Extra functionality needed

[Tony]

If, when I go into a forum, there is a message that catches my eye halfway through the list of new messages, I will quite often read that one first.

I then use the "View next topic" button to read the other messages, and, eventually I will have read all the messages newer than my first selection.

"View next topic" will now give me a screen with the (completely accurate) information message "There are no newer topics in this forum". This screen also shows a link to "MozillaZine Forum Index" but shows no way to go back to the forum that I was reading (which still has unread topics).

I think that, in this situation, the same possibilities should be available as when "Mark all topics read" is selected in a forum. That is

1. the forum should be redisplayed after a number of seconds, and/or,
2. a link should be shown to enable the user to return to the forum.

(I do realise that I could press the Back key but I'm looking for consistency)

[Sander]

Yes, one of those little annoyances of phpbb. It really should just not display the "next newest" link when there aren't newer threads. Then again, not even vBulletin does it right.

As an aside: why don't you just middle-click all the links (to interesting threads) on the forum? I mean, that is the strength of tabbed browsing (which after all is what everyone raves most about in Mozilla) right there. By the time you're done reading the first thread all the other ones will have loaded.

[Tony]

... why don't you just middle-click all the links (to interesting threads) on the forum? ...

I do, and I agree that it is one of the best features in Mozilla.