Today when I got to the site, the unread shortcut, which lists the topics that you are watching and have new posts disappeared from the top list. I still have New, Latest, Top, but now unread is no longer there. I did find the url for it works: https://boards.straightdope.com/unread and it is in the hamburger (?) menu under shortcuts, but it is no longer on the main board page.
This is on a browser on a PC. Is this a change? Or a theme setting?
//i\\
Yeah … WTF? That was basically my SDMB homepage.
Same on iPhone 
Those posts are all lumped in with “New” now. The “Unread” link in the hamburger still works properly, but the “New” link there is still pretty much “Latest”.
This is correct. I was just jumping in to post it.
I am glad that I am not the only one seeing this behavior.
I realize the links in the hamburger work properly (I referenced that in my original post), but having the unread posts interspersed in New makes it difficult to get back to the threads I am following. No longer having the unread link on the top page makes for a worse (at least for me) user experience. Maybe there is a way to customize what links you see at the top to re-add that which was, up to now, available by default.
//i\\
Do you use a shortcut to get to the SDMB or type it in each time?
If you use a shortcut, change the shortcut to https://boards.straightdope.com/unread and you have what you need.
If you type it in; clear the current prompted link as you type and type in the unread link and then that should become the suggested address.
So the “Unread” filter endpoint still exists, but isn’t being composed into the default landing page. What an odd change.
What I have done for years is have the SDMD main page in a tab. I would refresh the tab and it would have a link right on the main page, with the number of unread posts of the threads I am tracking. I would also be able to see new threads, or recently updated threads in the Latest column
Now, there is no way for me to know how many of the topics I am tracking have new posts. The New has a count, but that is both the count of new topics and, I assume, new replies posted on the threads I am tracking. Having the link in a separate tab, or even the Hamburger does not tell me something I used to know at a glance, namely, that certain threads that I am tracking have new content.
//i\\
Can’t you make the tab https://boards.straightdope.com/unread ?
Yes of course I can, but as I mentioned above, that doesn’t tell me anything before I go to it that I have unread posts. The benefit before was that I could not only see that the threads I am tracking have new posts, but I could also at see a broad overview what was happening on the board from the homepage, which is viewable in Latest.
Now I have to make a choice as to which tab to look it, and you can run into weird synchronization issues with posts due to being in two different tabs for the same site on the same browser.
//i\\
Here’s another annoying pointless change. The suggested threads at the bottom of a thread are a mix of new and unread, instead of unread all listed first.
I want to see the unread threads first, dammit!
It appears to me that what is included on the remodeled New page is NOT New + Latest. It’s New + your personal Unread.
I too am less than thrilled with the change. My habit has been that at each visit I process all the New threads into either fully read, partly read, or dismissed status. Then I hit the Unread page and work through my existing backlog of followed threads.
This new change seems to combine both those workflows, with the small disadvantage of not letting me hit New stuff separately and first in my priority.
Side note
The Unread posts choice is still available on the hamburger menu.
ETA: and this is big …
On the remodeled New page there is a new small menu added at the top below the big buttons and above the table header. It has three entries: All, New, and Unread with a count of how many of each there are. The default is All. But if you click New, you get the same behavior as the old New page. And if you click Unread, you get the same behavior as the old Unread page.
I see All, Topics, and Replies.
Also, at the bottom of the thread, after the suggestions, you can still see “There are x unread and y new topics…”; you click on unread and get the list of only the unread.
Regardless…now getting to the same posts requires at least two clicks whereas before it was one. If this is a new irreversible change then so be it. 
//i\\
D’oh! You are correct about the labels. 
The 3rd choice Replies still takes you to what amounts to your unread list.
I just liked the highly visible notification in the banner.
Where has the unread shortcut gone?..
…long time passing?
So no one else had a yello “X Unread” notification pop up here:
