The red avatar notification bubble - A thought.

[#1]

I got an email earlier to tell me I’d been mentioned in a post, so I came to the site and went through all of the unread posts. On seeing the one cited in the email I opened it in a new tab, read it and gave a ‘Thumbs Up’ as well.

I then closed the tab and refreshed my view of unread messages, with the one I’d just reviewed being removed I then continued to browse the unread messages. When I got the the end I used the options list to mark all messages read, but I still noticed that my avatar had a notification bubble on it.

Is it possible to make the system a bit smarter so that this notification is removed / decremented when a user interacts with a post in question. The system knows I’ve read this thread so can’t it then say I’ll check for any active notifications regarding this post and if any are found reduce the value in or remove the bubble count over the avatar?

I’m not lazy, but in order for me to remove this bubble I need to look at my notifications which I’m sorry to say is quite tedious and in theory unnecessary.

[#2]

Improvement of the notification system was one of the early observations for improving the new Forum, but it seems that lithium are just not listening.  Very little response from them to a whole range of issues over these past months, so I now believe that what we've got is all it is ever going to be.  Sad! 

[#3]

Well to be honest @MauriceC I was hoping this one would be something @jaread83 could sort but TBH I don't know.

[#4]

This isn't something I am able to change unfortunately. The only way to clear the notification bubble is to view the notifications page.

[#5]

Cheers @jaread83, doesn't do any harm to suggest or ask, so thanks.

[#6]

It seems to work the other way, too. Unless you click on all the unread notifications even though clicking on one and refreshing the page removes the [New] label they still appear in unread topics.

[#7]

I'm not convinced that there is a problem with the notification system that way round @Mav?

The notification just gives you a 'Heads up' that, in the boards you have elected to monitor, you have a quick overview of recent events that you may wish to investigate.  At this point you haven't read the messages yet, so still valid to show them as 'unread'.

The problem raised by @Anonymous is more valid in that you have read the message, yet it still appears as an extant notification.

Initially I used the notification system a great deal, but the inconsistencies it has were hindering the way I use the Forum so I rarely use it now.  I find that using 'Unread Topics' and monitoring the board unread message count suits my way of working with less frustration.  If lithium ever get around to polishing the initial good intentions of Notifications I may go back to using it.
NOTE:  Of all the issues currently on the 'being investigated'  Lithium list,  I would not put this problem near the top of the Hit List.

[#8]

@MauriceC - I'm not raising this as a problem as I hope the title implies but more of an operational suggestion. I must admit to me it would appear a logical way to operate as per my suggestion but when nothing can be done bar mooting the idea to Lithium we have what we have I guess.

[#9]

I agree with you @Anonymous.   Going back to the period April - June this year a number of 'concerns' were reported about the operation of the Notification system by a number of Users including yourself, Anotherone, Niburu and me.  They were being reported to Lithium for review / response, but so far - Nowt.

I'm sure that when this topic reaches the top of their action pile and they review their design against the helpful observations that were made, then things will improve.