What's Your Method for Entering the Forum?

[Matthew Schenker]

Everyone,
This subject of the various ways people enter and navigate through the forum has come up in various discussions.  I'd like to have one place to collect all the comments and ideas on this subject.  It's important for me to understand what people are thinking on this as I consider forum design ideas for the future.

As many of you might know, my preference is for members to enter through the home page of the forum, and navigate board by board.  I won't hide the fact that I want members to navigate the forum this way!  After all, the structure of the forum, with all the individual boards, is the result of a lot of work and discussion.  But I need to know the reality of how people use the forum.

When I say "Recent Posts Page" I'm referring to this --> click here.
When I say "Home Page" I'm referring to this --> click here.
When I say "UNREAD POSTS since last visit" I'm referring to this --> click here.

Your votes in the poll, and your comments here, can help us take a closer look at this.

Thanks for your input!
Matthew

 

[Daviddubya]

I come into the forum through the Home Page.  I have all of the board groups (Festool Tools in General, Festool Tools in Action, etc) at the top of the Home Page collapsed, almost all of the time.  I scan the Recent Posts list on the Home Page and click on threads I am interested in reading from there.  I pay almost no attention to the categorization or grouping of boards (sorry Matthew), but rather look for topics I want to read.  If I am looking for a specific topic, I use Search.

When you refer to "Exclusively Through the "Recent Posts" Page" in the poll above, I assume you mean "UNREAD POSTS since last visit.  I tried using that feature several times, and found it unrelaible, so I stopped trying.

If there were a way to view recent posts within a board or group of boards, I would use that feature.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Exactly what David said, that is:

I come into the forum through the Home Page.  I have all of the board groups (Festool Tools in General, Festool Tools in Action, etc) at the top of the Home Page collapsed, almost all of the time.  I scan the Recent Posts list on the Home Page and click on threads I am interested in reading from there.  I pay almost no attention to the categorization or grouping of boards (sorry Matthew), but rather look for topics I want to read.  If I am looking for a specific topic, I use Search.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

When you refer to "Exclusively Through the "Recent Posts" Page" in the poll above, I assume you mean "UNREAD POSTS since last visit.  I tried using that feature several times, and found it unrelaible, so I stopped trying.

I probably should have provided links explaining what I mean.  When I say "Recent Posts Page" I'm referring to this --> click here.  A lot of people prefer to enter the forum that way.  (The "unread posts since last visit" function is, as you say, unreliable.)  I just edited my first post to reflect this.

If there were a way to view recent posts within a board or group of boards, I would use that feature.

If I understand you correctly, then yes, there is in fact a way to do this!  When you are on the home page, you will see two different indicators:
New Posts -- [attachimg=1]
No New Posts -- [attachimg=2]

Whenever you see the "New Posts" indicator, that tells you there are new posts in that board.  Click on the indicator and you'll get a listing of all new posts that were made since the last time you were in that board (whether the indicator is on or off).  It's a great system!

Matthew

 

[MarkF]

Matthew,
I use this link:http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?action=unread
Not sure how this fits the poll.

It's been reliable for me.

 

[CharlesWilson]

I come in through the home page. I then right click on each highlighted 'F' in the left hand column and place the results in a new tab. (This will work in Firefox as well as the later versions of IE). I then inspect each open tab to screen which topics I want to investigate further.

After completion, I mark ALL messages as read.

I am not sure how efficient this is, but I have been doing it this way for some time now.

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Same as Dave and Frank, start with home page, scroll down to recent posts.

Frankly, I'm interested in most of the boards, so which board a message is in isn't a big factor for me.  Although I have to confess, lately I think twice about opening something in the 'off topic' board.

