Possible Improvement in Usability of This Forum

[Perianne]

I like it here, though I wish it were a bit busier. But then again that might destroy the community we have built.

Anyway, I wish there was something different. While I do not wish to complain about a place in which I am a visitor, I offer these thoughts as a way to maybe improve the usability of the forum.

When I click on the "new posts" thingy, it shows me the new posts that I have not read. If I comment on one it goes away as I have thus been determined to have read it. Here is the problem: if I read a thread, it goes away when I click "new posts" thingy. But let's say I decide I wanted to comment on that thread I just read. I can't. It is gone now and to comment on it I have to do something to find where and what it was and where it is located.

On another site where I used to post, the latest threads are posted like this: unread threads are in bold; read threads are in normal type. That way, if you just read something and want to go back and post in it, you can easily see what you have read and what you have not read.

Does that make any sense?

[jimnyc]

Look on the same navigation bar where you click on new posts, all the way to the right is an option I installed for "my posts", which allows you to see what threads/posts and where you made them. Similarly with the bold is direct reading. You are 100% correct in what you see under new posts, but it's the same if you went down the board reading individual sections. For example, open the first forum at the top called "current events". The unread threads should be bolded, where the read threads will not be. Assume there are 5 new threads in that section, and you went in and read the 3rd one down. You leave that section and go down to the lounge. If/when you return to current events, the unread threads will remain bold and the thread you read already will not be.

This is based on a users "cookies" and it will remember what you read and what you haven't. I believe what we're looking for here is - you would like to have unread and read posts show up in the new posts search results. I'm unsure if that's possible but am looking into it now. I'm afraid it may not be possible. Do you know if this other site was also using "vbulletin" software?

[Perianne]

Sorry Jim, I should have PMed you instead of posting this in the forum. I will continue in that route.