Make Show Read Posts More Relevant

[DarkArc]

Requirements

• [X] Is this a feature request? For questions or discussions use https://lemmy.ml/c/lemmy_support
• [X] Did you check to see if this issue already exists?
• [X] Is this only a feature request? Do not put multiple feature requests in one issue.
• [X] Is this a backend issue? Use the lemmy-ui repo for UI / frontend issues.

Is your proposal related to a problem?

Currently the lemmy main feed can feel "stale" as the same threads can trigger hot/active filters unless you have "Show Read Posts" unchecked. The downside to unchecking "Show Read Posts" is that they don't appear in various places where they feel like they should.

Describe the solution you'd like.

I think it might make sense to change "show read posts" to a default similar to the default algorithm used, and add options for different feeds (e.g., user feeds, the main feed, and community feeds being the big three).

Describe alternatives you've considered.

• One option would be to have this be a toggle that's exposed without a default setting. I think this is sensible, but I could see certain users finding it highly desirable to always see old posts.
• This could be done via integrating the read filtering into the actual algorithms, e.g. "hot" or maybe a new "best" would never show things you've already read. This has the downside of potentially making each algorithm realistically have two versions, e.g. "new" and "new unread".
• This could also be handled client side to some extent, particularly in infinite scroll implementations, but this would result in significantly more requests, particularly if an entire request returned previously read posts.

Additional context

No response

[DarkArc]

This isn't a duplicate of, but is potentially related to the design space of https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3155.

[8ullyMaguire]

I would also prefer the wording of the user setting to be changed from "Show Read Posts" to "Hide Read Posts". I find the current wording to be confusing because it requires me to think more about what I want to achieve when selecting or deselecting the option. By changing the wording to "Hide Read Posts", I believe that the option would be more clear and easier to understand.

[dessalines]

We've recently added an explicit hide post dropdown and filter, but I agree that the language "hide read posts" is more clear in the user settings. I'll transfer to lemmy-ui to update that language.