I've always been a bit suspicious, but if I remember it correctly then I've been told that the "mark all read" will never hide messages which you haven't seen. I got a little chat with rcook on a thread some time ago, when I asked exactly this question: What happens if I start to read multiple pages and then hit "mark all read" on (let's say) page 5 - I think rcook told me that it will not hide new massages/replies that were posted after I started reading page 1. This sounded reasonable, because often after hitting "mark all read" the "message counter" immediately showed non-zero. But... yesterday I started reading 26 messages (page one said 1-25 of 26), then I went to page two - and it suddenly showed two remaining posts (labelled 26-27 of 27). I hit "mark all read"... and the message counter showed zero! I moved in, and there was nothing indeed, but when I went to "archive", a new topic was on front. Is this a change in the way how "mark all read" works, or just an unlucky glitch?

Oh dear... messages, although a button hiding massages could be handy as well... :-) :-) :-)

The "Mark All Read" feature will mark all messages as being read that are older than the current date/time. It does NOT track the actual messages you have read.

In this case (I've seen it before), when you went to page 2, you refreshed your pointer (date/time as RCook says), thus, the "27th" message was visable to you. I have also had this happen in C&D where there are some very long threads. I go in to read one and by time I come back to the new messages, more have shown up. Since they do not track the actual messages (would be a huge burden on the server side to fag each message), you have to kind of watch out that you don't miss something. Takes a little getting used to, but it's better then some other systems I've seen out there :)

I'm perfectly aware that the server doesn't track the actual messages, but earlier discussions about this topic somehow implied that it track the time when I start reading (eg when I click into the Poser board) and then marks that - this is a big difference. Let's say I enter the board at 10am and read slowly to the final page until 11am. If I hit mark-all-read, will it hide everything older than 10am, or everything older than 11am? Earlier answers implied 10am, but now I'm afraid it is rather 11am.

Suggestion: If I'm right now (that you can't track the enter time to the individual board), I think you should use the log-in time - showing some few threads a second time is better than loosing some completely.

The time is set when you enter the thread listing page. If you view a thead and hit back, the Mark All Read time will remain the same. But, if you go to a second page of thread listings by hitting Next, the time will be updated.

Is there a chance to keep the time from the first page (another cookie?) - if it updates like you say now, it is very bad - if you spend 1 hour reading a whole lot, you will probably miss everything that got added/updated in between.

I've also noticed if you hit the "read new messages" at the bottom of a thread, again, it updates your time, so new messages could be there. In some active threads, this means going back into them to get the newest comments. :)

Yeah, could be Martin. I'll look into trying to keep the time you first entered the forum.