Alerts...

[Ex-Calif]

Here's another quirk I have noticed.

It appears that if one reads a thread that one has been alerted to the "new" alert flag gets reset. That may not be exactly what is happening but something clears the alerts flag (black dot thingie) before I have seen an alert. A few times I have missed replies to posts I have made and I don't want to appear rude or ignore people - LOL...

I looked through the preferences but I don't see any way to change this behavior. It would be nice to have the alerts only clear if they are clicked on from the alerts list - or only be cleared manually.

Again this is no biggie but something I've noticed.

 

[Tom]

FWIW there are a few related items in the Admin Control Panel:

- Unviewed alerts will automatically expire after 30 days (not changeable).
- Days to retain viewed alerts: 4.
- Days to retain viewed alerts in popup: 7.

If you're in the mood for reading, there are a few other mentions of alerts in the Xenforo software manual. But it's intended for an admin downloading, installing and configuring the software rather than a user.

Getting started | Manual | XenForo

End-user documentation for XenForo

xenforo.com

 

[Tulecreeper]

Here's another quirk I have noticed.

It appears that if one reads a thread that one has been alerted to the "new" alert flag gets reset. That may not be exactly what is happening but something clears the alerts flag (black dot thingie) before I have seen an alert. A few times I have missed replies to posts I have made and I don't want to appear rude or ignore people - LOL...

I looked through the preferences but I don't see any way to change this behavior. It would be nice to have the alerts only clear if they are clicked on from the alerts list - or only be cleared manually.

Again this is no biggie but something I've noticed.

View attachment 168728

View attachment 168729

I've noticed that there may be several new alerts in the Notification menu (the black dot thing) waiting for me to read them, but as soon as I click on the first notification most of them get marked as "read" (the black dot goes away) even if they have nothing to do with each other and are responses to different answers to different threads, so I have to count them or I miss someone answering a question I asked.

 

[jackiemac]

I've noticed that there may be several new alerts in the Notification menu (the black dot thing) waiting for me to read them, but as soon as I click on the first notification most of them get marked as "read" (the black dot goes away) even if they have nothing to do with each other and are responses to different answers to different threads, so I have to count them or I miss someone answering a question I asked.

Think it assumes you'll read the whole thread.

 

[Tulecreeper]

Think it assumes you'll read the whole thread.

I could almost understand that, but it's not just the ones with the black dots from the same thread where the dot disappears, it's most of them. There may be a couple responses to this thread, and a couple responses to a thread about water heaters, and all the dots disappear as soon as I open the Notifications menu so I can't tell which I've actually looked at when I go back to it.

 

[Ex-Calif]

could almost understand that, but it's not just the ones with the black dots from the same thread where the dot disappears, it's most of them.

Yup - that happens to me as well.

I eyeball the "last one" with a black dot and then when I come back I still click through the ones that have been cleared out.

Definitely different threads.

 

[gwinger]

Same here. I am on quite a few sires that notify you of alerts. I all of them, except this one, using the back button returns you to the all of the alerts. This site take you back to the home page. As above, if you read just one, it assumes there are no more.
The bell notification no longer has the dot.

 

[Tom]

What happens if you click the "Bell" (alerts)?

 

[Hfx_Cdn]

When you open the alerts it will most often say "There may be more posts after this." So you will see it or them below. But once you clear that string, if you hit the alert button again, you can scroll down to see if there is another response, just click on that one.

Ed

 

[Ex-Calif]

OK - Just now there were 5 alerts... Pic 1.

As soon as I clicked on the bell the counter went to zero but there were in fact 5 black dots.

I clicked on the first one. Then when I clicked on the bell all the other 4 dots were cleared and were "transparent." Unfortunately I can't capture the dots themselves with my snipping software.

 

[Tom]

As soon as I clicked on the bell the counter went to zero but there were in fact 5 black dots.

Must be something about the way I view/read the forums &/or my preferences, or maybe my eyesight, but where do you see the 'black dots'?

Edit: Is that the "Mark read/Mark unread" dot in the alerts list?

 

[Ex-Calif]

Must be something about the way I view/read the forums &/or my preferences, or maybe my eyesight, but where do you see the 'black dots'?

Edit: Is that the "Mark read/Mark unread" dot in the alerts list?

When you "hover" in the circled areas you get a black dot or a transparent dot depending.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I see either a black dot or a uncolored [clear] dot as I hover the cursor over a message in the Alert drop-down list. But I have no idea what that Dot is telling me.

 

[Tom]

When you "hover" in the circled areas you get a black dot or a transparent dot depending.

A black dot changes to a red one if I hover over it.

 

[Tom]

I see either a black dot or a uncolored [clear] dot as I hover the cursor over a message in the Alert drop-down list. But I have no idea what that Dot is telling me.

Best I can tell, it lets you know if you've read or unread the respective message, and clicking on it will change it from read to unread or vice versa. Other than that, I'm about as wise as you on the subject, but I'm not fretting over it as some folks seem to be.

 

[ziplock]

gotta hover.

 

[Tom]

Looks like there's been some controversial discussions on this subject over on the XF software support forum. Not something I can change, so I'm going to worry about it.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

A black dot changes to a red one if I hover over it.

That's because it is highlighted and active, i.e. "clickable". It changes to whatever color you have set for that in your browser color scheme. Red is a common color for that, but some will have set their preferences differently.

 

[Tom]

It changes to whatever color you have set for that in your browser color scheme.

Not consciously set; Must be the default in my browser.

... some will have set their preferences differently.

Understood

 

[Ex-Calif]

Yeah - I am not obsessing over this at all. It's nice to know that it's a "bug" not a feature in its behavior. Maybe some other forum will prompt a change at some future date.