A user with a forum section containing ~500 topics is seeking a method to quickly jump to the middle or end of the topic list, rather than scrolling through the entire list. Johani suggests using the activity-based topic list in ascending order to see older topics at the top, but notes that beyond this, the search function would be necessary.
Falco points out that Discourse saves a user’s read position, so if a user accidentally closes their browser, they will be directed to their last unread post upon returning. Additionally, Falco mentions that users can manually jump anywhere using the scroll bar or by pressing Shift+#.
Maiki suggests searching with in:unseen to show unread posts, and featheredtoast confirms that this is a good alternative for jumping around the topic list. However, codinghorror notes that the general expectation is that there are infinite topics, making “jumping to the end” less meaningful.
Ultimately, the user supra2020 understands that search is the best solution for filtering the topic list.
Hi all,
My forum got a section with ~500 topics. When I try to move to the middle, it takes some time to scroll down.
May I know if there is any method or plugin to improve this? Like this official discourse section, there are ~10000 topics( or threads). If I really want to scroll down to the button, I think it will take quite a long time.
Please advice.
Thanks in advance.
PS, not inside an individual thread which provides like a jump page function.
I believe you’re talking about topic lists, correct?
Topic lists are sorted by latest activity by default. So, Topics with recent activity show up on top. If you want to see topics with oldest activity at the top, you can use this
then you’ll get an activity-based topic list that is in ascending order, in other words, old topics show up at the top.
You can do the same for the views and replies columns. Beyond that, you would need to use the search icon in the header.
Yes, that’s what I ask. Thanks for that. However, when I either use the options for sorting (e.g. by recent activity or other options), I still need to keep scrolling down to the middle. In this case, the only option I have is using search function right?
Basically, I don’t have specific keywords to look for. I just simply like to read some topic in the middle.
Thanks again.
The situation is that a new user just joined and there are ~300 topics. After he read the first 100 topics and accidentially closed the browser. Then he needed to keep scrolling down to the last topic he read. It took some time.
So, just wanna see if there is any quick way to do it.
Thanks again
That is not true.
Discourse will save his read position, and the next time he opens the topic he will be directed to the first unread post. No need for scroll at all.
You can also manually jump anywhere using the scroll bar at the right
Or pressing Shift+#
Few people will have this issue, and it only applies the first time; once they read all the posts they are “caught up”. 
An alternative is to search with in:unseen, to show posts one has not read.
They’re referring to jumping around the topic list, like /latest, rather than jumping around posts in a topic, in which case we do not save a read position that you can jump to currently.
@maiki’s suggestion of in:unseen is a very good alternative to what you’re looking for 
does that scratch your itch?
thabks for your explanation. That’s a very good function for a post, but if we go back to the top level with a list of topics, there is no such function. Like below. Thanks again.
The answer is basically search. Use search to filter the topic list.
The general expectation is that there are infinite topics so “jumping to the end” has about as much meaning as saying “I want to jump to the middle / end of the Google search results and see what is there” 
Understand, thanks all of you for the explanation and solution
Wow! This is officially the most obscure useful Discourse feature. It really should be more discoverable in desktop mode with a “Jump to…” button just like what appears in the small / mobile browser layout.
