Example of the problem: If you have a feed with a single unread item and you only show feeds with unread items, the following happens. The moment you access the unread item, it’s marked as read. That makes the feed have 0 unread items and is thus removed from the feed pane. You end up with a list of orphaned story titles without the source feed on your feed pane.
Maybe the source feed should be removed from the view only once you’ve moved to the next item.
I don’t like the first action, since it’s not clear that your read action was acknowledged. However, I’d love to do the second action, updating the source feed unread count only when leaving the story. The problem is that then the feed would pop when you select another feed. I’d rather the feed pop when you perform the action that is directly responsible for the popping/disappearing, which is the way it is now.
I would love to figure out a way to continue showing the feed in the feed bar while still having the action directly connected, but I haven’t figured it out yet. I’m all ears. As long as you account for my concerns, outlined above.
Maybe you could make it fade out instead of instantly disappearing? That way it would provide a smoother experience.