What style should be used for unread topics?

This is a really dumb thing, but is there a way to make all the old topics normal font? I have a bunch of old threads that are showing as bold and it’s harder to pick out topics that have actually been updated. Dismissing all unread didn’t do the trick.

For reference I’d like all those to be normal strength because they’re all old content.

I agree this CSS change to make those bold is really … not good. A color differentiation between “read the whole thing already” and “haven’t read the whole thing already” should suffice. I’m gonna make that change because it has really been bothering me too.

So now, grey means “you read the whole thing, champ”.

@wumpus, please hold off making unilateral CSS changes. But I’m confused about what just happened. Now the whole thing looks the same to me.

The bold face was there for a reason, although with it gone, I’m not sure what that reason was. Can you put it back to the way it was? Ideally, threads with unread messages should be in bold face, right? Is that not what you were seeing, LockerK?

-Tom

I suggest we make them all bold if that’s the case – having the unread stuff in bold is kind of painful as @lockerk noted. The normal distinction between unread and read in the browser is a color differentiation:

Discourse already highlights unread post count in topics you’re tracking, so alerting me HEY THIS IS BOLD BECAUSE IT IS UNREAD on topics I don’t care about is … extreme. I expect that in the email client because, well, these are messages directly to me. But it’s not great in a public discussion forum.

TL;DR I strongly recommend we differentiate with only color here, but whatever color, font size, etc is up to you. We can do all-bold as well, that’s fine.

At this point, everyone should be used to unread being bold and read being non-bold because that’s how it’s worked on Quarter to Three for as long as I can recall. And I’m pretty sure this is what we settled on when we were working out style issues on the test forum. Let’s stick with that for now and if folks want to change it, let’s talk about it instead of unilaterally implementing it. So again, can you please reset the CSS to the way it was before?

But I’m still a bit confused about the issue, maybe because of the way I read the forum. LockerK, can you explain a bit more about the issue? Is it that dismissing new posts doesn’t make the threads unbold? Because I agree that’s how it should work.

-Tom

It doesn’t work quite that way in Discourse – so this is a change that will confuse people, as it is a false equivalence with vBulletin. It also makes the topic list quite painful to read since IT is LIKE someone IS randomly SHOUTING at YOU while READING the TOPIC list.

Like I said, I expect that in my email. Every email was addressed to me, after all, that’s why it’s in my email inbox, yes? Someone was speaking directly to me. Bold might be warranted if I’ve never opened the email. Not true of a public forum. And also, the style change only takes effect when you’ve read the entire topic, where simply “opening” an email would dismiss the bold, that’s not true in Discourse.

TL;DR you’re saying every topic MUST REMAIN BOLD until users have read every single reply in the topic. That’s… a big ask.

Discourse already has a new indicator that has nothing to do with styles on the topic link, like so:

I suggest living with the new system in active use for a while first, and understanding how it works, first.

Jeff, for the third time, please change the CSS back to the way it was. I’m open to discussing how it works. I’m not open to you deciding it should work a certain way and then unilaterally changing it.

-Tom

All right – but these earlier decisions were made on incorrect assumptions about how Discourse works. And RANDOMLY bold TOPIC titles IN the TOPIC list IS hellaciously PAINFUL to read… as already noted by @lockerk.

I hear you. But it’s what most of us are accustomed to. If we want to change it, let’s talk about that here. We’ve had a test forum running for several weeks now, and as far as I know, it hasn’t come up. Or maybe it has and I just missed it. What does everyone else think? LockerK, is that the issue you were talking about, or did you just mean it wasn’t working when you marked everything read?

But if it’s going to be a color distinction between read and unread threads, it needs to be something different. As per my screenshot, everything looks the same to me.

-Tom

Yes yes, bolding things I haven’t looked at yet is much better.

Totally fine, color distinction is what I recommend, as stated previously.

You don’t understand. They will stay bold until you read the entire topic to the very end.

The new indicator is already there and does exactly what you stated:

Yeah, bold may not be the answer but right now I can barely tell which topics I’ve read, so something needs to change in that regard.

I know you’re going to hate hearing this, but I’m sure you’re used to it by now: that’s how it worked on vBulletin. :)

I personally don’t think of bolding as shouting. That’s reserved for ALL CAPS TYPING. But when a post gets added to a thread, I like that fact being immediately visible. Bold face does that just fine. I’m open to indicating that with colors – colors that actually look different – but let’s hear from some other folks first.

-Tom

Doesn’t the little “new” tag do that?

If it’s a matter of preferring the bold, that’s fine of course.

I wanted to demo splitting a topic here for you @tomchick so here’s what I did:

  • click the admin wrench at upper right
  • trigger “select posts”
  • click on the posts I wanted to split out
  • click “move to new topic”

I am not a mod here, so this is not something I’ll ever be doing again, but I wanted to demo it to you this one time as a way of keeping conversations on topic and having a dedicated topic are for things that need it.

(I want to retain admin status here so I can troubleshoot stuff but I do not consider myself a mod. It’s like the relationship I have with other Discourse customers. It’s your site, I am just here to make sure the tool works right and can be improved for future needs.)

Ooh, sweet! Very handy, wumpus. Thanks!

-Tom

Here’s the thing. I think there’s value in having a distinction between threads that were just created recently, threads you’ve interacted with that have new posts, and threads that you just haven’t read yet (but, conceivably, only those that have been active within X time). “New” or whatnot should denote the first kind of thread, the unread post count denotes the second kind…but that leaves the third kind.

Sorry, I stepped away for a bit… let me try to clarify. Before, if I came to QT3 every new topic was bold – which is fine. But after I’ve read what I want and then click Dismiss on Unread it only hits a subset of topics, and the ones that aren’t dismissed are still bold. On the old forum they would all be converted away from bold. I wonder if there is something about the read flags per account that isn’t hitting all of the old posts and marking them as read?

Just created = new tag
New posts for you = little number in a blue circle
Threads you haven’t read yet = Your browser should show them a different color, but it is a bit subtle

I don’t really care either way-- I’m fine with bold.