Mark READ items back to UNREAD
 

Anyone know if this can be done?

A member on my site requested to be able to mark a thread that the've already READ back to UNREAD. The option is already out there to mark threads as READ, but we'd like to be able to also do the reverse.

Thanks!

I would like to know too. This could be very handy, not only for myself (to jog my memory) and for my forum members as well....

You stole my avatar....:p

Anyway, yes, it could possibly be done. I might look into it someday.

Should be really very easy to do, I may well get around to it myself.

But it's not marking the thread as unread, it's marking every post in the thread as unread. There's no such thing as an unread thread per se unless it's a thread with only one post. You can't mark individual posts as unread I don't think, you'd run into a world of usability trouble.

Edit: I suppose what you could do is just mark the first post of a thread as unread and use that as an unread thread marker, that might work better.

And it would still be marked as read by the "Mark all as read" default feature.

I would mark the last post, as it doesn't make sense to mark the first post unread.

It does to me because:

a) The first post is the one strongest tied to the thread as a whole in the database
b) It represents the thread as a whole better than the last post to the casual browser. i.e. if you open a thread and the first one is unread, you haven't read the thread, right?
c) If it's the last post there's no distinction between a new reply and a thread that's been unmarked read.
d) If it's the last post marked unread then it will require constantly updating every time a new reply is added.

c) There doesn't need to be, because when you're marking it unread, you're saying "I haven't read this post".
d) No, because you're marking it unread from the least post you've read. All new posts should be marked unread, which happens automatically.

Also, how can you have not read the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, so forth, when you're marking the first post unread?

I think we're coming at this from different directions. I assumed the request was to do as was exactly worded, to mark a thread as unread. Essentially to just put a tick with a thread as a reminder to go back to later. I still don't follow the logic to doing it the way you're suggesting, to mark individual posts as unread would be hell to manage.

Would the OP care to clarify exactly how you wanted it to work and its purpose?

I'm not saying to mark individual posts as unread. I'm saying to mark the LAST POST of that thread unread, which in turn would mark the whole thread unread.
That would help :p.

Any word on this? I know that I would find this really useful, like a "to do" list.

I suppose it really wouldn't matter if the first or last post was marked as the unread one. I think it only changes the destination of the "Read Latest Unread" link?