I clicked on "unwatch" at a topic of my board. It works. But new posts inside this topic are still listed under "No unread topics found since your last visit. Click here to try all unread topics ." Is it a bug or a feature? ;)
Good question. LOL
Let me try here, I'll unwatch this topic in a few seconds, then you can post. ;)
21... 22... 23...
Here it seems to work properly, so it is likely a bug fixed in 1.1 development and not backported to 1.0.
Thanks for testing it!
Tracked https://github.com/elkarte/Elkarte/issues/2929
I may have a similar problem with my 1.1.3. The last days I did not get new posts listed under the menu buttons "new posts" or "new replies", but these threads are listed in the info center with new posts in them. So I visited the threads and they are "unwatched" (I have a button "watch" in these threads).
I don't know why this happens. They all should be watched! I did nothing with these threads. :o
A very old topic, but I think, I need to write here now, because of the translations I do at the moment.
I just controlled this feature "unwatch/watch" on my forums and also here on ElkArte.net. I am almost sure, that we translated this button-strings once wrong. We had almost the same language problem with the "sort up" and the "sort down" string once. The words "sort down" could be an order "to sort things down now", but they could also tell, that "things are sort down at the moment".
This unwatch-feature is working perfect, unwatched topics are in the profiles, notifications and the link "new replies" are reacting proper, if this buttons are used - but the words on our german buttons are "wrong". (And maybe the english words are wrong as well?) ;) This is, why this feature was always a bit irritating to us and why we thought, there might be another bug.
The "Unwatch" button was translated to "Nicht mehr beobachten" which means "I don't want to watch this topic anymore."
But this button should say "Nicht beobachtet", which has the meaning "This topic is unwatched by me."
Same for the "Watch" button. It was translated to "Beobachten", which means "I want to watch this topic from now on."
But this button should say "Beobachtet", which means "This topic is watched by me".
Am I right with this? :undecided: The feature and the buttons seem to work this way.
If I am right, then the german language strings for this buttons should be changed and also the explanations on forum.
I found a solution now to explain this feature without meantioning what is said on the buttons. ;)
But I have another question about this feature:
Why should other members know, which topics are unwatched by a member? Is this interesting or important to know?
Would it not be more interesting to know, which own topics are watched by someone?
I think, both is a personal, private thing - only the member should see his own (un-)watched topics. In my eyes it is enough, that members can see all started topics and posts by a member in their profiles; they don't need to know about other peoples notifications, if they get some or not about their own topics.
Edit: I just realized, that this is not possible. So it is "private". Very good.
I was confused by this string, which is also displayed on the top of the "unwatched topics" in the profiles:
$txt['showGeneric_help'] = 'This section allows you to view all %1$s made by this member. Note that you can only see %1$s made in areas you currently have access to.';
@Ruth,
If you don't mind my asking, what exactly does "watch" and "unwatch" do?
Nobody on my Forum has asked, and I have never used them, until you mentioned them here. I assume the default is "watch", I can see everything., and the button says "Unwatch".
But, if I click on "Unwatch", it toggles to "Watch" (which implies to me I am no longer "watching" something and if I want to 'watch' it again, I have to hit the 'watch' button.), but I can still see the topics, I still can see the "new" flag for new posts in that topic. I can log out and back in and it still looks the same, like nothing has changed no matter if the button says "watch" or "unwatch".
I was hoping this question would be answered by following this topic, but ... you didn't reveal what you discovered..😢
So I have to ask...
I have it enabled on forum since years, but i think, noone is using it. Also noone asked me yet, how this works.
Thats the english help text, the german text tells more:
You find this links "watch" and "unwatch" here on ElkArte.net in the button "More..." in your post.
In 1.1.9 there is still a button in the topics, which changes by clicking on it.
This feature does stop notifications by email and is creating a list of unwatched topics in the profile. And new posts from such unwatched topics do also no more appear if you click on the button "new replies" .
Here you find more about this function: https://www.elkarte.net/community/index.php?topic=1871.msg11656#msg11656
Thats the german text I wrote:
Ah, Thanks.. (and glad to see I'm not the only one who was headscratching over this).
So it blocks replies (and blocks emails) for "Unwatched" topics if you click the "New Replies" button or "Recent Posts" - but doesn't hide the replies or "New" notifications of them from the main page view.
If the button says "Unwatch", the topic is being watched and you can select "Unwatch" to no longer get replies in the topic. If it says "Watch", it means that topic is not being watched and if you click the button you can "watch" it again (get replies). They are "command", not "status" buttons..
Great, so now if anyone in my forum ever asks me (and if I remember), I can maintain the impression with my members that I'm a guru..😊
Maybe they should be, but they are not. And this is confusing.
