Feature request: ability to mark topics and hide them from activity streams

[Luc2k]

I mainly browse Neowin through the unread content stream and on a daily basis there are plenty of topics that don't interest me. After initially opening what I want to read, I end up with pages of ones I don't. Also, if I want to find interesting topics that haven't been active for a couple of days, it gets tiresome going through pages of content I intend to skip.

 

A workaround would be to open every single topic, jump to the last page and close the tab (and do it all over again once a new reply is posted), but that's not how I'd like to spend my time here. Would it be possible for something like this to be implemented?

[LimeMaster]

I could be wrong, but I think the filter works with activity streams:

 

 

[Luc2k]

10 minutes ago, LimeMaster said:

I could be wrong, but I think the filter works with activity streams:

Even if that worked (and it doesn't), it would not be helpful at all as I'm not looking to filter forum sections.

[Hum]

Maybe you can click

 

Unread Content

 

at the bottom of the page.

 

There is a Mark forum as read button, on the left:

 

 

Edited September 4, 2016 by Hum

[Luc2k]

1 hour ago, Hum said:

Maybe you can click

 

Unread Content

 

at the bottom of the page.

 

There is a Mark forum as read button, on the left:

 

 

And that solves my issue how?

 

Sigh, maybe I need to explain myself better: I don't want to mark a whole forum as read, but individual topics. Let's say you make a topic about UFOs that gets a new post every hour, however I have no interest in it, so I go though the Unread Content section, ignoring it. Let's say there are over 50 such topics scattered across various forums and I've read everything of interest (they're no longer in the unread section). A couple of hours later I want to check if there's anything new, but I have to go through those 50 topics I don't care about to actually find something I want and every single time I refresh Unread Content, those 50 active topics are still there to scroll over. Only way to make them disappear (without marking whole forums as read) is to open every one, load the last page, close it and then refresh Unread Content.

 

Now Neowin doesn't have one of the most active forums but there can be a fair number of active topics at one time. If what I've asked is not possible, maybe a button to mark a topic as read without actually entering.

Edited September 4, 2016 by Luc2k

[DaveLegg Developer]

If you choose to follow the topics you're interested in (button at the top right of each topic) - You can set it not to notify you if you don't want notifications - you can then filter the unread content stream by "Topics I follow"

[Luc2k]

1 hour ago, DaveLegg said:

If you choose to follow the topics you're interested in (button at the top right of each topic) - You can set it not to notify you if you don't want notifications - you can then filter the unread content stream by "Topics I follow"

I know that, but there are many new topics I might want to look at when I have nothing to do, but not enough to follow. This becomes a bigger problem if I don't visit for a couple of days, as I have to scroll through many pages just to find new topics of interest that haven't been active recently. For example, there are very many topics about "Hilary this and Trump that" that I would like to just ignore, however I don't want to skip the entirety of politics.

[Steven P. Administrators]

To me this seems like a pointless feature, because you'll be forever hiding topics from the Activity Stream as new ones are created. I'd support a mod for hiding posts from certain forums, which makes more sense if that isn't already possible, but I guess you could just follow the forums you want to see topics from?

[Danielx64]

Maybe I should start my own topic but I would rather have the option to ignore a forum in a way that it wont show up in unread content

 

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

On 9/4/2016 at 8:18 AM, Danielx64 said:

Maybe I should start my own topic but I would rather have the option to ignore a forum in a way that it wont show up in unread content

 

It already is

 

[DaveLegg Developer]

7 minutes ago, Gary7 said:

It already is

 

That's only for Mini Spy (as it says), it doesn't affect the IPB built-in content streams

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

2 minutes ago, DaveLegg said:

That's only for Mini Spy (as it says), it doesn't affect the IPB built-in content streams

I only wanted to reply, that wording and the pic were already there when I quoted her. Strange I think it would be rather hard to block one section from everywhere. If the member does not want to see RWI cannot her account be blocked from there?

[Luc2k]

3 hours ago, Steven P. said:

To me this seems like a pointless feature, because you'll be forever hiding topics from the Activity Stream as new ones are created. I'd support a mod for hiding posts from certain forums, which makes more sense if that isn't already possible, but I guess you could just follow the forums you want to see topics from?

Like I said, I read content from all forums, so subscribing to some of them would only limit my options while still potentially showing topics I'm not interested in. Otherwise, maybe a button similar to "Go to first unread post" that simply marks a topic as read at the time, or, at the very least, a way to jump to the last page of a topic so that I can open it in a background tab and close it after load when using activity streams with expanded view.

 

While it would be a big "quality of life" improvement for me, I am surprised that, so far, I'm alone in wanting this. Anyway, it's your call.

[Luc2k]

On 9/4/2016 at 3:18 PM, Danielx64 said:

Maybe I should start my own topic but I would rather have the option to ignore a forum in a way that it wont show up in unread content

While my the initial request was shut down, please, for the love of all that is holy and unholy, revisit @Danielx64's request. If Trump scratches his posterior in the privacy of his home, you can be sure there will be a topic on Neowin as wakjak posts a new Trump topic every 30 seconds or so. It's almost as bad as Lumia stock updates. And no, this is not a complaint against him.

 

And don't tell me again to create a "show only content I follow" stream, as I still like to discover new topics without going through every forum.