Forum / Request: "You've already read this" icon

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  Jason Pettus

  Aug 28, 05:11pm

  Hi, Fictionaut; I'm a new member, very happy with the site as I've so far gotten to explore it. I see that you have a number of icons that are associated with each story, and that some of them are specific to us as individual members; I was wondering how difficult it would be to add an icon standing for "you've already read this story," so that when we're browsing through lists we'll easily be able to see which stories we haven't yet read, without having to actually click through and check out the story itself. It'd be a helpful addition, if it wouldn't be too much trouble to add.

  As always, I'll be adding other suggestions to the forums as I think of them. Thanks!

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  Jürgen Fauth

  Aug 29, 12:56pm

  I'm not sure about this, honestly. I often find myself checking out a story and then returning later to read it, so an icon like this would have to be a toggle that I set by hand -- if it marked itself read after I first open a story, it probably wouldn't be very accurate. Hopefully, a story I read would leave enough of an impression to make me remember the title/author?

  A related idea we've been knocking around, though, is an "I want to read this" button that would add a story to a personal reading list. So rather than checking off stories, you could add something that looks interesting. Still, it strikes me as slightly over-engineered -- we're trying to keep a balance between functionality and simplicity and not overload F'naut with features.

  Would love to hear what others think though, and in any case, I appreciate the suggestion. Oh, and welcome, Jason!

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  Jason Pettus

  Aug 30, 03:46pm

  Well, it's just that I see that the site already displays how many people have actually clicked through and checked out that story, so obviously it's already keeping track of that information. Maybe something simple, like having the title appear in bold in bigger lists if you've never looked at it before? I've noticed that on the front page, a certain amount of new stories' titles appear in bold, others not, and I'm not sure what the criteria is for what determines that.

  I think an "add this to my reading list" manual button like you mention here would be very helpful; I'm simply talking about what exactly you say, a way to determine whether or not I've ever clicked through to that story at any point in the past in the first place. Not to be mean, but the vast majority of stories I click through and check out I never end up finishing (sorry, authors, that's just how it is), so in my case they really DON'T make enough of an impression for me to remember a week later whether or not I've ever checked it out.

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  Jürgen Fauth

  Sep 21, 03:23pm

  Point taken, Jason. Our next update will include a simple tweak that'll show visited links in a different color, which should help. Thanks for the feedback.

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