I'm not really sure about this hidden topic thing. Why would somebody want to hide a topic from TIO/TIW? The topic isn't going to appear in there in the first place unless you post in it or opt in to watching it. It makes sense to be able to hide individual threads, but this was a way of "opting in" to single threads within a mostly hidden topic. Would you be willing to do a canvas of opinion on this? I know that loads of us a while back were using hiding threads to curate what we see on Active, since the site is now so, well, active, but now it seems we can't do that without opting out of a topic entirely.
Here are some examples of why a poster might wish to opt into a single thread within a topic while having most of the threads in that topic hidden:
- Somebody posting in a long-term TTC support thread on Conception might find it difficult to see all of the threads in active with newbies asking "Am I pregnant?" or "It's been three months, why am I not pregnant yet?" Long term TTC doesn't always fit into Infertility. (And likewise, if somebody has a very specific infertility issue, they might not be interested in general threads about IVF or specific tests they haven't got to yet.)
- The Antenatal and Postnatal club threads are all very active, but you normally only want to join one at a time, and hide all of the rest. It's easier to hide the topic but opt in to your relevant thread, than try to keep up with hiding all of the others individually.
- Topics like Bereavement, Mental Health or Miscarriage, again, a poster may have a personal support thread, but not wish to come across stories of other people suffering similarly as they may find it too sensitive at that time.
- Following a certain thread in Telly Addicts for one programme you are watching without having to see threads about loads of other programmes (Same for things like General Health, Books, Style and Beauty, etc)
- Some posters opt to hide certain controversial topics such as AIBU, Feminism or Sex so that they don't get drawn into arguments, but occasionally decide that they are feeling strong and/or interested enough to enter the topic and post or comment on something, in which case they'd probably want updates to that thread.
- Lastly, there are at least two topics - OTBT and MNers with SN - which don't ever appear in active and don't appear to be opt-in-able.
It would be very time consuming to have to remember every single thread I've posted on in every section I've hidden and go and search manually in the section (some of which are quite busy) for each one. Yet simply approving everything into Active makes Active unusable due to the number of uninteresting threads.
If for some reason you're really seriously committed to this idea of hiding whole topics from TIO/TIW/TIS then would you consider adding another option for reducing what's visible in Active, like a "Favourite Topics" function perhaps?