I am appealing to the webmaster of this forum to turn on "Return to this topic" in the post page by default.
Although this can be set at the Edit Profile page, only explorative users will do that. The rest are too lazy to even check it out. Many innocent users are lost after making a post, being thrown back the topics list after hitting Submit. Later, after realizing this, they will click back on the topic they were at. This can also cause additional loads on the web server.
I know that SMF intends to keep accurate its view count of each topic by avoiding a double count thus keeping the user from viewing his own reply or opening post again after submitting. It is a tedious task for a user, and I hope many will agree with me, to click (1) Additional Options (2) Return to this topic, and (3) Post. That's a click too many for those who opt to see if his post is doing okay. This is contratry to the "Simple Machine" concept. Which is more important: an accurate view count, or a happy user?
Forcing the user to develop the 3-click habit each time he replies is a bit of a let-down.
Thanks for your kind consideration.