Instead of “navigating” in the thread title, I mean something closer to “sweeping” or “sifting,” that is, what is your method for discovering new threads on topics you’re interested in?
I start my visit to the board by clicking on my avatar in the upper right corner and checking out the threads I’m already watching. Then I click on new at the top of the page and/or latest. I also click on topics under the “hamburger” (hamberder?) icon next to the avatar-- I think these are also latest, right? Even so, I’ll often stumble across threads that I wish I had found before they had a hundred or more posts. Or sometimes topics that don’t get much action disappear before I discover them.
Maybe I should be making more use of the unread posts link under the hamberder icon…hmmm.
Does anyone have a comprehensive method?
I decided to post in IMHO instead of ATMB because the latter seems to (lately) be a place for serious-ish administrative matters and complaints.
There are only certain categories that I read. I start with Factual Questions and scroll through, clicking on what’s of interest to me until I get to the line that says “last visit”. Then I go to Cafe, Humble Opinion, and Miscellaneous Personal and do the same.
I have a saved URL for threads I have already posted to. I open that first. I right-click anything that looks interesting and open it in a new tab. Then I open “New”. Repeat the right-click / anything interesting routine. Close tab. Read the ones I opened. Post to them if inspired to do so. If someone PM’d me or directly invoked me somehow, I’m informed of that by a blue notification thingie and I’ll check those out. Done.
I immediately check to see if there are any responses to any of my posts. Then I check out the posts on the main menu page to see what they are and to post an addition to the conversation if warranted.
I click on Latest Posts too. But I open things that look interesting, and then go to the next. All in one tab. I guess I don’t understand the rationale for opening a new tab rather than staying in the one I started in.
I also open multiple tabs.* It’s the difference between sticking your hand into the bag of cookies and eating each one as you pull it out and spreading the cookies out on the plate so you can see all of the ones you’re going to eat as you work your way through the pile. Gives me something to look forward to.
* I also open multiple tabs when I read online publications. I scroll through the main page and open stories I want to read in separate tabs. Then I go back and work my way through them.
I have some forums muted. Of the ones that are left, I start at the bottom (the Pit) and click on each forum, going upward, and look at everything that has happened since I last visited (I’m on here pretty much every day, so there isn’t that much new for each visit). At some point, I remember to check my avatar for responses to specific posts or threads. My last stop is ATMB.
I open SDMB; open a thread on the front page that I’m actively part of already (there usually is one); then I hit the “unread” link at the bottom of the thread, if the 5 suggested topics aren’t threads I want to check in on; then after I’m sated with my Unreads (those are threads you have been actively reading already) I will use the “New” link at the bottom and see if anything piques my interest.
I start with Unread, which I have set up so that it shows me threads I’ve posted in. I’ll open each of those in a new tab, then read them; leaving the Unread tab itself open for the next round.
Then I go to New, and again open anything that looks interesting in a new tab; read the tabs, or as much of each as I’m actually interested in (sometimes a thread title looks interesting but there’s a lot of discussion I don’t care about, and sometimes I don’t understand a thread title so will click on it to find out what it’s about and it might or might not be something I want to read.) Again, I leave the New tab open for the next round.
If I feel like I’ve got time, I’ll also check Latest, in the same fashion, for ongoing threads that I’m interested in but haven’t had anything to say about; but I don’t do that as often as I check the other two, though it’ll probably get checked every day or two. Most threads I’m interested in I wind up posting in, eventually, so I probably saw them already in Unread. Or I can mark something individually as Unread if I really don’t want to miss anything in that thread but also don’t want to post in it. [ETA: or mark something individually as Normal if I posted in it a long time ago and am now tired of its showing up in Unread.]
Opening the tabs from each category lets each at least start loading while I’m reading the first one. I’ve got a slow connection. This worked better in vBulletin, which loaded the whole thread, and let me read it once it had loaded even if the connection went down altogether; but it has a bit of benefit even in Discourse which only loads a few posts at a time. And leaving the base tabs in Unread, New, and Latest means I don’t have to find them on the next read; just hit Refresh.
I don’t check by category at all; except that I try to remember if I’m thinking of flagging anything to check whether it’s in the Pit and might be OK, or before posting something that might be dubious in one category or another. Otherwise I usually have no idea what category I’m reading in.
I have my profile set so any thread I read for 4 minutes becomes “tracked”. I also have the forums I totally don’t care about muted. For me, that’s Game Room, Thread Games, Cecil’s Column / Staff Reports, and Marketplace. They are dead to me.
My browser shortcut goes to “unread”.
From there I click my icon and in the dropdown see any highlighted threads where someone @ mentioned or [quote]-ed me. Then I click that thread from the unread page body, NOT from the highlight under my name. That takes me to where I left off reading in that thread, not to wherever I was mentioned farther down. Then I read, reply, & post to that one thread as appropriate. Repeat the above until I’ve caught up on all the unreads where I’ve been mentioned.
Then refresh the unread page and process all the unread threads from bottom to top = oldest fresh post to newest fresh post. If I find I’ve lost interest in one of those threads I change its tracking status to [Normal] so I’m not bothered by it again unless I’m @'d or [quote]-ed. If I’m hopelessly behind in a fast-moving thread, sometimes I’ll open it, jump to the bottom, wait a few seconds, then close it. Which resets the last-post-read pointer to the then-current last post. Meanwhile I hope to remember later that I’ve skipped a bunch of that thread’s content and I don’t want to say something stupid out of context later. Lather, rinse, repeat for every unread until there aren’t any.
Next click [New]. That shows me every thread that’s been started that I’ve never seen. I then read those I’m interested in, again from bottom to top. Then refresh the [New] page and when it contains only threads I don’t care about, click [dismiss] so I’ll not see them again.
By this whole process I see every single thread in every single category as it’s created and then for each of those I’ve either read and/or posted so they’re being tracked under unread, or I’ve dismissed them so they sink into oblivion.
Seems pretty thorough and plenty time-consuming. Which is, after all, the goal.
