Recently instead of the usual 3/4 pages of new posts each day I get many more and somewhere there will be the message: "The threads below have not been updated since your last visit but still contain unread posts". Is there an option to disable "new posts" returning these unread posts? Don't know what other forum users think but in my case they are "unread" simply because I didn't want to read them

This is quite useful if you select "unread posts" at the start of the day, then don't manage to read them all but go back later and update without remembering you've already visited and not read them all.

Hmm, hope that makes some sense

In my case these posts are often unread also because I overlooked them, or because I didn't have time to wade through everything the previous time - an effect of the huge amount of posts here at ITT. Unless you sit down and read it several times a day there'll be a big backlog.

For me, the feature you describe is a very good feature, and I can't see why you would want it to go away - it's not like it's in the way of anything else, tacked at the end of the last page(s) as it is.

In any case, if you don't want to see it you simply click 'Mark Forums Read' in 'Quick Links' when you're done with reading new posts. The next time you select new posts you won't see any of those unread, older posts.

I agree that some may find it useful, hence my request for an 'option' for those, like me, that don't find it useful.

I also agree that 'Mark Forums Read' gets rid of them but why make me do something extra *every* time I visit the forums. After all, I select 'New Posts' because I am only interested in new posts since my last visit, not 'New Posts And Everything You Ignored On Your Last Visit' ;-)

Edit: BTW on this visit it appears there are EIGHT pages of new posts when in fact there is only one page (by my definition of course). I had to go to the second page to discover that. Imagine I log on when I have a spare few minutes only to see 8 pages and wonder if I have time to trawl all these 'new posts', ugh.

Seconded to make this new behaviour either optional or go away.

Fine with me if there's an option in the CP, but I must admit I'm unable to see the actual problem.. the messages in question are tucked on at the end, so as soon as you get to that point it's just a question of stopping reading, no? Anyway, I don't mind any changes, as long as the current behaviour is still made available.

(EDIT: There are other changes I would prefer to put priority on, e.g. to get an option to set times to 24-hour format. As it is now I have some trouble to see when postings were made, I can't wrap my head around AM/PM. Must always stop to ponder.)

Wow, I came over here to post that I had just noticed it and I was really appreciative. I often don't have the time to go through all the new posts, and it used to time out and assume I had read everything (at least that was my interpretation of the forum behavior). I was happy to see that it remembered which were new new and which were still new to me.

I'm glad I looked at the nonbold (meaning had been seen by me as new, but not read and I believe automatically marked as read, even though I hadn't) threads to see this one and then find it is exactly what I was going to redundantly post a new thread on!

Since, I've obviously come in with a "this is great" point of view, I am trying to see the "this is *not* so great" point of view. Am I right in recap'ing as:
The new posts tells me I have 14 pages worth when really it is 1 page worth and the rest are not of interest to me, why tell me 14 pages when I had the chance already to see them and I don't want to?

Assuming that is correct, I think a personal option to show them or not is a great idea.

There have been a bunch of times that I have come in and there are 20 pages of new posts, I start reading and get distracted by posts I find interesting to return to the new posts thread and find they have all gone when I try to go to the next page of new posts (I assume marked as read, since I had the chance).

Hitting new posts at that point gave me only new posts over the last hour or so that I was distracted.

I didn't see anything in the vBulletin documentation about this http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/
but I am no vBulletin guru (although I am a big fan).

I did find:
------------------------------
Thread/Forum Read Marking Type
This option controls how threads and forums are marked as read. The options are:

1) Inactivity/Cookie Based - once a user has been inactive for a certain amount of time (the value of the cookie timeout option) all threads and forums are considered read. Individual threads are marked as read within a session via cookies. This option is how all versions of vBulletin before 3.5 functioned.
2) Database (no automatic forum marking) - this option uses the database to store thread and forum read times. This allows accurate read markers to be kept indefinitely. However, in order for a forum to be marked read when all threads are read, the user must view the list of threads for that forum. This option is more space and processor intensive than inactivity-based marking.
3) Database (automatic forum marking) - this option is the same as a previous option, but forums are automatically marked as read when the last new thread is read. This is the most usable option for end users, but most processor intensive.
------------------------------

It looks like Reggie has made the most computing intensive option available (which is pretty generous).

I'd like to see everyone happy, so I'd love to be proven wrong, but if we have to choose one over the other, I would very much prefer the current setting where I can recapture threads I didn't see, even though they were on my unread list at one point.

Me too.
.....

Exactly. That was the problem I used to have in the past. I never have the time to read even just 3 pages of new posts in one go, I always have to defer some of it to an hour later or more. In the past that created a lot of trouble, even if I (as I do) open _all_ the new pages right away, because the 'go to oldest unread post in thread' would still fail.

The way it works now, unlike before, is for me wonderful: Finding the first unread message in a thread always works, nothing is lost if I for some reason isn't opening all the new pages right away, and there's no problem with unread stuff suddenly looking like it's read (not bold anymore) -- where I in the past had to scrutinize each thread to try to figure out if I had read it or not. Then, when I have actually read everything I want to read, I can hit 'mark forum read', if I don't want to see those 'old but not read' postings.

I don't mind an option to revert to the old behaviour for those who want it, as long as the new behaviour isn't going away for the rest of us.

I'm casting another vote for "Please don't change the new behavior. Pretty please. But other behavior options OK."