Efficiency in Using SMC Forum

[Ken Stevens]

Searching has not helped me so I thought I would ask outright.

How do you guys make your viewing and reviewing all of the topics and messages efficient?

I have learned about the User CP which will show me activity in message threads to which I have subscribed. Nice feature.

I often start a thread and enjoyed it but it is not "up at the top of the interest scale" and I have not made a reply so I do not subscribe. But another day I want to "check it", and have to scan messages I have read to find some new additions. Clicking the icon to the last posted message is not so helpful if there have been multiple new messages since I last viewed. Plus, the fact that the page displays JUST the last message makes it difficult to mouse wheel up to see previous messages....minor but irritating point.

I could go on, but rather would ask someone to take a moment to describe an efficient way to look through all of the information here. Seems like a good description would deserve a sticky titled "How to Use SMC Forum" or something similar.

Thanks for any suggestions.
Ken

[Matt Meiser]

I use the "New Posts" button 100% of the time. My only wish is that I could configure which forums showed up in my New Posts search. I scan the titles, see if anything is of interest. You can also hover over the thread title to read the first couple sentences if you aren't sure.

[John Schreiber]

I start out with the User CP to make sure I don't miss anything I've been a part of or subscribed to, then I go to the New Posts link to see what's new.

If there's a thread which is especially interesting to me, but which I don't have anything to contribute to, I click on Thread Tools and subscribe to it. That way, it comes up under User CP and I don't miss anything.

Like woodworking, I'm sure there's lots of ways to approach it.

Like Matt, I'd love to be able to eliminate forums which I don't follow - no lathe, no laser - I don't want to know what exciting things I'm missing.

[Keith Outten]

I have sent an email to vBulletin and asked them to include this function in the next upgrade. I'm not sure if there is anything Aaron Koehl can do in the meantime, I keep forgetting to ask him as more pressing problems are always at the top of our list when we get together.

.

[Jason Beam]

I, too, use the "New Posts" button almost 100% of the time. A more critical upgrade (in my opinion, of course) is the logic that contradicts the purpose of this button. "New Posts", to me, means "Posts that I have not read yet."

When I come here and see that there are several pages of new posts, I sometimes don't have time to get through them all. But the damage is already done. I can't come back later to them because after awhile the list changes - even though I haven't clicked anything else. This makes it dificult for me because I will lose any hope of seeing what those topics were since they won't show in my "New Posts" list.

When I am done reading the items in the "New Posts" search, I will always click the "Mark Forums Read" link. This, to me, is how I think it should work - Don't ever take anything off the "New Posts" list unless it's marked as read.

Maybe I'm batty, but it seems counterintuitive to me. "New Posts" may be accurate and I have different expecations. If that's the case, what would REALLY help me is an "Unread Posts" button that doesn't have some kind of timeout at all - it only shows me posts I haven't read.

The way it is now with "New Posts", I am obligated to scan the entire list before leaving or accept that I will miss out on posts. I don't like either option, personally. It has certainly dictated how frequently I visit and participate. I know I'm not a "Contributor" like the others, but I think this issue is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to my becoming one to tell the truth. This is a VERY active forum, and I love that - but this issue makes it more challenging to use for me and thus my participation is reduced because of that.

Sorry to hijack - it's been a rant I've been thinking about for awhile now.

[Randy Klein]

I wish the new posts method would also distinguish between a brand new thread and an existing thread that has new postings.

[glenn bradley]

I do what Matt does. I also heartily agree with him that it would be a most useful feature to allow the various forums to be checked or unchecked, thereby making them active or inactive for a given function such as a 'New Posts' search.

This in no way means there are things on SMC I just don't want to see. On the contrary there is so much, I often miss things or respond inappropriately (as in out of sequence) because of the raw volume of material. This was not so a couple years ago but, we have (very happily) grown. I would see this as a valued feature for a forum that has come of age.

[glenn bradley]

I wish the new posts method would also distinguish between a brand new thread and an existing thread that has new postings.

