Bookmark behavior in posts and topics

So Discourse give you the awesome tool to show Favorites/bookmark topics on nav menu alongside latest etc. It’s a cool feature for those who like to find specifics topics.

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But if you bookmark a reply in the topic.

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You won’t get redirect to the post you bookmarked. It will show you the first reply/OP instead.

So Bookmarking a topic will override a Bookmarked post?

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Probably! It’s an edge condition for @sam :wink:

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I am somewhat confused here:

There are 2 links at play here cause often when tracking bookmarks you still want to track the conversations.

Let me explain in more details.

I’m talking about bookmarking a topic, this button right here in the bottom of any topic.

If you bookmarked your location clicking here in a topic that already is bookmarked as favorite…

This icon will redirect you to the first post/OP instead, not the post that you bookmarked.

Try bookmark this topic, then bookmark Jeff’s posts. Go back to topic lists, and then you’ll see it.

You can’t do that, once the topic or a specific reply has been bookmarked the button at the topic level changes to ‘clear bookmarks’. The topic-level control to bookmark is gone.

Bookmark set at topic level

Bookmark your topic instead

So a topic-level bookmark can’t overwrite a post-level bookmark, if a specific post is bookmarked the post and latest reading position are the two links within the bookmark. If the topic is bookmarked then it’s the topic root / and the latest reading position.

I bookmarked your earlier reply, so my bookmark link goes to /4 and my topic link goes to /6 because it’s my latest read position.

But… topics and posts are such different concepts if you stop to thinking about it.

If I bookmarked a topic to read later/any day and it has 50 replies, I’ll only be able to bookmark my location while I’m reading if I scroll to the bottom and then clean my bookmarks. So it should be the way around… if I’m bookmarking a post in a topic that was already bookmarked, it should override it. :face_with_monocle:

What, no?

Your progress is still being tracked and remembered like usual.

You can still bookmark any post in the topic as you scroll down too. The only reason you need the control at the bottom at all is to clear your bookmarks for the topic.

Are you sure?

Bookmark a topic using this button.

Get back to topic lists/latest, enter the topic again. Bookmark any post in this topic that you previously marked as favorite. Try to reach the post you have marked using this icon.

You’ll get redirect to first post instead until you clean all your bookmark… until that you won’t be able to track your location.

Have you compared the behavior between /bookmarks and https://meta.discourse.org/my/activity/bookmarks?

When I bookmark a topic and then a post within the topic, both entries are preserved in that view:

So nothing is being overwritten.

Are you just asking for /bookmarks to show both? How would a user differentiate between topics without a preview of the post at the link?

It would probably be less confusing in the multiple bookmark situation if they were indicated on the timeline.

I’m talking about this icon in topic lists which leads to the post more quickly, not /bookmarks page.

What would be timeline in that case? I couldn’t understand you in this one.

Your assertion is that something is being lost, or overwritten, but as you can see from /my/activity/bookmarks multiple bookmarks in the same topic are preserved.

There are three obvious scenarios here:

1. Bookmark a post within a topic

  • Can no longer bookmark the topic itself
  • Bookmark in /bookmarks goes to the post
  • Nothing is lost

2. Bookmark a topic, then a post within the topic

  • /bookmarks icon goes to topic
  • Additional per-post bookmarks are visible at /my/activity/bookmarks
  • Nothing is lost, or overwritten

3. Bookmark multiple posts within a topic

  • Regardless of the order they’re bookmarked in, the icon on /bookmarks goes to the lowest numbered bookmarked post within the topic (I’ve tested and confirmed this)
  • All bookmarks within the topic are still visible at /my/activity/bookmarks
  • Nothing is lost, or overwritten

Your criticism of /bookmarks stems from not understanding the priority for the icon. You aren’t limited to a single bookmark per-topic:

  • If the topic and subsequent posts have been bookmarked, then the icon on that page goes to the topic
  • If multiple replies have been bookmarked, then the lowest-numbered reply within the topic to be bookmarked becomes the destination

The bookmark icon at the bottom of the topic being swapped to ‘clear bookmarks’ isn’t entirely helpful, because if you bookmark a topic and then a post within said topic there’s no obvious UI to remove the bookmark from the topic, while leaving the post bookmark intact. For now you need to navigate to the above link and remove it from there.

I asked you if you were expecting /bookmarks to show all bookmarks within a topic as discrete rows, because in that view it only shows the topic title, unlike /my/activity/bookmarks. If /bookmarks were to behave in that way, how would a user differentiate visually between two bookmarks within the same topic without having to check the reply ID it directs to. Here’s a mockup:

How would I be able to tell from title alone which of those takes me to the topic, and which takes me to a post?

My last point related to whether it would be possible to indicate the position of all bookmarks along the topic progress bar. In particularly large topics it would be invaluable to jump between them, otherwise users would be forced to jump back to /my/activity/bookmarks periodically to find the next link.

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Giving different icons for each situation?
Star = a topic that you liked/favorite.
Bookmark = a topic with bookmarked post.

Hmm… its a good idea indeed. With a limitation to show just 3-5 posts bookmarked, I think, it wouldn’t look too messy.

I had this concept thought before for recommended posts feature. Sometimes a topic has replies from members that adds valuable information to the first post/OP.

A box shows up when you put your mouse (hover) above the bar.

Anyway, I get too excited when I have ideas. :laughing:

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