Stream: Zulip
Topic: Reminder / "mark unread"?
Dave deBronkart (Dec 16 2020 at 21:19):
I keep having problems where I need to follow up on somehting in Zulip, but once it's been read, it's no longer highlighted in any way. Slack lets me set a reminder; emails can be marked Unread. Is there anything comparable in Zulip that I'm missing?
Elliot Silver (Dec 16 2020 at 22:22):
@Dave deBronkart , would starring a message work?
Dave deBronkart (Dec 17 2020 at 00:34):
Interesting idea! Is there a way for a too-busy / distractible guy to readily notice them?
I just starred a couple, and they don't show up as a message to notice, the way other "unread" do:
image.png
Elliot Silver (Dec 17 2020 at 00:36):
There’s a starred message list up beside the direct messages at the top left of the desktop app, and at the top of the mobile app.
Elliot Silver (Dec 17 2020 at 00:36):
Oh, interesting.
Dave deBronkart (Dec 17 2020 at 00:37):
But I just got that screen capture (with no message count) from the desktop app.
Elliot Silver (Dec 17 2020 at 00:38):
That must be a conscious decision by Zulip, but I wonder why.
Dave deBronkart (Dec 17 2020 at 00:38):
It's almost an amusing passive-aggressive UX: "There might be something in here that you wanted, but I'm not going to tell you ... it's up to YOU to remember to look" :-)
It kind of defeats the purpose of a reminder :smile:
Elliot Silver (Dec 17 2020 at 00:40):
Well, except everywhere else badge counts mean unread. Here you don’t want it to. Making it something other than unread count would break consistency.
Elliot Silver (Dec 17 2020 at 00:41):
Although, “consistency is the hobgoblin of feeble minds” and all.
Dave deBronkart (Dec 17 2020 at 02:09):
Elliot Silver said:
Well, except everywhere else badge counts mean unread. Here you don’t want it to. Making it something other than unread count would break consistency.
I will grumble at that, and/or respond to your earlier question: "In that case, no, Starred does NOT work." :-) But thanks anyway!
Elliot Silver (Dec 17 2020 at 02:49):
I agree with you on that. I’m just theorizing how they got to that behaviour.
Chris Moesel (Dec 17 2020 at 13:37):
If anyone from Zulip is reading this, +1 for the ability to mark something unread. It's something I sorely miss in Zulip -- and sometimes causes me to purposefully avoid reading messages when I might not have time to address them now but don't want to forget them later.
Dave deBronkart (Dec 17 2020 at 13:50):
Chris Moesel said:
sometimes causes me to purposefully avoid reading messages when I might not have time to address them now but don't want to forget them
Yes yes - well said! In that sense, the lack of the feature works to diminish participation a bit.
Tim Abbott (Jan 21 2021 at 23:28):
The ability to mark things unread is definitely something we'll build eventually. But it's unlikely to be in the next few months, just because it'd be a bit of a complex coordination to change, as we'd need to audit a lot of logic for anywhere where we take advantage of the current invariant that messages only go from unread to read.
The starred approach that folks mention above (combined with the "Display setting" to show starred messages counts) should definitely help, as will upcoming changes to make it easier to avoid marking things read in some common flows.
Dave deBronkart (Jan 22 2021 at 02:03):
Tim Abbott said:
The starred approach that folks mention above (combined with the "Display setting" to show starred messages counts) should definitely help, as will upcoming changes to make it easier to avoid marking things read in some common flows.
This ought to be a keeper / FAQ item. I didn't know about starred message counts.
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
