it's the little annoyances...

yay for google groups! one small annoyance has now been addressed.

basically, google reader implemented a "kept unread" category--posts that you have not specifically marked as "read" (implicitly or explicitly), but have fallen off the bottom of whatever reader's threshold for "too old to still appear bolded" go into this category.

the problem is that there's no way to get them *out* of this category. because they're too old to still appear bolded, the "mark as read" checkbox is gone. "mark all as read" doesn't work either.

the solution? star the offending posts. in your "starred items" list, the posts will once again have their "mark as unread" checkboxes.

when i tried this, i found that i had to individually address each checkbox. "mark all as read" removed the "mark as read" checkbox instead of actually checking them. i only had two, so it wasn't a big deal, but there is a potential for this to get very annoying.

i like the idea of the "kept unread" list, but i think i'd rather not have it if it doesn't re-enable the "mark as read" checkboxes. jumping through hoops with the starred list is not worth it.

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update: in some kind of unhandled-scenario hilarity, if you then uncheck the "mark as read" on those posts, the unread post count on the feed will increment, but the post itself will not show up as unread in that feed. ghost post. brilliant.