# Unfollowing threads
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648
**Category:** Site Feedback
**Created:** [March 10, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648 "2021-03-10T21:34:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/1 "2021-03-10T21:34:04Z")
Is there any way to stop tracking topics I’m no longer interested in, without opening each one individually, scrolling all the way to the bottom, and fiddling with the dropdown? I’ve got quite a few hanging around that I lost interest in, or they have so many posts I’m never going to catch up, and I’d like to stop them popping up all the time.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/2 "2021-03-10T22:01:30Z")
On a computer you don’t have to scroll all the way down manually. You can just go to the sidebar and click on the date at the bottom and it will take you to the end of the thread. Then fiddle with the dropdown. I think on a phone you are screwed.
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### Author:  [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/3 "2021-03-10T22:13:06Z")
I had forgotten that. I’d like a way to avoid entering the thread entirely, though. There was one thread a while ago that I found really disturbing and backed out of quick, but then it continually showed up in my recommended threads and I had to go into it again and try to avoid seeing any more in order to hide it.
I imagine this could potentially be much worse for posters with PTSD.
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### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/4 "2021-03-10T22:17:03Z")
As a side note you may want to adjust your setting so you don’t automatically track threads you view. I changed my settings and it helped the problem a lot.
Won’t help you with the current threads, but may be preventative for the future.
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### Author:  [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2021, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/5 "2021-03-10T22:21:53Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#):
>
> As a side note you may want to adjust your setting so you don’t automatically track threads you view. I changed my settings and it helped the problem a lot.
Then I’d have to remember to track the threads I do want to read again. But perhaps that would be preferable. Thanks for the suggestion, anyway.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/6 "2021-03-10T23:13:53Z")
On your [unread tab](https://boards.straightdope.com/unread), look for the Dismiss… button. It will be duplicated at the top if there are a lot of topics in your list, otherwise it is at the bottom. Press it, then be sure to check the
> Stop tracking these topics so they never show up as unread for me again
option, then the Dismiss button.
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### Author:  [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2021, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/7 "2021-03-10T23:21:07Z")
Won’t that unsubscribe me from every thread I’m following, not just the ones I want to get rid of?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2021, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/8 "2021-03-10T23:27:07Z")
Yes, so one strategy is to get the topics you want to keep out of your unread list by entering them and reading them to the end (or just jumping to the end via the end key). Then, once you’ve done that, press Dismiss… on the remainders.
(Note that you can choose to enter a topic at the end by clicking or tapping on the **reply count** or the **last activity date**.)
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### Author:  [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/9 "2021-03-11T00:18:21Z")
On PC, and I think on mobile too, when you’re looking at the OP, look to the bottom of the scroll bar on the right side of the OP, there will be a bell on the right of the arrow, hit the bell for that thread, then hit muted. That thread will disappear.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/10 "2021-03-11T00:51:21Z")
Don’t even need “muted”. Just set it back to “normal” which means it’s just like a thread you’ve never looked at. That will drop it permanently from your unread page. At least until you find it and click on it again by some other means.
Muted goes further to actively hide it from you, rather than just dropping back into the background of our other 1 million threads.
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### Author:  [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/11 "2021-03-11T00:59:32Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Don’t even need “muted”. Just set it back to “normal” which means it’s just like a thread you’ve never looked at. That will drop it permanently from your unread page. At least until you find it and click on it again by some other means.
That works too, if you don’t mind seeing it again. Some people are triggered by certain threads and don’t want to see it again. For those people, muted works to move it from view.
For people who don’t mind seeing it again, normal works to stop notifications. But I’m thinking that it would still add it back to unread over and over, yes? (I don’t use unread, so I don’t know how that works.)
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/12 "2021-03-11T01:17:16Z")
The “Unread” page shows threads that have been recently posted to that _you have expressed interest in by posting or reading it before_. (Or if somebody @'s you in the thread).
