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Are you sure you want to mark this forum read?

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Freedda

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I see a 'Mark Read' menu item at the top of the forums, and when click on it, it reads:

'Are you sure you want to mark this forum read?' And the check box below this is checked.

I don't know what this menu item is about, or what it means and regardless, i don't think I can uncheck the box? (And I first looked in the forum help section but didn't see anything listed there.)

Best, David.
 

hilary

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Oh wait - you mean the actual 'mark forum read' option? That does what it says. The forum keeps track of what you've read, so it can show you only what's new (eg in search filters). Presumably if you once mark a forum as read, you won't be able to un-mark it, hence the caution.
 
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Freedda

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Hmmm. I think I get what you're saying, but I don't fully understand the implications of marking a forum as read, versus not marking it read? Maybe not a big deal, since it seems I have (or someone or some thing has) already marked them all as 'read' and it seems I can't change that, so sort of a moot point at this point. Thanks D.
 

Trojina

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I've never come across 'mark forum read' ever.
 
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Freedda

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I've never come across 'mark forum read' ever.
If you go to the any forum, for example - https://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/friends/index.php?forums/reading-circle.27/ - near the top and just below and to the right of the forum title, you'll see three menu items/buttons:

Showing 20 threads per page / Mark read / Watch

I am talking about the second one 'Mark Read'. I just asked because I don't quite understand what "mark read" or "are you sure you want to mark this forum read?" mean, and still don't even with Hilary's explanatin. But it doesn't really matter, since it's checked and can't be unchecked, and it doesn't seem to bother my use of the forum at all.


D.
 

Liselle

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I've found that button useful for getting a fresh start, so to speak, with a forum's home page. You know how when you go to a home page, it lists the titles of all your unread threads in bright, bold blue? If I haven't been to one of the forums in a while, the entire screenful will be displayed that way, as unread. I can't possibly read everything, so I might skim through the titles and pick one or two to look at, and then use that button to mark everything else as read. Then when I come back later, I'll know the highlighted ones are new information.

Another good use for it is if your site cookies are deleted, intentionally or by accident, since cookies are what keep track of read and unread. You know you've already read everything you're going to read, so the button can be used to mark the forums accordingly. Again, kind of starting over.
 

Liselle

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P.S. If you click on the button but then change your mind - you don't want to mark the forum read - you can click the "X" to close the window and nothing will happen.
 

Liselle

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Oh - the checkbox you can't uncheck - wondering if it's either a mistake (you're supposed to be able to add and remove the checkmark, and it's a mistake that you can't), or, just a rather silly/confusing/misleading way of saying "Click here!!"
 

hilary

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What Liselle said, thank you. (Also, excellent black cat.) I think this is just some poor design: what appears to be a checkbox in the popup is actually just a graphic, a button. Which unfortunately means that if you try to uncheck the box, you end up clicking the button and marking it as 'read'. which would be exactly what you were trying not to do.

My favourite use of the 'read'/'unread' toggle is in the 'latest posts' search, which has a filter to view unread posts only (by default, I think).
 

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