[RFC] Combine Related functionality (UI Cleanup)

[hanakin]

I have never ever used Mark forum / subforum / all topics as read in 9 years of using phpbb. Just saying

What about moving it to bottom navbar? There already are actions like Subscribe topic, Bookmark topic. So there could be actions for forums / subforums too.

I use it regularly, also we removed all those links in the footer and we moved them to the actionbar with the mark link in a menu called tools.

It will be handled in 3.2 for sure but at the moment we are trying to get 3.1 out so complete changes to the visual aspect need to be well thought out and discussed in full which does not fit into the current release time frame.

Focus on fixing and improving the codebase is where we are at now. At most you may see an icon for it but thats about it

[Pony99CA]

I believe we need a cleaner solution for that link, rather than just moving it here and there. An automatic system for marking what we've read would be nice in 3.2.

I think that you've missed the point on this. phpBB already keeps track of what you've read (at least on a topic/page basis -- not a post-by-post basis).

The Mark All function is for newbies or people who have been away for a while and don't want posts they'll never have time to read showing up in the New/Unread lists. It can also be useful for marking those forums that you don't care about read so posts there don't show up in New/Unread lists.

The only way an automatic system could mark everything read is using artificial intelligence (OK, heuristics). For example, "User A has never visited Forum 1, so I'll always mark that as read."

I have never ever used Mark forum / subforum / all topics as read in 9 years of using phpbb. Just saying

What about moving it to bottom navbar? There already are actions like Subscribe topic, Bookmark topic. So there could be actions for forums / subforums too.

I use it regularly, also we removed all those links in the footer and we moved them to the actionbar with the mark link in a menu called tools.

I agree with Kamahl, but if those links are now in a menu, put the Mark All in the menu, too.

Steve

[Louis7777]

The only way an automatic system could mark everything read is using artificial intelligence (OK, heuristics). For example, "User A has never visited Forum 1, so I'll always mark that as read."

Facebook does it automatically and last time I checked it was not SkyNet.

[DavidIQ]

Really? I find myself clicking that "Mark as read" link in the notifications area all the time because there are things I either don't care about or that I read on another device. I've never seen it mark anything by itself.

[M.Gaetan89]

Really? I find myself clicking that "Mark as read" link in the notifications area all the time because there are things I either don't care about or that I read on another device. I've never seen it mark anything by itself.

+1
It removes the counter, but the notifications that you did not click on remain highlighted.

[Louis7777]

Really? I find myself clicking that "Mark as read" link in the notifications area all the time because there are things I either don't care about or that I read on another device. I've never seen it mark anything by itself.

Like I said before in this topic:
"An automatic system for marking what we've read would be nice in 3.2. We shouldn't be marking anything other than the notifications and private messages."

Just like on Facebook. On Facebook you can mark private messages as read/unread (like on popular e-mail clients) and you can also mark notifications as read. Even if you don't mark them, whenever you press the notifications button, the number of new notifications goes away.

Other than that you don't have to mark any posts or groups (forums) as read. It all happens automatically whenever you visit a group or page. That's what I'm talking about. We could come up with an automated system and eventually get rid of the "mark read" links.

You are talking specifically about the notifications. Even if we create an automated system for phpbb, "Mark forums/subforums/topics read" would go, but we'd still be able to mark notifications and private messages. That's not bad.

[MattF]

Other than that you don't have to mark any posts or groups (forums) as read. It all happens automatically whenever you visit a group or page. That's what I'm talking about. We could come up with an automated system and eventually get rid of the "mark read" links.

Automatically marking a forum as read just because you visited it, but didn't actually read anything, is totally misguiding. phpBB already automatically marks things as read if you've actually read/visited them such as posts, PM's. But this can not be automatically applied to the forums, the Mark read button is needed for that, because it is an option the user should choose to do.

And the Mark read button is very much used. As a team member I always use it on phpbb.com to keep an eye on a few of the forums I have a responsibility over. I want to know when those forums have new content, and even though I won't necessarily read all the new content in those forums, being able to mark it read allows me to keep an eye over those forums for new content, at a glance.

For many users, that action link can be a vital part of their forum routine. Burying it behind menu-diving tedium only hurts the user experience.

[Jessica.]

Automated system? No thanks. I want to use the Mark read whenever I want to use it. I use it every so often on .com...

[Kamahl19]

For many users, that action link can be a vital part of their forum routine. Burying it behind menu-diving tedium only hurts the user experience

New and Your posts links are vital parts of my forum routine, so why are they hidden in dropdown menu?

[BioLogIn]

I use "Mark * read" on regular basis to keep track of things at my forums. And I'd hate to see any 'AI improvements' on that, since that would totally screw things up completely. I'd very much like it to remain as is.

This said, this functionality is currently displayed in non-coherent way with other forum tools. For no obvious reasons it is separated from other forum tools and is allowed to occupy a separate line in the very top of the forum page, while some other tools are hidden into drop-down menu.

I think we should go for consistency and move "Mark as read" to some menu as well.

In other words - +1 to Kamahl19.