I'm with you Randy. As designed it appears the 'New Posts' means new posts. The addition of a 'New Thread' button would also be a welcome feature.

[Bruce Page]

I, too, use the "New Posts" button almost 100% of the time. A more critical upgrade (in my opinion, of course) is the logic that contradicts the purpose of this button. "New Posts", to me, means "Posts that I have not read yet."

When I come here and see that there are several pages of new posts, I sometimes don't have time to get through them all. But the damage is already done. I can't come back later to them because after awhile the list changes - even though I haven't clicked anything else. This makes it dificult for me because I will lose any hope of seeing what those topics were since they won't show in my "New Posts" list.

When I am done reading the items in the "New Posts" search, I will always click the "Mark Forums Read" link. This, to me, is how I think it should work - Don't ever take anything off the "New Posts" list unless it's marked as read.

Maybe I'm batty, but it seems counterintuitive to me. "New Posts" may be accurate and I have different expecations. If that's the case, what would REALLY help me is an "Unread Posts" button that doesn't have some kind of timeout at all - it only shows me posts I haven't read.

The way it is now with "New Posts", I am obligated to scan the entire list before leaving or accept that I will miss out on posts. I don't like either option, personally. It has certainly dictated how frequently I visit and participate. I know I'm not a "Contributor" like the others, but I think this issue is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to my becoming one to tell the truth. This is a VERY active forum, and I love that - but this issue makes it more challenging to use for me and thus my participation is reduced because of that.

Sorry to hijack - it's been a rant I've been thinking about for awhile now.

Jason, the next best thing to the New Posts button is the Quick Links/Today's Posts button. I sometime use that to split up my reading time.

[Stephen Beckham]

I'd like to see a hide button (select box to the far left maybe). When selected, the item would never show on my screen again. That would allow me to select things that I'll never read even with new posts in that thread.

Yea - gambling that I might not see something - but would allow a big boy to make a big decision. I'd hide some of the Forums and Hide Threads that do not relate to me in a particular forum. Shouldn't apply to Sticky's and Announcements...

Of course you'd have to have an "Unhide" button to reset them.

Please don't take this as a complaint about SMC - I love this place and it's a great tool as is - but if I were king for a day....

[Rob Coderre]

I know. old thread...

I think that vBulletin has a feature in UserCP to allow hiding/unhiding of forums, which extends to what posts are shown in New Posts, etc. Another forum site I frequent (dbstalk.com) has this and they appear to be using an older version of the vBulletin software. Not sure if this is functionality or a hack, but it's really handy. There's a lot of great info here, but I'm either not there yet for some of it or it doesn't interest me as much. I feel like I'm missing things, especially if I don't get to visit for a few days!

[Tom Veatch]

I use the "New Posts" button 100% of the time. My only wish is that I could configure which forums showed up in my New Posts search. I scan the titles, see if anything is of interest. You can also hover over the thread title to read the first couple sentences if you aren't sure.

Copy and paste the following as a shortcut on your desktop:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/search.php?do=getnew&include=3,4,5,7,12,23,29,39

Replace the numbers with the Forum ID numbers of those forums you are interested in. To get the number, go to the main forum index, http://www.sawmillcreek.org/, click on the forum of interest and the number of the forum will show in the address bar, i.e., http://www.sawmillcreek.org/forumdisplay.php?f=3. In this case, the forum is "General Woodworking and Power Tools" and the forum number is "3".

Click on your shortcut and SMC will open showing all the posts in the listed forums that have been posted since your last visit.

[Rob Coderre]

Copy and paste the following as a shortcut on your desktop:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/search.p...,7,12,23,29,39

Replace the numbers with the Forum ID numbers of those forums you are interested in. To get the number, go to the main forum index, http://www.sawmillcreek.org/, click on the forum of interest and the number of the forum will show in the address bar, i.e., http://www.sawmillcreek.org/forumdisplay.php?f=3. In this case, the forum is "General Woodworking and Power Tools" and the forum number is "3".

Click on your shortcut and SMC will open showing all the posts in the listed forums that have been posted since your last visit.

Great tip! Thanks Tom!