Thanks, that was helpful to have a brand new perspectiveIt is threads like this that make me wonder about things, like why do we say "brand new" instead of just "new?"
This is what I discovered.
In Old English, the word "brand" carried the meanings of "fire, flame; firebrand, a piece of burning wood, torch". The word "brand" comes from the Germanic languages (and Old English was still very much part of the Germanic family) and is still commonly used in modern Dutch and German to mean "fire".
The meaning of "brand new" is thus, as also noted by the Online Etymology Dictionary, "fresh from the fire". I presume the term originally referred to items produced by a smithy, which were molded and tempered by the heat of a fire.
I think New is one that you have not yet viewed/read, while Recent is simply a sort by most recently posted whether already viewed or not.
Now, if I could find a way to filter the "happy birthday" threads out of my lists, that would be great. I think someone is just trying to boost their post count with them.
Don't you first have to click New Posts in order to see the Recent Posts link?
I’m not sure. I know my way around the Xenforo forum software, being a mod on 3 forums that use it, so I’ve been looking for a Recent Posts button and never found it. Right now, I think it’s a Safari thing because I looked at the forum on Firefox earlier and saw it immediately, but couldn’t log in. I need to look a bit more and see what’s going on. I use my alerts to find the threads I post in so it’s not a huge deal.
I'll rephrase my previous question-like response.
With either IE 11, Chrome, or Firefox, I must click "New Posts" in order to see a "Recent Posts" link.