I agree, this is a great idea. Maybe have a button next to the "reply" button that can be "Mark as Read." That way, even if you're on a computer and are too lazy to reply to it, you can leave it as unread.

Interesting idea.
IMHO a "Mark unread" would be better as a "Mark read", as most of the time you can answer right away...

Maybe you could implement a button for "Mark as read" if you want the message icon to disappear, or if you respond to the message, it automatically marks it as read.

Excellent idea, Mapu! For whatever reason Oli, I seldom respond right away (and that's probably a good thing for me!). I tend to read players' diplomacy, study the map, and study their message, and consider my response as well as my actions. If it's a back and forth (real time) dialogue, then the responses are quick like a chat box. But when they are day to day or overnight responses, they tend to be more complex, and I take my time composing messages. Either way would be a big help, but the 'mark as unread' seems most intuitive to me because that's how I mange my email in box.

Thank you Mapu for this excellent idea +1 :)

And yes, I agree with Oli : a "Mark unread" would be better than a "Mark read".

meh...i wouldnt have to use a "unread" utgon all the time (though the idea is great), but i would rather have to press "read" which could be quite annoying...

Should I put text on this button ("Mark unread" - big) or should I put the envelope (with a mouse-over explanation - small) on the page?
Regarding usability, where should I put this button?

Yes, excellent idea! I really appreciate how quickly good ideas can be accepted and implemented here. Thanks for the suggestion, Mapu, and thanks to Oli for jumping right on it.

As for the button, maybe just below the 'Send' button beside the message window?

Yeah, I agree with Dr. R, if you put it below the Send button (or above) it would be in a convenient place. I think also having text on the button is clearer than having to mouse over the button for an explanation.

Tried different solutions, so far I dislike all.
A text-button is really big and ugly. And If I change this to the envelope-icon it's hard to see what this button should do. (Esp. if placed right after the "send" button.
Maybe someone can come up with better ideas...

Is there anyway to put the button inside the text window where the time is? Maybe along with a column for the time each message was sent, there could be a column with a check box or a button at the bottom that would let you mark the message as read.... Not too sure how to aesthetically implement the button.

Once someone views the message the "newMessage"-flag is cleared, so I can't check whether this is actually a new message or not, because by viewing the messages they are already no longer new.
I can just put a button somewhere on the page, but I can't check if you view a new message and what lines of text are new and toggle the visibility of the button accordingly.

Is there anyway to revert back to the previous loading of the page where the new message flag isn't cleared?

No.
I can just choose to clear the 'new-meaage-flag' later (or not at all).
But I would like to implement a solution that does not mess that much with the code...

If the envelope-icon doesn't work, what about an 'envelope with line through it'-icon..
or what about a text link 'Mark Unread' instead of a text button?

Or for a text button instead of putting "Mark as Unread" just put "Unread"... makes it a lot smaller I would think.

or make an options button, the word or a tool or something, somewhere near the message box and have "Mark as Unread" and "Mark as Read" as options, and, while you're at it, you might as well add another mark, like a star or something. That won't look too ugly right?

Great idea btw.

Could you insert something like "turn message alert back on" at the top of the messages column? The icon only goes away when you read the actual pm in the message column so putting the option there means everyone would see it when they click on the envelope.

Not sure about the positioning of the button, but it's a working prototype.

OMG that is hot shit. So awesome. Thanks!

This button...(and pardon my french)

KICKS ASS!!!!

Echoing others comments. I love this feature. Thanks to Mapu for suggesting and to our illustrious host for implementing it.

great feature! Used it already

Wow ! This is fantastic ! Thank you very much, Oli :)

As a new member, but no longer a "rookie" ;-) I've got to say, I'm impressed as hell at the time it takes for a feature to be suggested and it's implementation. Nice job Oli, and thanks again for all you do here.

Wow this is pretty cool. I can combine the new mark as unread with the new-ish notes tab to make sure i dont forget any important notes the next time I log on.
Thanks Oli!

It's broken. Only allows me to mark as unread (no longer have the option to reply.)

Never mind, forgot where the Send button was lol

Looks great Oli thanks for all your hard work on the site

Oli, if you are busy I don't want to bother you but i would like it if the notes tab also existed in anonymous games sometime in the future. Thanks

no not anonymous games gunboat games. sorry my brain's struggling today

It does appear in gunboats...

oh yes it does my bad... today's just not my day

Quick question for improvement of this feature.

It's quite impossible to tell the difference between 'saved for later' messages and new incoming messages where you've saved the message for later, and so checking those tabs and re-marking as unread is a must if you don't wish to miss new comm.

Is it possible (not knowing how the code is structured, I'm not sure if this is easily doable or not), to have a 'opened envelope' icon for 'saved for later' and that icon switches back to the 'closed envelope' icon if a new message arrives? (If it is as simple as adding another message state in the code such as 'saved_for_later' in addition to whatever 'unread_msg' state or flag currently exists and then copying and modding the envelope icon to show an open envelope for this new state, I think it's definitely worth it. Then again, I haven't looked at the code and so have no idea if this is a difficult request or not or a change that is difficult to merge with the existing webdip code each time kestas pushes new code out).

Just a thought.

Thank you Leif for pointing that out : I was thinking the same thing myself.

@Leif: but I don't quite get it - what's the practical difference between "saved for later" and "unread" ones? The notification is there so that you have to look into it anyway.

So if I saved a message from someone to work on later and before I get to it, (say in a 2 day or longer phase game or something I don't wish to address till after a retreats and a build phase which could then be 6 days later), but meanwhile that person sends me a new message, say even an hour after I saved the first one, without checking again, (and re-saving for later), I have no clue a new messages was sent.

You can always view the Messages link, which does not clear the envelopes.

@Leif, sorry, this is not that easy to add.
The unmark-feature was an easy and quick one, but to create a new special mark for the "read later" would require some database changes and a lot of code to add in many different places all over the code. I try to avoid this, as it's hard to integrate new code from webdip back here if my code differs too much (see the missing newMessage icon in the pregame-chat.)

I was hoping otherwise, and so thought I'd toss the idea out there.. the mark for later is way more than we had before!

^ He means thanks, Oli! :P

goose translation roughly, but yeah..

oh, and btw goose..

Plealuhflease, dolluhflon't starluhflart talluhflockeylluhfling illuhflin goollifloose-laliflatilliflin.

Such 'translation' would be way too hard to for the rest of us to decipher.