Unread topics in topic feeds.

[Guest]

Hey there,

since updating to 4.6.2 my members are missing the feature of emphasized topic titles for unread topics / posts in topic feeds. Support told me they removed this feature due to performance reasons.

Could you please re-add this feature or at least make it configurable? My board never had performance issues due to this feature and I'd really like to have it back. Those topics still get emphasized in the normal forum view but not when included in topic feeds.

Many regards
Marco

[AlfaSpaceNET]

Yes, please return this feature.

[Adriano Faria]

It was removed a while ago, in some version of 4.5.  Widgets are cached so the topic read state you’re seeing didn’t change when you viewed a topic, only after the cache updates.

[FZ]

I just "upgraded" and am getting complaints from my community about this too. Please put it back - there was no performance problem on my server. My cache is 1 minute. 

[David..]

I liked this feature too.

[Matt]

On 6/30/2021 at 11:15 AM, Adriano Faria said:

It was removed a while ago, in some version of 4.5.  Widgets are cached so the topic read state you’re seeing didn’t change when you viewed a topic, only after the cache updates.

This.

We cache widgets so we can't show the read/unread styling. It's been this way since 4.5 (2020).

[FZ]

1 minute ago, Matt said:

This.

We cache widgets so we can't show the read/unread styling. It's been this way since 4.5 (2020).

Sorry? I was running 4.5 up until last week and my widgets were showing bold type for all unread topics in the feeds. 

So am I delusional or is there something else at play here? 

[Luuuk]

5 hours ago, FZ said:

Sorry? I was running 4.5 up until last week and my widgets were showing bold type for all unread topics in the feeds. 

So am I delusional or is there something else at play here? 

I'm still on 4.5 and definitely there is no "unread" (bold) indicator.

[FZ]

I don't know what to say. I have been running the previous gen since it came out and only upgraded now because I know that falling behind doesn't work in your favour here. My home page has a widget feed on it with the last 25 topics discussed and if there was an unread message in them it made the topic bold. I had the option to specify the cache time for my widget. 

To be honest, this is a step backwards and it makes no sense to me that something highly functional would be arbitrarily removed for no apparently sensible reason. 

[Balto]

Hello,

 

any news if this feature will be back?

 

Thank you!

Edited August 16, 2021 by Balto

[FZ]

1 minute ago, Balto said:

Hello,

 

any news when this feature will be back? I have just updated and I am receiveing so many complaints by my users.

 

Thank you!

They don't care. 

[Daniel F]

It's not that we don't care, it's just not reasonable to have such feature in a widget. It's true that it was present in the past, but only because it was a bug.It's not possible to implement such a feature with our widgets and the widget cache!

[FZ]

27 minutes ago, Daniel F said:

It's not that we don't care, it's just not reasonable to have such feature in a widget. It's true that it was present in the past, but only because it was a bug.It's not possible to implement such a feature with our widgets and the widget cache!

Oh come on, Daniel. 

How was this a bug? It worked perfectly for years and it gives the community an indication of what they have not yet read on the community. Removing it basically removes functionality that is (to my mind) critical for the user experience. 

What if we decide that we should remove $10 from your license renewal fees because you removed something that we used and need? You wouldn't like that very much (if it was possible for your customers to do), would you? 

Not happy with IPS and the response to this criticism. :( 

Edited August 11, 2021 by FZ

[Adriano Faria]

4 minutes ago, FZ said:

It worked perfectly for years and it gives the community an indication of what they have not yet read on the community.

That was the bug. You click, read, go back to index and the topic still shows as unread. The unread marker will only disappear after the cache upgrades.

[FZ]

And if I have set my cache to 1 minute? Or if I don't use the caching feature at all? (pretty sure those were the options available prior to this unnecessary surgery). 

[Adriano Faria]

Just now, FZ said:

And if I have set my cache to 1 minute?

