Whenever I make use of this prompt it takes me to the last message posted in the thread.
If I haven’t read the thread at all shouldn’t it take me to the first post in the thread?
The site does keep track of the threads I have or haven’t visited so shouldn’t the prompt be changed to ‘view latest post’?
I’ve wondered about that too. It appears to use the last time I visit the board as the starting point for first unread message.
When I click on the little arrow to the left of the thread, it takes me to the first post since I last visited the forum. I’m not sure where you are clicking that isn’t working that way.
Either way, it takes me to the post closest to the time I last visited the board, not the last time I visited the thread. I haven’t read the Lost thread in CS for several days. Clicked just now and it took me to the most recent post, not to where I left off last time I visited.
Clicking on the little arrow to the right side of the thread title column which is marked “View Last Post” does indeed take me to the last post in the thread.
As does clicking the thread title marked “Go to first unread message in this thread” which also takes me to the last post in the thread.
I logon to the website site and see a raft of blue ( ie Unread topics ) and when I select the “Go to first unread message in this thread” I end up at the end of the thread.
Does this adequatly explain my clicking behaviour.
Every time you visit the board it marks the time of the visit. When you click on the “first unread” button it takes you to the first reply since your last visit. That’s the only record the board software keeps of your thread visiting history.
I wonder if that’s something that could be tweaked. I don’t visit a lot of boards, but TWOP and SFFWorld have a true “go to first unread post” feature, and it’s really nifty.
This has long been a wonky thing with vB; the database is not really capable of tracking what you’re read and what you haven’t so they have a sort of half-assed way of tracking based on when you signed in. It’s not a perfect solution by any means.
I don’t believe that’s an option in vBulletin, but even if it is I suspect it has significant performance implications.
What operating system are you running? The description in your title, and in your last post, doesn’t correspond to any rollover message for any button I get.
When I click into a forum, the list of threads has for each line from left to right as follows:
An envelope (gold and opened with something inside if a new post has happened since my last login, blue and closed if not)
A little blue down arrow (if there is a gold envelope); the mouseover says “go to first new post.”
The thread title, underlined, a hyper link to the first post in the thread.
Sometimes, an list of links to the multiple pages in the thread (multipage threads only)
A long space (usually)
The time of last posting in the thread, and a link to the profile of the last poster.
A little right arrow, the mouseover of which reads “go to last post.”
A linked number showing the number of actual replies: clicking on the link gives a small popup window that shows you who has posted in the thread.
The number of views.
No “go to first unread message in this thread” at all.
So I’m not sure where you are getting that message at all. 
This is sort of different, but…When you click on a thread that has more than, I think, three pages, it’ll also include the last page. When I click on “last page,” it takes me to the very last post, even if I haven’t read posts before that one. Is this related?
No, the site doesn’t track which threads you have visited, your browser does. That’s why the threads you have visited are a different color.
It works fine on other vB boards. For me, its wonkiness is specific to the SDMB.
And I recall a time when it always worked here on this board.
It’s been a long time since it’s worked correctly, no one really seems to care on the board staff.
It was really annoying when it first went wonky, as I was very accustomed to making use of it, but now I’m used to it and never use it any more.
I was convinced, for no good reason, it was one of the things we could count on being fixed when we went pay to post. A small thing, I know, but one which eases use of the board for users, but, alas, it was not to be.
Since then I have lowered my expectations, now I’d just be satisfied to not have the board either go down as often, or not go so painfully slow so often.