I want to read every post and every topic on my Discourse

I logged in for the first time in nearly 2 weeks after a vacation to see if there were any unread messages. The UI shows none, but there was one clearly marked in the Latest tab:

Is this a bug, or do I have some setting set incorrectly?

Unread is only topics you are tracking or watching.

2 Likes

Thanks, Jeff. What is the intended or easiest way to get an indication or notification when there are posts you haven’t read but aren’t watching?

Watch the category they are in.

2 Likes

Categories is our default view because we have more than one category for different audiences. As an administrator / mod, I want to be able to tell at a glance when any category contains a post I haven’t read.

Then watch every category. Visit each category (or your User Profile Preferences) and make sure you are watching all of the categories (top right there is an icon on the category topic listing page) or in your user preference at the bottom there is a Watching Categories box you can fill out.

2 Likes

An easier way to do this, if you really plan to read every single topic ever created, is to set your user preferences (under “Other”) such that:

  • automatically track topics I enter → immediately
  • consider topics new when → I haven’t viewed them yet

That’s how I have my preferences set here. Then just make sure you actually enter every new topic (they will be marked new, if you haven’t visited them yet) and you’re set.

5 Likes

Thank you, Jeff. This is what I needed. I don’t know if it’s sustainable for me, but right now the community is small and we’re trying to help it grow. We didn’t understand the tool well enough to make sure we were seeing all new posts in a timely fashion, so our own blind spot was serving as a momentum-killer.

2 Likes