How to configure Discourse to act like an old skool forum?

[rob]

(How) Can I configure Discourse to act more like an old skool forum?

What I want to achieve:

1. Every time I visit the forum I get to see all posts (in new and existing topics) that are posted since my last visit and all older posts that I have not (marked) read yet (and no others)
2. I can read the subset of posts I’m interested in
3. Via a click/tap on a button I can mark all remaining posts as read

[joebuhlig]

Give this a look:

Navigating MPU Talk - Discourse settings help needed

As someone who spends multiple hours a week on Discourse instances, I think I can give you a workflow that may help. So the following is how I personally manage my way through a single Discourse site: But first, some definitions and clarifications to your questions, which will help my flow make more sense. Watched This means you’ll be given a notification when there is a new post on the topic or a post on any topic in the category or tag that you are Watching. So, as you would expect, this h…

[rob]

I see “Latest” and “New” in the navigation bar, but not “Unread”.

How do you navigate to “Unread” (without entering the URL or using a bookmark)?

Also, there’s no way to mark everything read after visiting “Latest”, “Unread”, and “New”?

[briandigital]

I see “unread” next to latest and new, whenever I return to the forum and there are new posts in threads I’ve posted in.

I use the iOS app, too, and you can get alerts when there are new posts, if you really want them. That seems to be all there is to the app, because otherwise, it’s just a web view.

[joebuhlig]

@rob

I see “Latest” and “New” in the navigation bar, but not “Unread”.

The Unread item is removed if it’s empty. So if you don’t see it in the navigation, you’re caught up.

@rob

Also, there’s no way to mark everything read after visiting “Latest”, “Unread”, and “New”?

Not with Latest, but with New and Unread there is. Check the right side of the screen at the top for New and at the bottom for Unread.

[alehandrof]

You can also change your default homepage:

Here’s the relevant page in the settings:
https://talk.macpowerusers.com/my/preferences/interface

[rob]

Yes, I have already done that.

Will experiment with this “workflow”.

[rob]

Seems like I have adjusted to the Discourse way of working…

There’s one thing I don’t understand though: on both this MPU and the Automators forum I can switch to a “New” view/tab, where I can dismiss all new posts at once, while on the Drafts forum I can’t. The number of new posts is listed in the “Latest” view/tab, but I have to read them all individually to get the count down to zero.

As far as I can see I have the same settings on all three forums.

Is this something the owner can/should configure?

[rob]

Completely forgot we have one of the Discourse guru’s on here, but MPU 442 reminded me of that…

@joebuhlig Do you know why the Drafts Discourse behaves differently? (see previous post)

[joebuhlig]

I don’t know why that one is acting differently. The New page doesn’t seem to be working on my end either. But I’m not an admin on that one so I can’t say if it’s a technical problem with the setup or a problematic plugin.

[rob]

@joebuhlig

The New page doesn’t seem to be working on my end either

Thank you for looking into it!

At least I now know I should not spend more time on this from my side.