Behaviour of "mark as read"

[#1]

Hi,
I notice that if you click on "mark as read" at the top of the forum it marks all messages as read, not just the ones you can see.  Therefore if any new messages have arrived since you last refreshed your browser then these will also be marked as read.  I don't think this is desirable because messages can be missed easily.
M

[#2]

James,
Thanks for your reply.  I don't always remember to hit refresh before clicking on the "mark as read" button.  Even if I do a new message could arrive in between.
I don't know how easy it would be to implement, but I have seen this in other forums before.  Didn't the old forums here do this?
Cheers, M

[#3]

It's all dependant on how the unread post system and the marking system is coded. On SMF (the forum software used here), there is a simple Mark as Read for all messages. it would be possible to implement individual marking of messages, but at a cost of huge amounts of coding (and it would be pretty messy coding at that, since there's no real way of knowing which topics a user has on their screen).
A possible solution would be checkboxes next to each post and the "Mark as Seen" button only marks those selected as seen, leaving the others alone. Still, this wouldn't be very tidy and would be more trouble than its worth (if it would realistically possible at all).

[#4]

Quote from: MikeWhitehead

A possible solution would be checkboxes next to each post and the "Mark as Seen" button only marks those selected as seen, leaving the others alone. Still, this wouldn't be very tidy and would be more trouble than its worth (if it would realistically possible at all).

Not only was it realistically possible, but it's been done and it works a treat!

[#5]

Thanks jelv 
I didn't see your last post until now because PN's spam filter marked the reply notification as SPAM! 

[#6]

Quote from: jelv

Not only was it realistically possible, but it's been done and it works a treat!

I bow to whoever made the change, obviously my previous comments were wrong

[#7]

Quote from: jelv

Not only was it realistically possible, but it's been done and it works a treat!

Interesting... that's not something we conciously implemented and it's not something I can see on my PC.

[#8]

Colin's right, it still marks every message as read, not just the displayed one.
I think I might retract my last comment and stand by my first one

[#9]

I've just tried it again and it does work if you use the feature properly!
Hands up those who ticked some boxes and then clicked the Mark Read icon/link at the top of the page.
Now try again and this time select Mark Selected Read and click Go at the bottom of the page (see attached).

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I suggest the Mark Read should be changed to Mark All Read as in other places.
Could the dropdown and Go button be replicated at the top of the page on the same line as the forum title?

[#10]

can someone post a screen shot showing the tick boxes and mark selected read - I can't see either

[#11]

Just go in to any forum (not the Unread Posts or Replies to Your Posts)
E.g. http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/board,17.0.html

[#12]

done that, not seen, plus how do you select a mail to mark without opening it

[#13]

Same here - nothing obvious

[#14]

this is all I get

[#15]

Try CTRL+F5
This is what I get: