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Full Version: Methods for viewing "new" / "unread" posts on ST forums
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Hey all,

Just thought I'd post a refresher on how to find "new" or unread posts that others have made on this forum. There are few methods to do so, and each work in subtly different ways, so some may suit you better depending on your forum browsing habits. I know the various links may be in unobvious places, so don't be afraid to bookmark those you find useful.

1. Show recent posts
http://shuttertalk.com/forums/search.php...n=show_24h

This is one of the links located in the top right of the navigation bar.
It displays the last 24 hours of posts,so you can see what has been posted in the last day. It will display posts whether you've read or participated in them or not.

This the one I personally use, and it is useful if you visit the forums every day but if you visit less frequently, you might miss out on a lot of posts in between. Also, if it is a slow day there may be only a few posts that show up, sometimes even none! :/

[Image: recentposts.png]

2. Show new posts since last visit
http://shuttertalk.com/forums/search.php...n=show_new

This link again is located in the top right of the forum navigation bar.
How it works is that when you begin a browsing session in the forums (i.e. visit the forums) it records the time of that visit. The next time you visit the forums, it will retrieve all new posts from that last visit time onwards. So if you last visited 3 days ago, it will show 3 days worth of posts.

This is great if you visit the forums less frequently. However, the only thing to be mindful of is that by virtue of visiting the forums, you would have reset your "last visit" time. So for example, if you started reading the posts, and only got halfway through the list, and then came back later in the day hoping to revisit the list, it would only display posts since your last visit (i.e. earlier that day).

The "Mark all topics as read" link under it is a way for manually setting the last visit timestamp to now, so that all posts will be considered read.

3. Recent topics
http://shuttertalk.com/forums/index.php

If you hit the front page of the forums, at the bottom is a table showing the last 20 forum topics with activity.

I find that it usually contains topics from the last 2 or 3 days, so if you've missed something using the first two links above, this one will usually capture it.

[Image: recenttopics.png]


4. Show [various] posts
http://shuttertalk.com/forums/index.php

Finally, if you hit the front page of the forums, there is a navigation footer right at the bottom of the screen. At the bottom left are 4 links:

- Show recent posts (same as #1 above)

- Show unanswered posts - this one retrieves all posts with 0 replies. I would encourage us as a community to check this link out once in a while, as people have made the effort to post something to the forums, and not getting any feedback or comments can be a bit like a slap in the face. I'm not saying we have to personally comment on every single topic, but I guess if we put ourselves in the other person's shoes, just a bit of affirmation can go a long way.
http://shuttertalk.com/forums/search.php...unanswered

- Show subscribed posts - at the end of every topic, there is a option to subscribe to the topic, to receive notifications when a new post is made. This link will show you all your subscriptions.

- Show your posts - pretty self explanatory, but it can be worthwhile checking this once in a while. You may have started a topic, where someone has continued the conversation or posted a reply which you have missed.

[Image: showposts.png]


Anyway, I hope this list is useful to everyone - if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

In summary, for me, I usually visit the forums every day (or multiple times a day) so I bookmark the "recent posts" in my browser and hit that link to begin with. Then if I run out of topics to read, I go to the front page of the forums and check out the "recent topics" table showing the last 20 active topics.
Thank you, I usually visit everyday the forum. This is wonderful, well thought all details. I liked it.

with my love,
nia
Thank you Jules, very thoughtful! Actually I only knew some of that!
Thanks for documenting this stuff, Jules - I always assume that most of the "old school" here know it all - but I forget that not everybody does.