# Error when 'unread' is the first item in top\_menu

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-when-unread-is-the-first-item-in-top-menu/30389
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** pr-welcome
**Created:** [June 23, 2015, 11:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-when-unread-is-the-first-item-in-top-menu/30389 "2015-06-23T23:04:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![michaeld](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/michaeld/32/1594_2.png) [@michaeld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/michaeld)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2015, 11:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-when-unread-is-the-first-item-in-top-menu/30389/1 "2015-06-23T23:04:16Z")

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One of our customers moved ‘unread’ as the first item in the `top_menu` setting.  
This caused an error on the home page for non-authenticated users. ‘sign up’ and ‘log in’ were showing, but the top menu wasn’t. It basically made the forum look down.

![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/d/5/d5320be0c641bc7a85f85b66b8f444246ed4ad6a.PNG)

If ‘unread’ is the first item, it should be skipped for non-authenticated users, and the next item should be used as the home page.

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2015, 2:45am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-when-unread-is-the-first-item-in-top-menu/30389/2 "2015-06-24T02:45:11Z")

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Long term I plan to remove the ability to customize this. What most people care about is whether categories is the homepage or not. Beyond that, allowing change here just leads to pain.

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2016, 4:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-when-unread-is-the-first-item-in-top-menu/30389/3 "2016-07-13T04:06:57Z")

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I recategorized as feature / pr-welcome, not against having this improved its just such a huge edge case and relates to usage.

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### Author: ![chapoi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/chapoi/32/537252_2.png) [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2025, 11:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-when-unread-is-the-first-item-in-top-menu/30389/4 "2025-12-04T11:36:01Z")

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