 

[ericbuggeln]

I move through the forum much like David and Frank, which sounds like I'm doing something right.  I check this site anytime I log on to my computer, so the recent posts could probably be at the top, but I think the newbies will find it easier to flip through the Topic areas.  I don't want to add to Matt's full time job, but it would be awesome to save threads that you want to use down the line.  I currently just bring pics to a folder on my hard drive.  For example- when my package from Timmy c arrives on Tuesday, I will go directly to Scott W's thread on Sys 5 Dust Deputy and use it to assist me in completing my set up.  Thanks Scott.  The format of the forum is dramatically improved from when I joined around 8 months ago. Thanks to Matt and anyone else responsible, Eric

 

[dltflt]

I have always entered through the home page.  I have been using the UNREAD POST / NEW REPLIES but I won't be doing that anymore.  I noticed a few times when I went into a specific group I saw post I never seen before, I thought I had overlooked them first time around.  I guess it was the program.

 

[mhch]

Like some others, I enter the home page and click the "unread posts since last visit".

I also noticed threads I did not read that were not showed in there,
Sometimes, this unread post page is empty, but there are visible unread posts when
I look at the end of the home page. At other times, the non-read appears. I could
never figure out the reason.  May be that's a bug of the timestamping part
of the software, combined with the local time management feature ?

 

[Allen Akin]

I always enter through the Home Page, but then nearly always use the "UNREAD POSTS" link followed by "Click here to try all unread topics."

This works reliably enough for me.  The only glitch I see with any frequency is that if there are multiple pages of threads with new posts, moving to the second page sometimes re-lists everything on the first page that I didn't read.  No big deal, though.

Allen

 

[Daviddubya]

I probably should have provided links explaining what I mean.  When I say "Recent Posts Page" I'm referring to this --> click here.  A lot of people prefer to enter the forum that way.  (The "unread posts since last visit" function is, as you say, unreliable.)  I just edited my first post to reflect this.
...Matthew

Matthew - Thanks for the clarification on the Recent Posts Page.  Other than the link you provided, I have no idea how to get to that page.  But, that's OK, because I would not use it.  I like the format of the Recent posts on the Home Page - one line per post.

 

[semenza]

Hi,

  I did not vote because the way I use the forum is not one of the choices.  I use Unread Posts Since Last Visit located in the upper right of the forum banner. I have fund that it is very reliable. Not saying that anyone is necessarily wrong but- it may seem unreliable because it truly only brings up  Unread Posts SINCE LAST VISIT. If you come into the forum click it, read some posts, then go away. Come back later and click it again, you will not see the Unread Posts that you did not read earlier (different visit). You will only see posts that are new in between those two visits.  I actually prefer clicking ALL UNREAD POSTS. But it is not available on the home page. That one truly gets everything that you have not read.
    I don't navigate through the individual boards because I prefer going straight to a list of all the topics that have something new. I can  just scan through the topic list with out  going from board to board. 
    Many people are using different methods. Wether for preference, efficiency or just because  it works for them.  I think having the options for everyone to use it the way they like to is great!

Seth

 

[iggy07]

Same as Semenza --

I often don't like polls because they seem to ask the 'wrong questions'.

I enter 100% of the time through "Unread Posts Since Last Visit'. It seems perfectly reliable to me. Granted, I will miss things if I choose not to read them when they appear here, because the next time I log on they will not appear in the list. But that is my choice. I suspect that others' interpretation of it being 'unreliable' may be due to their not understanding how it works. I'm not saying that to be critical -- if it doesn't work for them, given their personal preferences or browsing strategy -- then it doesn't work. No problem with that, but it fits my style of browsing.

What puzzles me a little is that this IS one of the options that are available to us, and from some of the above replies, quite a few people use this as their portal to FOG, and yet this option was not even included in the poll.

So:

• (i) how do we respond to the poll, other than writing a full message (which is not tabulated)
• (ii) how useful are the poll results if they leave out a significant constituency?

iggy

 

[poto]

Same as Iggy and Seth. I always clikc first on "New replies to your posts" and then on "Unread posts since last visit". When I'm done there, I may go to the home page to find info on particular topics.

Since those were not options in the poll, I think I voted wrong. Turns out, I had never actually seen the "Recent posts" page...

Poto

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Same as Semenza --

I often don't like polls because they seem to ask the 'wrong questions'.

