For the most part I find people to be fairly predictable. It’s not often I’m surprised. That being said; I play a little game when open a thread here on the SDMB. On several of the postings I try to guess in how many posts a certain type of answer will come up. If I’m feeling really adventurous I’ll try to guess if any of the more well known users will post, and what the nature of that post will be.
As a recent example, there’s a thread here about using profanity. I can’t help but think that everyone who saw that thread thought to themselves that someone was going to make the obvious reply that used profanity. Sure enough it was the first reply to the OP.
Other SMDB oddities are that if I want click on a random forum for reading; I ALWAYS pick Great Debates. I don’t know why, because I don’t follow any threads in that forum; and as soon as I click it I wonder to myself why did I click on that forum, then I back out and go to a different forum. What the hell is up with that?
So what about you guys? Is there anything unique about the way you attack the SDMB? Are there any ‘games’ that you play? Are you methodical about how you move from forum to forum? How many of you use the notification subscription feature?
I just randomly poke around. I’ve never subscribed to a thread and don’t even really know what that means anyway; do you get email notifications of updates, or what?
I rarely go into GD, ATMB, Comments, or The Pit. Most of my time is in MPSIMS and IMHO. But it doesn’t matter. I’m thinking of changing my user name to Claude Rains.
No little games. I use the subscription feature to follow threads that I’ve posted in, and every now and then to follow a thread that I’m just interested in. “User CP” is the first place I go each time I visit the Dope.
After that, I visit the following forums in the following order: IMHO, then MPSIMS, then Cafe Society, then either GQ or the Pit (depending on my mood). If I’m extra bored, or have found nothing good in any of the other forums, I’ll check out ATMB.
I never even look at GD – which is probably the reason I’ve been able to stay here for almost 6 years.
You can choose to get email notifications (I don’t). When you subscribe to a thread, you can click “User CP” and see if any new replies to that thread have been posted. You can also choose to automatically subscribe to any thread that you post in, which is what I do.
These settings can be found in User CP > Edit Options > Messaging & Notification > Default Thread Subscription Mode.
One other thing I occasionally do is search for threads that I’ve posted in. It’s easier and less intrusive than subscribing to threads. Basically I’ll search for threads that Enright3 has posted in, in all open message boards, for the last 6 months. Then I have a nice list of threads to check on. You can even save your default search options.
I started reading the Dope while I was on dial-up as a teen, and we had this thing from the phone company where a notification would popup on the computer if someone was calling us so we could disconnect from the net. My Dad would inevitably talk to my uncle every night for half an hour, so I got used to having at least 10 threads open at a time so I could still read while offline.
This habit expanded to everything online - Google searches, other forums, fanfics, news sites, etc. It drives people up the wall when I Google something, open up everything that looks relevant from the first page of results, and then comb through them. And it drives me nuts when people click on the first result, don’t find what they want, hit the back button and repeat the process several times.
I read threads on the Dope a lot like kushiel does - tabbed browsing is my friend. I usually pick GQ, CS, IMHO, or MPSIMS and just open all the threads that catch my eye. If I have loads of time, I’ll hit each forum in turn; otherwise I’ll just pick another one next time I’m on.
I have a cronjob scheduled 4 times per day that executes a complex Google search query of the SDMB. A text-only version of each matching thread is sent to my Xerox to be automatically printed, collated, and stapled. My mother collects all the print outs and reads them out loud to me, one at a time, including her own dramatic impressions what each of you would sound like in person (her version of Bricker is so animated and comical, I often ask her to repeat his posts two or three times). I dictate at least one response to every thread, but usually two or three, then stare off into space for a minute or so and then, more often than not, tell her, “Nah, nevermind - that was stupid,” and fall asleep snuggling my favourite lamp. Every Tuesday I spend the day taking my bath while the Xerox receives maintenance, and the results of the scheduled search is redirected to my tomato garden.
This. And then I open each interesting-looking thread in a background window, not reading it at that time, just opening it. Go on to next page of unread posts and so on until I’m at the end of the many pages of unread posts (this is the SDMB, it doesn’t take long to accumulate 16 pages’ worth of unread post threads).
THEN I close the “New Posts” window and begin reading.
I open all the major fora of interest to me (GQ, GD, CS, IMHO, MPSIMS, Pit) in separate windows, then I go to each of those windows in turn and, open (in tabs) new posts of all topics which interest me in the forum which have had new posts - then I close the major forum tab and move to the next window. When done with all, I begin reading.
I’m kinda addicted lately, so I browse the dope a lot. First step is User CP and check all the threads I’m subscribed to. I don’t get e-mail updates 99.9% of the time.
Next, I read the forums from bottom to top, skipping GD, and the two ‘comment on’ forums. I open all the threads I’m interested in a new tap and once I’ve got like 10-15 tabs, I’ll go through them, read, and reply. Once I’ve checked all the forums, I’ll go to User CP again. I’ll refresh this over the next few hours, and then go through and read all the forums again. Rinse and repeat 2x a day or so.
I stick with mostly human interest type subjects. I hardly ever brave GD (only geniuses dare tread there :D). So it’s usually the Pit, though it’s been pretty much overrun with political threads lately and I also only rarely brave those. Trying to gain any ground there is like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.
So it’s mostly IMHO, MPSIMS, and occasionally Cafe Society.
I also do the “X typical post will appear in this many posts” guesswork for threads like the profanity thread. I love running across the impromptu “silliness” thread. (A thread that was originally posted with the intent to be a dreadful pit (for instance) but either the OP, or the subject has so little “bite” that people just end up making silly puns and goofing off).
There are some very clever, long running, sequential posts in some of these threads, and I always end up thinking DANG, you guys are so quick!
Heee… Okay you got me, I don’t go there often enough to be sure. But from the little I’ve seen, they appeared to at least be well-prepared with a multitude of cites.
