What is the difference between "Active" and "Unread"?

[grnidone]

??

[rcjordan]

The Active shows all recent posts in activity order (descending), whether you're read them or not.

Unread is the Active minus anything you've just read.

Where it might confuse you is if you read an article and someone posts almost immediately. Since you haven't read the latest post the thread will still be both Active and Unread.

[rcjordan]

<added>
I'm mostly navigating by Unread but the Active is still handy for finding threads a day or two old that you want to revisit.

[rcjordan]

<added2>
Another tip:  When I first started using Simple Machines Forum a couple of years ago I didn't think "Mark As Read" would be all that useful.  But on forums with a lot of activity some threads either are in topics that I'm not likely to have much interest in OR I know they are going to develop further and I will be visiting them after they've had a few posts.  So I read the ones I want from the "Unread" list then when I'm finished I hit "Mark As Read" to put the remainder off. If I'm wrong and a thread never resurfaces due to lack of activity I can still find it by paging through the Active.

[grnidone]

So the "Mark as Read" is a permanent thing even if there are new posts to it?

[rcjordan]

No, a new post will put it back in your Unread queue.

[bill]

In your Profile | Recent posts preferences | check the boards you want to monitor you can select the forums you want to monitor. If you uncheck any they will not show up in your Active threads.

Unread simply shows all unread threads regardless of your settings above.

[rcjordan]

Another recent find: There's a "Mark As Unread" button at the top of a thread you're reading. Handy if there's a big batch of threads you're going to read and you want to come back to a particular thread later but don't want to have to go digging for it. I just used it yesterday (though I've been using SMF for over a year now).

[Drastic]

I'm finding posts (during heavy activity - multiple posts going on while I too am posting) that I haven't read, not being marked as new.

Active is saving me from losing those.

[rcjordan]

Yeah, but I'm talking about threads I know I'm going to be visiting again, hopefully in five minutes. I want them right there in Unread and not to slip out of sight while I go to lunch, etc.  And I find I'm moving away from The Active here (blasphemy, I know) as the other options are becoming more familiar.

[bill]

I still long for a way to jump to Unread within a thread. I waste a lot of time trying to figure out where I left off sometimes.

[Gurtie]

click on the 'new' blue icon thingy next to the thread name.

[rcjordan]

>blue icon

Hey Gurtie, no fair reading the HELP instructions!  

"The topic subject links to the start of the topic, with extra links for subsequent pages and new buttons to take registered members straight to their first unread post of the topic."

Seems to work.

[Gurtie]

manual? we have a manual? I just clicked on it by accident.

handy though.

[grnidone]

OH MOTHERF*CK!

I clicked the "mark as read" button thinking it woudl just mark those posts on the page I was on.  But NO!  It marked EVERYTHING as read.

*sighs*