Persistant Read Marking

[Robert]

I have modified the forums to support a feature known as "Persistant Read Marking". This is a feature I needed to aid me in my forum mining for the TOE Mind Map project I'm currently working on, but it should benefit other users as well. The issue with the previous mechanism was that it was inconsistent, counter-intuitive, and relied on a session-based timeout.

This modification should, more reliably, help you keep track of where you are in a particular forum. A forum will not be marked as being read until you explicitly mark it that way. If you leave a forum and come back later, the same threads that you saw previously will still be shown as unread until you explicity mark the forum read.

The following are the main features:

1. The New Posts icon in the left column of the forum, also known as the lightbulb, is now linked to whether the user explicitly marked the forum as read.
2. A Mark ALL Forums Read link is available on the forum home page to mark all forums as being read.
3. A QuickScan link is available on the forum home page which shows the unread topics in all forums.
   • QuickScan can be turned on and off for each forum separately.

The way to use this feature is to click the "Forum Contains New Posts" icon in the left column of the forum or sub-forum your interested in. Only the new threads are displayed since the last time you marked the forum read. In this view you may click "Forum Tools --> Mark This Forum Read" to mark all threads read which turns off the lightbulb. If you enter a forum by clicking the forum title, all threads are displayed, both read and unread. Clicking "Forum Tools --> Mark Forum Active Topics Read" will function as originally designed.

I've got a few cosmetic touches remaining which I'll do this week. Let me know if you have any problems or questions.

--Robert