Currently, when a user enters any forum the whole forum tree is open, i.e. there are no branches closed. One user had already closed off some branches (by pressing the chevron) but was annoyed that it was re-opened the next time he entered the forum.

I understand the resentment and am for storing the visibility state of any forum. We might need to improve the UX though when a user receives a message in a branch that he has closed. Right now the discussion branch is re-opened in that case but this feels like the wrong approach at the moment. Closing a discussion branch should maybe be seen as a way of muting that discussion and we should perhaps be much more passive when it comes to displaying messages in muted branches.

My suggestion: We don't re-open closed branches automatically when new messages in those branches are received but rather display some indicator that the closed branch contains new messages.

Then there are the notifications, should we display a notification for a new message on a "muted" branch ? I'm torn on this subject and can find arguments for both. Perhaps just best to keep it simple for us and display them regularly ?