I noticed that the number of "Dismiss New" buttons visible on the "New topics" page is not constant in all cases. For example, there are two of such buttons here:
But after refreshing the page, the first button disappears:
To reproduce (using Firefox 91.9.0esr on a Linux system):
- Click the "Dismiss New" button.
- Wait for new messages to appear ("New" button shows a number between brackets).
- Click the "New" button.
- Two "Dismiss New" buttons are now visible.
- Refresh page.
- One "Dismiss New" button is now visible.
If this is a bug, then my suggestion for a fix would be to have two buttons. I find it convenient as sometimes I go through the topics from top to bottom and sometimes the other way around.