At the moment they tell, what will happen, if you click on them, so the text tells an action, a command.
But this won't happen, because this are "Status Buttons".
Thats why I said, the texts on our buttons are "wrong".
The links here on ElkArte.net tell an action, but show the status, if not clicked. And so does the german button text.
The "Unwatch" button/link says "unwatch". Thats an action. But it should say something like "unwatched." (Status)
The "Watch" button/link says "watch". Thats an action. But it should say something like "watched." (Status)
OK, I got an email of your reply.
I clicked the link in the email to your reply post, I clicked the "more" button, and clicked on "unwatch". It changed to "watch"
Please reply to this when you get a chance , and let's see what happens now..
That's not the "test board", Seeley. :wink:
I added one more sentence in my help text:
I think, I won't activate this feature in future on forum. That's just one button more and one thing more members might do wrong. There are already enough of them.
There are some features, which might be useful for very big forums, with a lot of members and a lot of posts a day. But in a small and private forum like ours they are not really needed: Sending topics to a friend, Ignore- and Buddy-List, ignoring boards... and this unwatch feature as well.
Well, it appears testing this subject in this topic was OK 6 years ago. Guess I'll have to look around and see what other forum protocol changes have occurred since then that I've missed as a relatively new member. I certainly don't want to offend anyone.. 🤷♂️
But, "Watch" or "Unwatch" appears to have no effect on emails (at least in v. 2.0. And I didn't see any change in v.1.1.6 either - I get emails of reply posts regardless).
Nothing in New Replies with "Unwatch" clicked to show "Watch", It's now back to the default (displaying "Unwatch" again). If anyone replies here again I'll see if that changes.
(I admit don't know if other profile settings might be affecting it, if any).
No, Sir. Testing was in the other topic years ago. This one here is an old topic of an exterminated bug and I already "abused" it now for talking about possible wrong texts on the german buttons, because
@Jorin thought those days, there might be another bug.
I don't remember exactly now, what I did for testing watch/unwatch - but i think, I used "mark this as unread" a lot.
I don't know how anyone else wants to interpret this ... but it works the way I think it should..
(Link-10473) (Link-10475)
Sure...it does work perfect.
Point is, which button you see now here - watch or unwatch - and if this topic here has gone in your profile in the list "unwatched topics" or if it is still there. But please don't tell me. :cheesy: I am fed up with this feature. I won't use it on my forum.
Maybe I will change the texts on the german buttons, if this should be done....but thats all.
I'm not sure what "topic list" is referred to in my profile - I have a Board "watch" list, but no watched or unwatched topic list that I have found in my profile? I'd be glad to check it if I knew what to check...
As the screenshots show, when I see "Unwatch" I get a listing of new replies. (IOW, I'm "watching the topic")
When I see "Watch" I do not get a listing of new replies. (IOW, I'm "not watching the topic") As a status indication, it's backwards
Watch or Unwatch appears to me as a "command" function.
When I am "watching the topic" (and I get replies listed in New Replies), I see "Unwatch". click it to "unwatch" the topic
When I am not watching the topic (not getting replies listed in New Replies), I see "Watch", and if I want to see replies in that topic, I click on "Watch" and voilla!, now I am watching the topic again,
It's like an "EMERGENCY STOP" button. If I am going, and experience an emergency and need to stop, I push the EMERGENCY STOP button and command a stop (hopefully).
When I am stopped, I see the Stop button has changed to "GO". If the emergency is over and I see everything is OK, I now push the "GO" button, and off we go! And the button changes back to "Stop" for if and when I need to stop again..
And I do get an email notification of replies regardless of the status of the Watch/Unwatch button.
And Yea - I've been running my forum for 2+ years now, and so far I'm pretty sure
nobody has pushed that button. My userbase is all old geezers like me and most of 'em consider it a feat if they manage to get in and read posts and reply, never mind pushing buttons "just to see if they do what they think they do (which it probably doesn't). Like me, if they even notice it, they probably wonder why, if when they push "unwatch", nothing seems to change as far as displayed topics and posts, and reading and replying to posts. So they "click Watch" to go back to "Unwatch" assume it's broke or something, file it away as an "I don't care anyway" item, and forget about it.
I can see where listings in "New Replies" would be handy in a really big, active forum, when trying to find replies to your earlier posts might be difficult nested in a long string of topic replies. Since most of my membership uses email, they get all the posts (including the replies) anyway, so the watch/unwatch button is basically useless to them..
But at least I know what it does now.. thanks! And it's not really a bug, "status" ("current state") is a misinterpretation of the command function ("transition to the next state") that the button describes in English.
This list in the profiles i meant.
Thank you.. and yes, if I see "Watch" in the topic (meaning I am not watching it), I see that topic listed in the Unwatched topics of my profile. Go back to "watching (by clicking on "Watch") and it's no longer shown in "Unwatched topics".
