How to keep current on a forum

[ILikeStilettos]

This is a copy of an email I sent to a friend, but it's also a great general set of instructions on how to manage a forum and stay current. Here's what I told my friend.

Since you brought up terminology on the phone and are not tech savvy let's define a couple of things. When you first log in to either forum you see a big list of major topics, maybe 15 of them, that will scroll off screen. Let's call them chapters (though both forums call them topics, which is confusing). Each time a person starts a new discussion, it's also called a topic and a topic may have one or more replies. For our sake that entire conversation is called a topic or thread because all the responses are tied together by a string and who knows where it will lead or if it will come back to the OP (original post). Individual replies are called posts. So the first time I post on a new subject, I create a thread. The rest of this email will use the terms, chapter, thread and post explicitly, but if I say "mark all posts" in quotes, I am using the exact wording to look for on the forum, which will probably not match our precise definition.

So let's assume you are all registered and log in to both forums and go through this process. Make sure you are logged in.

Look at the list of chapters. On SD some chapter names will be in red, maybe all of them, and some will be in blue. The ones in red have something new - I will come back to that. On TalkBlade it's harder to tell, There is a round icon to the left of the chapter name, it's has a white bell shape inside if you have read all, it has an orange bell shape when you have new stuff. Two methods, exact same meaning.

So what is new? That's tricky but I will get you there.

For each chapter that is saying there is something new to read, click on the chapter title. That shows you the list of threads within the chapter and they may not be in a logical sequence. On SD, in fine print right at the top of the list of the page numbers you see "Mark topics read". This marks all threads in the chapter as read. Once you have done that, click on "Board Index" - left side, fine bold print right above the chapter title and select and clear the next chapter. Go through every chapter one by one and do this. On TalkBlade at the chapter menu "Mark topics read" is under the chapter page numbers and "Board Index" is on the left about half way up. Now that you have marked every post in every chapter as read, new begins to make sense.

Log out and log in again. On the right side you will see "View new posts" and if there is a new post since the last time you logged in, it will show the thread title - only you have to work your way down into the thread to clear it. Typically there will be threads that interest me and those that don't. I deal with those. If I log out without doing ANYTHING and then log in again, there will be no new posts. Why? It only does the comparison when you log in. If you don't read them, it assumes that you don't care and they don't show as new until someone posts. There is a way to see those semi-new ones. Sometimes I don't get through all the new ones, so when I come back I use the other technique. On TalkBlade the same method, just presented a bit differently. "View new posts" gets you the same list of threads, each with the orange icon, if you don't clear them, you have to use the alternate method.

To clear a thread, first click on the thread title. On the right side you should see "Previous topic/First Unread Post/Next topic" - only sometimes just "Previous topic/Next topic" particularly when there are not many posts in the thread. Clicking previous or next takes you to a previous or next thread, but not the ones from your new list, but rather from the chapter list. So it sends you off to get lost. First unread post takes you to the first new post in the thread, if you've never looked at the post, it's the one that created the thread. You clear it by reading to the end (technically by displaying the last page in the thread). At that point you click "view new posts" again and you get the same new list as when you logged on, but now one is marked read instead of unread. If it doesn't clear, there are two possibilities. One, someone else added or edited a post while you were reading, so you have to do the "first unread post" again and scroll down as far as it will go, or it didn't like your scroll the last time. Get to the bottom. The next time you come in, it will show you only the new posts at the place you stopped reading. This is very useful for keeping up. You can always do searches or look at threads that interest you, so when you first do the "mark all posts" you aren't hurting your ability to read - you're just saying, I'm caught up, only show me new stuff from now on. It works exactly the same way on TalkBlade.

Now, lets assume there are ten new threads and only two interest you. Clear those. Of the eight remaining, you will see that they also show which chapter they are in. Click on the chapter and do "mark topics read". Work the next one. That clears up the new list.

Now how about those ones you missed? the alternate method? Do "board index" to get the list of all chapters plus those with unread posts. Unread posts from previous sessions are still unread, they just aren't new. Click on the chapter and either "mark topics read" or read and clear individual threads.

Using this method I can check the board every couple of days and pick up on anything I need to. (I actually do it several times a day, but that's me). This will get you caught up quickly and allow you to stay current with limited time on line. You may want to search specific subjects or authors that interest you, but again, that's only to see big chunks you might have missed. Otherwise go forward and wait for something of interest to show up.

[arthas]

Hello Dave!

Very helfpul post, thanks!

M.