If you have read 15 posts in a thread, and then the next day you come back and there are four new posts, the way things are currently set up you have no way of knowing there are any new posts unless you wrote down the number of posts previously read. When you click on the thread it takes you to the beginning instead of taking you to the newest unread post. Wouldn't it be better to have the thread state the number of toal posts and also the number of unread posts right next to it? 15 (4). Now, when you click on a thread it takes you to the first unread post. I know this can be done, because it is a standard feature on several other sites I frequent.
To jump to the first unread post in a thread since your last visit, simply click on the yellow page icon to the left of the thread title. That same yellow page icon will appear beside the date of each new post as a way to distinguish new ones from old ones.
Why on earth was my post deleted? It seems to me, although he was looking for the last unread posts, that he wasn't aware it is possible to read the last post by clicking the grey arrow; did I say something wrong?
Let's say I don't read any of the posts in a thread. When I come back tomorrow will it show the new posts since my last visit, or will it just show total number of posts. Thanks.
I deleted it because it was not the answer to his question and I didn't want their to be any confusion. No harm intended. New post results are based strictly on the time of your last visit to the site.
Ok, I'd like to understand this further. If I'm reading some 1200 post thread by riskarb for over an hour, when is my cookie updated for last access to the board? Every time I click next page or only the first hit when I originally opened the thread? Only because I posted this now and still see the yellow folder next to a thread that I've already caught up on and hasn't been updated in an hour and a half, but I've been all over the site since then. Or is there some built in overlap for the times?
When you click "mark all forums read", it will clear the yellow page icons. I usually read everything, including any PMs then the last thing I do before leaving is click "mark all forums read". This works well to only show me precisely what's been updated when I return later in the day.
If you don't do what ktm said above, all forums will be marked read automatically once you have remained inactive for 15 minutes.