Are you visiting the links in the same tab, or are you launching other tabs? The notification doesn't "notice" that you've visited it if you open the link in another tab. (I'm not sure why. I don't think it's intentional so much as "how that code works".) If a notification is hanging around way past its "I care" date, you can clear it by clicking on "mark read" in the inbox.

I'm in the same browser tab. You're correct that it shouldn't matter. From the engine's perspective, the activation of the link from any location should cause the database to flag the notification "read." The system is acting like it's not. I could see your point if I clicked the link in one tab, then visited another tab that had not yet been refreshed and found it still reflected an "unread" status, but that's not what I'm experiencing.

I have noticed that sometimes the change from "unread" to "read" is slow. It's as if the flag change is posted to the database on a delayed execution basis. I have no insight into how the database transactions are designed for this site, but that observation may suggest that some of them are being delayed too long or lost. That observation may have nothing at all to do with what's happeneing - it's just an observation.

Actually I rely on the notification not automatically getting marked read when opening in a new tab. Yes, technically I've read it. But I often don't have the time to react immediately, therefore I want it to stay “unread” until I've reacted. Yes, I could manually mark it as unread again, but that would be much more hassle (especially if the menu was closed in between and therefore the order of notifications changed).

celtschk‭, I've used that kind if feature myself. However, that should be an attribute of the second tab not yet having refreshed. Once it's refreshed, it should always reflect the current state of the notifications.

Monica Cellio‭ I have three notifications right now that won't automatically switch. I'll leave them there.

Thanks JBH‭; I'll ask devs to take a look. (I don't have the right access to investigate.)

JBH‭ The point is that the status did not change (and therefore there is nothing to update). And that is what I'm relying on. Indeed, IMHO a status change on refresh would worse than an immediate status change.