Long ago I got in the habit of trying to stay current with Dope threads by, instead of cruising through each individual forum, clicking on the “New Posts” in the blue bar above (between “Calendar” and “Search”) and going through that list. It’s in descending chronological order, latest on top, and that allows me to see all that’s been posted since my last visit.
If I’ve been away longer than a few days, I will scan the whole thing fairly quickly, not really having the temptation to read through two or three dozen (or more) pages of posts. But when I’m checking in at least once a day it’s not a hassle.
The point to this thread is that when I do that first thing each day, I get somewhere between 8 and 15 pages of new material to go through. Even if I don’t reply to any of them, it still means maybe an hour of browsing time before I get caught up.
What’s a good number of “New Posts” for you – assuming you use a similar approach here? Do you get fewer than 8 or more than 15? (I suspect if that’s the case you must check in either more or less frequently than once a day). If you don’t do that type of search, how do you keep yourself up-to-date? Do you even try to?
Due to the method I use, moved threads are not an issue for me, nor is the “home forum” for a particular thread. Moving threads around because they may have been inappropriate for that forum’s “rules” is pretty transparent and borders on “shuffling the dishes.”
I do the same thing, rarely do I notice what forum a thread might be in until/unless I’m posting.
If there are more than 8 pages, I’ll just ignore the older one.
It can be a never-ending process: by the time I’ve read to the back page I can hit “New Posts” again and get 3/4 as many pages. Returns eventually diminish but by then I can intersperse vanity searches / posts by me to see if I have things I personally ought to respond to. Next thing you know, the day is gone! :eek:
So true. I get into the “New Posts” mode until it’s up to 5-6 pages, then “log out” to reset the counter. The vanity search works for a while until I get itchy that maybe somebody has started a new thread I’d want to read or get into.
It’s like over any given hour in the day, regardless of time of day for me, there are going to be 4-5 pages of new stuff posted. And maybe all 4 or 5 pages worth will just be one post to one thread each.
It’s so great when a thread will really take off and stay at the top (or within the top 10 or so) of the “New Posts” page. Those don’t happen all that often, but when they do they’re why I come to the Dope. The crazier the better.
I mostly hang out in IMHO and MPSIMS, so keeping up with new posts by looking at two forums’ home pages isn’t a big deal. When I log on or come back to this site, the first thing I do is click the “User CP” link to see if there are any new posts in threads that I’ve posted in. Then, I go right to the forum home pages.
Four hours a day? What does your mother think of that? Or haven’t you checked. You should, as you have lost control of your life. If this goes on, you will be found as a mummy in front of your computer because you kept posting until you lost the will to eat.