It allows us to control scroll position without complex browser hacks.

[mcwumbly (Dave McClure)]

@sam

I personally think this work should be on hold till we implement a custom scrollbar.

Totally agree if there are plans to eventually do a custom scrollbar!

[mcwumbly (Dave McClure)]

I’ve reopened this one as it came to mind again as an alternative solution to the problem being discussed in this other topic:

@mcwumbly

Rather making it easier to prevent jumping on reply, I’m more in favor of making it easier to jump back to where you were, which would also be useful in other scenarios.

Some prior topics about that idea here:

• Remembered Topic location should be “First Unread” post instead of “Last Read” post
• Link to first unread post?
• Ability to Jump to First Unread post in Topic Navigator / Progress Bar

@NateDhaliwal

So something like the ‘Back’ indicator that shows up when one reads a topic halfway and comes back later?

@mcwumbly

Yeah, something like that.

I do think it may get noisy for some, so the details of the design may need some iteration. Maybe it’d have to be dismissable, or maybe it’s auto-dismissed after you leave the topic or maybe it’s “mark unread from here”… but something like that, yeah.

@tom_eric

Thank you for sharing your idea, I still stick to my childish view. I think the more options we can provide for users, the better, rather than hardcoding a specific function. Remembered topic location should be “First Unread” post OR “Last Read” post, and users should be able to choose they like

[chapoi]

Maybe we should merge it then, cause it’s essentially the same feature request?