You would still have a few seconds showing wrong. 😄

[Daniel F]

5 minutes ago, FZ said:

How was this a bug? It worked perfectly for years

It didn't because of the cache.
Let's say the first visitor after the widget cache was truncated has all topics shown as unread.Since he's the first visitor his output will be cached and returned to literally any visitor having the same theme, language and groups and even if these members have no unread topics, the widget would show them as unread!

 

[Adriano Faria]

Anyway, I find hard to believe that someone will set 1 minute to cache. Better not to use it.

[Balto]

4 minutes ago, Adriano Faria said:

That was the bug. You click, read, go back to index and the topic still shows as unread. The unread marker will only disappear after the cache upgrades.

Then they can fix the bug and you have bold for unread posts, you click, read, go back to index and the topic will already be showed as read. The unread marker will be disappeared because the user has read the unread posts.

[Adriano Faria]

1 minute ago, Balto said:

Then they can fix the bug and you have bold for unread posts, you click, read, go back to index and the topic will already be showed as read. The unread marker will be disappeared because the user has read the unread posts.

How will you update a cached data without update the data? 🤷‍♀️

[FZ]

4 minutes ago, Daniel F said:

It didn't because of the cache.
Let's say the first visitor after the widget cache was truncated has all topics shown as unread.Since he's the first visitor his output will be cached and returned to literally any visitor having the same theme, language and groups and even if these members have no unread topics, the widget would show them as unread!

 

I have never seen that happening. 

And FWIW when most users are going through the community's new posts they use the next unread topic or default feed link. Well that's at least the way i have been doing it since becoming an IPS customer over a decade ago.

[Pavel Chernitsky]

Did a search and was about to go all "YEAH!!! WE USED IT TOO!! I WANT IT BACK! BRING IT BACK!! ANGRYYYYY!!!!"
but after reading this: 

On 8/11/2021 at 4:46 PM, Daniel F said:

Since he's the first visitor his output will be cached and returned to literally any visitor having the same theme, language and groups and even if these members have no unread topics, the widget would show them as unread!

I'm not sure if arguing about bringing it back is much use to anyone. So if I may, can we take this topic in a different direction?
@Adriano Faria @Daniel F and others, is there any way to make something that will somehow replicate that feed's usability? There is the "all activity" feed that looks and feels awesome (especially since it auto updates). Do you think somehow someone could maybe remake that feature as a plugin? Maybe even take it a step forward and add a  widget-like filter like what kind of activities to show, who can see it, which forums and other sections (clubs/articles/blogs) to show and more. I'd absolutely be willing to pay some monies for such a thing. 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Pavel Chernitsky

[FZ]

My blocks had the cache set to 1 minute, so unless it was a very boring post the block would have updated by the time the reader got back to it. 

But alas, logic is not being applied to the reasons for removing this most useful feature. 

[opentype]

As with many feature requests, the “why” is usually more interesting than the “what”. How were you using these widgets? On what pages? For what purpose? 
On all my (three) IPS communities, I make sure that the Discovery page is in the main navigation and the main place to check for new content. On two out of the three sites it’s even the homepage. So no member would need to rely on feed blocks to know what has and hasn’t been read. It would be a rather poor way to discover unread content. If your use cases differ, it would help to explain or show it. 

[FZ]

56 minutes ago, opentype said:

As with many feature requests, the “why” is usually more interesting than the “what”. How were you using these widgets? On what pages? For what purpose? 
On all my (three) IPS communities, I make sure that the Discovery page is in the main navigation and the main place to check for new content. On two out of the three sites it’s even the homepage. So no member would need to rely on feed blocks to know what has and hasn’t been read. It would be a rather poor way to discover unread content. If your use cases differ, it would help to explain or show it. 

What is your "discovery page"? Mine was the home page of the site with a block that displayed the last 20 topics of discussion. The ones in bold type were unread. Now it appears that when a member returns to the site there are no unread topics for them. This is not a good thing.

The default feed that IPS has is not consolidated and to my mind isn't useful at all. I really don't need to see multiple entries into the same topic appearing on the same list. It never been the way I have read any online forum. You go onto the topic and all the unread posts will be there for you to see, one after another.