And what raised one of my eyebrows is that there are 30 "Unwatched topics" listed in my profile here, and to my knowledge I've never used that function (and several topics I definitely would not want to "unwatch" anyway).
In my Forum, I have none.
And I can not see anyone else's "Unwatched topic" listing, so that question/concern/debate from long ago has been resolved as well..
Things might be different here, on your forum and on mines, just because we tested in different versions. "2.0 dev" and 1.1.6 forums you tried - I have a broken 1.0.10, an upgraded broken 1.0.10 to 1.1.9 and a new installed 1.1.9 forum. All of my forums might have some issues, which have nothing to do directly with this feature, but can cause irritations.
Here I have only one unwatched topic in my profile, the one I tried with (but here should be lots of unwatched topics). On the new installed 1.1.9 all topics on forum had been unwatched and had been on the list in my profile first, when I started testing there a few days ago.
This feature "unwatched topics" I had enabled on my 1.0.10 forum at least for 9 years now, me thinks - and I have lots of topics on my list of unwatched topics there. I never had notifications enabled there (or here), but a part of this feature - hiding new replies of unwatched topics in the list of "New Replies" - should also work without "notifications by email". At least I think so.
For testing this feature I had enabled "notifications by email" on test forum....and all did work perfect there, but the text on my buttons had been "wrong", like I told.
I made my last try now and enabled this feature "unwatched topics" again on test forum, notifications are still enabled there.
First all is okay, the watch and unwatch button work proper as a "command": All unwatched topics are in my list of unwatched topics and I will see the button "watch" in this topics in the index. If i click "watch" then, this topic will disapear from the list of my unwatched topics. And also the opposite of it works.
But:
If I use the button "mark all messages as read" or the "mark as unread" buttons then a few times, the unwatched topics on forum show me the button "unwatch" and the watched topics show me the button "watch". My list of unwatched topics does not change by this. And it should.
The buttons work like "status buttons" then. This was and is confusing me.
But it is fine...noone will need this unwatch/watch buttons on my forums. The notify buttons will do it for my members.
Hmmm, but I
have used the Mark Read / Unread a few times here using v.2.0 ... maybe you're on to something here, Ruth.. (have you just proved "quantum entanglement" is real?) 😵
If it is a bug, it's a damn sneaky one..
[pssst...
@Spuds ,
@emanuele wanna check out Ruth's earlier post above (or below, depending on your sort)? I'm not going anywhere near the rabbit hole she may have found. 😦 ]
I am absolutly not sure, if there is something like a bug with this feature or if I made mistakes while testing. (Lack of sleep or maybe just too old now for understanding and controlling proper). Maybe there is just something else wrong on my forums, which is effecting this feature.
This feature does really confuse me. :zany_face: I think, those buttons did never work really proper on our forum. But I am also not sure with this, because it was not used by me or someone else, at least none of our members asked me ever, how this works. (lucky me) :wink:
If you still get notifications by email about new replies in your unwatched topics, there might be a mistake - or this feature works different now as it is told in the english help text.
(Link-10479) Have you enabled "Notify me of replies" here in your posts? I had it while testing.
You said, you have a list of boards in your profile for notifications by email. Do you also have a list of topics? There are serveral settings possible, in which case and how often the system will send you emails about what is happening in a topic. Maybe this was, why you still got emails of an unwatched topic? System is told two different things at the same time and needs to decide then?
I don't know....
If what you posted about the Mark Read/Unread flipping how the Watch/Unwatch works, that would explain why I had a bunch of topics being "Unwatched" when I never used that feature,
but I have used the "Mark Read/Unread" function. So I think it's not just your forum version, but possibly also exists in v.2.0.
Let's let Spuds or emanuale or
someone take a look at the code for an "entanglement" between the functions, and we can follow their guidance in the hunt.. If they need more clues, then we can bang on the "black box" some more and see what shakes out. I've got a couple busy days going right now so my troubleshooting support is limited by time for the moment, not just my own technical shortcomings. :embarrassed:
[If we aren't sure how it is intended to work for sure, it's hard to know when it isn't working right, right? 🤔 ]
EDIT: Update
In my profile, my board email notifications are all enabled. Frequency is "immediate" and I have no topics selected as specifically monitoring, so there shouldn't be any conflicting settings in that regard.
You may be confused what you were doing with all the back and forth, but age has nothing to do with it, trust me (
I keep telling myself that 🙄 ), but I know (as certain as I can be about anything I remember doing or not doing in the past), I never clicked a watch / unwatch function, so what you described seems to explain why I had 30-some topics listed as being "unwatched" anyway.
Off for now... my break is over and I have to go back on my head..