After visiting a topic's comments, that topic will show when it has new comments since your last visit
As discussed last week, the site is now marking new comments for all logged-in users. This has two effects:
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On the listings pages, you will see something like "5 comments (2 new)" when a topic you previously viewed the comments on has new comments since your last visit.
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When you return to a comments page with new comments, all old comments will start out collapsed, unless one of the new comments is a direct reply to one of them. New comments have a colored stripe down their left side, with the color varying based on the theme you're using (but I think it's generally an orange/red-like color).
You can expand collapsed comments by clicking the "+" button in their top left corner, or expand them all by using the "Expand all" button at the top of the comments section. If you don't like this initial collapsing behavior, you can disable it on the Settings page by unchecking the "Collapse old comments when I return to a topic" setting.
I'm working on some other adjustments and changes related to this, so there will probably be some more tweaks coming into place soon as well. I'd like input on one in particular:
Do we need a separate function along the lines of "stop indicating new comments on this post", or does the ignore function serve that purpose well enough? Are there reasonable cases where you want to stop seeing the "(x new)" on a topic, but do not want to actually ignore it? And if we do want to implement a function like that, any suggestions for a brief name/description for it that will fit in the Actions dropdown?
As always, any other general feedback about the feature is welcome as well.
And as usual, I've topped everyone back up to 10 invites, accessible on the invite page.
I'd like it. It is a low-priority issue, but it's also probably fairly trivial to implement (just wipe out the record for having visited that topic).
I commented about it here a few days ago.
I support the
Mark as Unreadsuggestion by Wes as well as the arguments by DrStone. While I sometimes want to unfollow a topic, I never want to put blinders on my eyes by hiding anything.I would also appreciate a “Show only visited posts with new comments” filtered view. Actually, adding categories to bookmarks can accomplish most of it: now if I add everything worth following to my bookmarks it creates quite a clutter.
I don't think being able to stop watching comments in particular is distinct enough to require a different keyword in the dropdown.
I think it might be cool to temporarily mute a topic; instead of ignore, just choose "mute" and it ignores for 24 hours (or a similarly brief time period).
A few people have made that "temporary ignore" suggestion, and I think it seems reasonable in theory, but I've had a lot of trouble coming up with a case where it would actually be wanted in practice.
What kind of topic would you want to ignore, but then have it start showing up again the next day? Are there any specific examples of existing topics that you would have used that for?
I think, more so if and when the site grows in activity, it will be useful to ignore particularly hot topics but want to come back to them later. It could be to declutter the topic list while a few are really dominating in activity. It could be to cool off in an argument without being tempted to jump back in early by seeing it or getting @-mentions. Maybe there's a live event type thread and you'd prefer to wait until things settle to read the updated article and comments. Maybe there's a back-and-forth argument or near-live discussion on a particular reply thread that you don't care about, so you'd rather hide it for a bit until things settle down and "x new comments" becomes a more relevant indicator of new content you want to read again.
I feel like some of the ~talk submissions are like this. I am not always particularly interested in having them pop up to the top of my feed when someone answers, but I want to consume maybe 20 answers at a time.
I think it's only relevant for me on self posts where the comments are the content, and I want to see the end result of that content, but not necessarily the process of developing that content.
For me, I don't want to disappear a topic, but I would like to have the option to be "done" with it, if it makes any sense.
Good change, thanks for the continued improvements to the site.
I just used it for the first time on this thread itself (I never enabled it when it wasn’t defaulted), and I can say that I love it already.
This will certainly get me to read long threads more frequently since I don’t have to search for the new post that popped it back to the top of the front page.
Great work, thanks! I don’t see the need for any additional functionality, but I’m only one person, of course.