The other approach we should consider is switching the default effect of narrowing to focus the last read message, not the first unread message. There are some model issues to think about (specifically, how to handle the case where there are messages, but none of them area read); but I think we could solve them (e.g. for that problem, have a virtual "top-of-feed" message, and focus that).

With regard to the unread logic, I think we may still have some logic that says that if a message appears on the screen, it's considered read, so shifting the focus by one record (if I'm interpreting you correctly) might not be a huge help. I'm slightly more inclined to a solution that allows you to just get to the topic directly. Even if the not-your-desired-topic messages on the stream don't get flagged as read, they're still a distraction when you're trying to be laser focused on a particular topic.

The logic we have is documented clearly in http://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/pointer.html.

I agree that my proposal only addresses part of the problem, namely the issue of losing one message of unread count every time you click into a narrow.

This is still a nuisance. We tried one experiment, which was to have the click open the latest topic, but it was abandoned due to pushback (and it wasn't even an ideal solution for folks who like topic narrows). I hope we come back to this with other ideas.

Hello 👋 ...trying to figure out if what I just posted in #292 (comment) is what is being discussed here?

PS: ...I need to wrap my head around what you mean when you say "topic narrows" and "narrowing".