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Feature to jump to end of displayed latest thread from "my forums" on pc browser

electricpete

Android Expert
I sometimes browse "my forums" on pc to see if there is recent activity of interest.

Each "row" of the table is a forum, with forum name on the left side (clickable link to forum).

On the right side is some useful information in two rows per forum:
Latest: [thread title]
[username] [time]​

... where items depicted above in square brackets are not literal... they are replaced by entries unique to the last thread in that forum. What happens when I click on these items:
  • Clicking on [thread title] takes me to beginning of the thread, ok that's good.
  • Clicking on [username] gives info about the user... not very interesting to me but I don't mind it.
  • Clicking on the [time] does nothing. I expected it would take me to the end of the thread (useful in multi-page thread that I have already been following... don't want to read the whole thing but just want to see what's new).

I can still get there, but it takes a few more clicks and scrolls. It's not a huge deal, but it would be more user-friendly if clicking on the [time] of the last post took you to that last post.

I forgot how to screen print on pc lol...attached is a screen photo.
 

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I expected it would take me to the end of the thread (useful in multi-page thread that I have already been following... don't want to read the whole thing but just want to see what's new).

Actually, clicking on the thread title will, in theory, take you to the most recent unread post in the thread. So threads you've not seen, that's post #1, but your posts you're following, that's the first new reply, accessed the same way

It doesn't seem to work 100% of the time for me, it will occasionally fail and go to the first post, but that's the idea.
 
Actually, clicking on the thread title will, in theory, take you to the most recent unread post in the thread. So threads you've not seen, that's post #1, but your posts you're following, that's the first new reply, accessed the same way

It doesn't seem to work 100% of the time for me, it will occasionally fail and go to the first post, but that's the idea.
Hmm, you're right - it went to the last post. I'm not sure how I got crossed up on that.:confused:

So on the single forum page, clicking on subject brings you to beginning and clicking on date takes you to the end.
But on the watched forums page, clicking on subject takes you to end and clicking on the date takes you nowhere....

That doesn't exactly make sense either. At least it should be consistent. Make the watched forums page act similar to the single forum page in this respect and you'd have the following advantages
1 - consistency between the two screens
2 - intuitive interface (I never would have guessed that clicking on title would take you to the end of a thread)
3 - two choices of entry points into thread (beginning or end) from watched forum page, (rather than only one choice now).

That's just what makes sense to me...
There may be some complicated logic I'm missing.
Or it may be more trouble than it's worth.
Just throwing in my opinion.
 
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If you hover over the links on each page, you can see that the Watched Forums page doesn't append /unread/ to the end of thread URLs. You would expect to see that on most/all other pages, which explains why that one specifically behaves differently. I agree that it ought to be changed to match the rest of the forum.

Personally I don't use the Watched Forums page. Rather, I used the unread posts link, which is available in the watched threads dropdown:

It gives you a list of updated threads in your watched forums, and, relevantly, clicking titles on that page does take you to the first unread, and clicking dates takes you to the last post.

One thing to note, you can't access the dropdown on mobile, so you need to bookmark the below URL. Note: clicking it takes you to a short-lived search-specific URL that's no use for making a bookmark out of, so ensure you get the right thing:
http://androidforums.com/find-new/posts?watched=1
 

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If you hover over the links on each page, you can see that the Watched Forums page doesn't append /unread/ to the end of thread URLs. You would expect to see that on most/all other pages, which explains why that one specifically behaves differently. I agree that it ought to be changed to match the rest of the forum.

Personally I don't use the Watched Forums page. Rather, I used the unread posts link, which is available in the watched threads dropdown:

It gives you a list of updated threads in your watched forums, and, relevantly, clicking titles on that page does take you to the first unread, and clicking dates takes you to the last post.

One thing to note, you can't access the dropdown on mobile, so you need to bookmark the below URL. Note: clicking it takes you to a short-lived search-specific URL that's no use for making a bookmark out of, so ensure you get the right thing:
http://androidforums.com/find-new/posts?watched=1
I think that depends on your browser. The drop down works for me using Opera in landscape. That's the main way I navigate the forum.In portrait mode it squishes out the new posts tab totally.

 
Actually, clicking on the thread title will, in theory, take you to the most recent unread post in the thread. So threads you've not seen, that's post #1, but your posts you're following, that's the first new reply, accessed the same way

It doesn't seem to work 100% of the time for me, it will occasionally fail and go to the first post, but that's the idea.

I've noticed there is a time limit for the site adding /unread/ to a thread, but I'm not sure how long it is. For example I think it happens in both cases:

1. You read an entire thread
2. No one posts to it for a couple months
3. Someone posts
4. Clicking thread title doesn't have /unread/ and goes to first post

A. You read an entire thread
B. People DO keep posting to it but you stop reading that thread
C. After a couple weeks or a month the /unread/ in the URL disappears.

My guess is the sites database only keeps track of how far you've read for a certain time for efficiency. As you mentioned is doesn't apply to the Watched Forums page.
 
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