It’s like “latest” but filtered to only the threads you’re apparently interested in. By resetting the tracking to “normal”, you’re clearing that “I’m interested” flag and that thread will never return to “unread” unless you find it again by some other means and either post to it, or (depending on how your profile is configured to react to reading) read some of it. Or somebody else @'s you again.
Yes, if one is actually triggered by a thread title, “mute” is the “hide it forever from me” choice.
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### Author:  [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/13 "2021-03-11T01:42:30Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> The “Unread” page shows threads that have been recently posted to that _you have expressed interest in by posting or reading it before_ . (Or if somebody @'s you in the thread).
Got it. Thanks!
What’s the page that shows all posts (not threads) that are new regardless of whether you’ve seen it or not?
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/14 "2021-03-11T01:53:15Z")
My understanding is there is no page (other than search results) that shows disjointed posts outside of their threads.
So your choices are “New” and “Latest” which are both lists of _threads_ posted to recently. I’ve tried to grok the difference between them, but I’m not really understanding their selection logic.
You can do a search for [after:2021-03-10 order:latest] to retrieve all posts since 00:01 this morning, sorted from most recent to back just after midnight]. That’s probably the best way to see the individual posts as posts out of the context of their thread.
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### Author:  [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/15 "2021-03-11T02:10:55Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> My understanding is there is no page (other than search results) that shows disjointed posts outside of their threads.
Thanks again.
(needs a like button here for this. Hmm, thinking of starting a thread on this.)
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/16 "2021-03-11T02:35:10Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Or if somebody @'s you in the thread
This only notifies someone, it doesn’t do anything else. If it did, you could grief a lot of people!
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#):
>
> What’s the page that shows all posts (not threads) that are new
There is no page that gathers new posts outside of topics. The search you suggested is a good idea but you’d need to screen out first posts, as the first post in a topic is kinda “the topic”, isn’t it – it has a title, category, etcetera. So the search would be “show me all posts that aren’t the first post before a certain date/time”.
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> So your choices are “New” and “Latest” which are both lists of _threads_ posted to recently. I’ve tried to grok the difference between them
New is defined as a topic created in the last 2 days, which _you have never entered_, but the days part is a user preference. So the new part is kinda literal. It’s new to you, you’ve never been there before.
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### Author:  [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/17 "2021-03-11T09:22:52Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#):
>
> On PC, and I think on mobile too, when you’re looking at the OP, look to the bottom of the scroll bar on the right side of the OP, there will be a bell on the right of the arrow, hit the bell for that thread, then hit muted. That thread will disappear.
That’s useful to know. On mobile you have to click to open the scrollbar, but then the bell is there.
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#):
>
> That works too, if you don’t mind seeing it again. Some people are triggered by certain threads and don’t want to see it again. For those people, muted works to move it from view.
I muted the really disturbing one. For the threads I’ve simply lost interest in, setting them to normal will be fine.
Maybe I’ll try the ‘dismiss’ trick but I’ll need to set aside some time to get caught up first. Unless there is a way to do it on a per forum basis, @codinghorror?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/18 "2021-03-11T19:38:28Z")
I _think_ that works per category? I can’t recall. Let me see… yes, I just checked. Visit a category and look at your `/new` and `/unread` tabs within that category. I indeed see a dismiss… button at the bottom of the `/unread` tab for a specific category.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/19 "2021-03-11T23:03:37Z")
Wow. I had no idea that New, Latest, and Unread were available per category. Makes sense, but I just hadn’t noticed those tabs in the header. Thanks for the heads-up.
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### Author:  [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2021, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unfollowing-threads/937648/20 "2021-03-14T10:26:30Z")
Me neither. I only occasionally used the global versions, mostly to look at new threads. I’ve learned a lot by reading the threads about Discourse and just experimenting, but there’s still stuff I didn’t know.
Maybe it would help @puzzlegal to read the unread per category? It would make it easier to keep track of where each thread is.
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