How do forums show you unread topics?

Question

I have user discussion forums I coded in php/mysql, I am wanting to know how the big name forums can make it show you which topics have new posts in them, usually by changin

Answer 1

As nickf said above except that the threads the user has actually visited is tracked. so anything the user hasn't visited is considered new for that visitor. for finer grain control any threads created before the user registered are ignored and possibly any threads not visited within a period of time are ignored. this would prevent every unvisited thread as becoming a new thread for them.

Of course there are many ways to skin a cat and depending on what the forum creators wanted the above can be changed to suit

DC