Hey all,
What kinds of routines do you all have for participating & keeping up with the board, without the board taking over your day?
I just joined a couple of months ago. The board is interesting to me, and I find myself visiting several times a day. Uh oh. I know myself. This could become a destructive habit. 2004-2005 I lost to scrabble. 2013 went to settlers of catan. I want to preemptively take care of this. I have a small window of opportunity here in which I can do this right… 
Come INTO THE LIGHT.
We’re all waiting for you IN THE LIGHT.
I’ve heard that before!
I fall for it every time 
I’m addicted to this damn place.
And i don’t mean that in the “Ha Ha I’m addicted” sense, I’m mean it in a very real way.
But hey, as far as addictions go, this one is rather harmless.
Mainly I check it while having my morning coffee, like now. Sometimes late at night. Sometimes in the afternoon. Sometimes if I’m sad, or glad, or having sex, or getting drunk, or won the lottery, or having a sandwich. Otherwise, not very often at all.
Off and on throughout the day, lasting a few minutes to a half an hour.
It’s a rare day that I don’t visit the SDMB but I never time myself. Some days I’ll visit and re-visit and re-visit. Others, I’ll be here for hours and then not at all until the next day. There’s no particularly routine and the length of time I spend here depends on the appeal (or otherwise) of the unread threads.
ETA: this is my second time here today and I’ll most likely go through the boards in my usual pattern, read, maybe post and then return again this evening at least once.
I work from home, so the SDMB is my website of choice for browsing when I’m not actually working…which is every few minutes.
Also it’s my news-source. I log on here each morning, and find out what’s been happening in the world before our local news-providers catch what’s happening!
I don’t think I have a routine as such. I probably check the site in the morning, lunchtime and afternoon at work. It’s not a site I tend to go to in the evenings. I like it for work because the interface is so generic, it doesn’t scream NON-WORK SITE.
The only downside to that is that the US folks (the majority of the board’s population) don’t get online until 2pm-ish my time, which means I miss out on some of the back and forth conversations.
I’m a hopeless Internet addict, and whenever I try to limit my time here, I usually end up reading stupid articles on Cracked or wading through TV Tropes instead. Here is better.
I do try to limit my actual posting, though. Ever so often I forget that I don’t have to type out loud everything that goes through my mind, and leave a smear of gooey drive-by snark all over MPSIMS. Still, it seems to be more consequence-free than doing the same ting in real life. I somehow haven’t managed to get myself banned yet, so…
Third visit. I think the retort ‘get a life’ was coined for me.
“Other.” Typically, quick check maybe four times a day (often while not able to do anything productive anyway – you know, waiting in a line, or keeping half an eye on Lil’ Map at the playground), which results in a quick posting maybe one of those four times.
Then, typically spend about 30-45 minutes doing more serious Doping, on maybe two thirds of my days, often including my contributing a handful of postings.
Maybe once or twice per month, I spend more tine Doping than I really should, typically when waking up around 5 AM to use the toilet, and then Doping rather than trying to force myself to get another hour of sorely needed sleep.
So true for me as well!
Naaah - follow the Dark Side. I hear they have great cookies.
My connection at home is so slow the board doesn’t work well. So I blow a couple short breaks from work here. Something to do that kills time and keeps me awake.
Nitpick for the poll, “Every day” should be two words. Geez, did a Thai put that together?
I think “Gooble gobble! We accept her! One of us!” is more appropriate.
ha!
I’m a binge-Doper. I don’t visit every day, but when I do, I’m here for hours at a time, usually on weekends or evenings.
One note: We don’t usually allow polling in ATMB as a general rule … it’s not that kind of forum. It’s turned on in this forum so people can test it.
I think what might be best is to move this to IMHO … where polling is okay.
I was put in front of this keyboard over ten years ago and told that if I didn’t post something every 108 minutes something terrible would happen.