I enter 100% of the time through "Unread Posts Since Last Visit'. It seems perfectly reliable to me. Granted, I will miss things if I choose not to read them when they appear here, because the next time I log on they will not appear in the list. But that is my choice. I suspect that others' interpretation of it being 'unreliable' may be due to their not understanding how it works. I'm not saying that to be critical -- if it doesn't work for them, given their personal preferences or browsing strategy -- then it doesn't work. No problem with that, but it fits my style of browsing.

What puzzles me a little is that this IS one of the options that are available to us, and from some of the above replies, quite a few people use this as their portal to FOG, and yet this option was not even included in the poll.

So:

• (i) how do we respond to the poll, other than writing a full message (which is not tabulated)
• (ii) how useful are the poll results if they leave out a significant constituency?

iggy

It's not that the poll is "leaving out a signifiant constituency."  I'm working on a couple of forum details specifically having to do with using the home page or the "recent posts" function as your entry point.  In other words, this was not just a fun idea I had.  I need the information for technical reasons.

But now that you mention it, when you say you enter through the "Unread Posts Since Last Visit" are you saying you have that page bookmarked?

Just a heads up, the "Unread Posts Since Last Visit" is likely to be gone in the next version of SMF.  The coders have not been able, for whatever reason, to work out the unreliability of that feature.

Matthew

 

[semenza]

Hi,

  What I have been doing is bookmarking the Home Page and clicking Unread Since Last Visit on that page. But what I am going to switch to is  Bookmarking the All Unread Topics page and just refresh it when I come online.  Then check in on occasion at the Home Page  in case something is going on there.
    Now if I wasn't on the FOG about three or four seperate times per day I would probably want to see the Home Page more often.  But I am on so frequently  that I just perfer to get right to what I want  which is everything that I have not read yet.  As I said before though , having all of the ways available so people can tailor it to there own use preferences is a good thing.
 
Seth

 

[Matthew Schenker]

... But what I am going to switch to is  Bookmarking the All Unread Topics page and just refresh it when I come online.  Then check in on occasion at the Home Page  in case something is going on there.

... I just perfer to get right to what I want  which is everything that I have not read yet.

Therein lies the trouble!!  There is no such function "All Unread Topics"!  The only way to achieve what you describe is to go to the home page! 

This was not the original intent of this discussion, but I think it is important to explain these functions correctly.  The function you are talking about is "UNREAD POSTS since last visit."  The key words are "since last visit."  Let's say you sign into the forum at 8:00 AM and there are 100 new messages, and let's assume that thet are all displayed.  Let's say you only have time to read 20 of them, then sign off, then come back at 11:00 AM.  Well, the 80 posts you hadn't read from earlier in the day no longer appear.  (Even worse, for some reason, they will appear sometimes, but not other times.)  There has been feverish discussion about this in various SMF technical boards.  I strongly advise against using this as your entry point to the forum!!

For different reasons, people who use the "Recent Posts" page as their entry point also could end up inadvertently skipping new posts.  The "Recent Posts" function is only designed to keep track of 25 posts (I've tweaked the code to get it to 100).  But we often have over 200 posts a day, so anyone who misses a relatively short space of time, and who uses the "Recent Posts" as the exclusive entry point, is going to miss lots of new posts.

The only reliable way to make sure you see all new forum activity is to go to...you guessed it -- THE FORUM!  From the home page, you can navigate from one board to the next, looking for illuminated "F" icons.  Using that method, all posts you have not read are marked as "new" until you read them or until you click the "Mark ALL messages as read" button.

My reason for starting this poll is because I need to know who is using which method, so I can contribute to some of the active technical discussions in the SMF sites.  We're trying to track the way people use these functions, so we can perhaps expand the ways people use the software.  It's a long shot, but the only chance we have.

Matthew

 

[mhch]

Well, I think I prefer using the "UNREAD post since last visit" approach,  bookmarked (Thanks Seth
for pointing this trick out) to even avoid going thru the home page. Then I stay connected long enough
to read all messages I'm interested in, possibly doing other things in between, but not leaving the forum,
so unread messages stay marked as such. Then I mark ALL unread when I'm finished with the ones I really want to read.

I doubt that going through all the boards is a good way to go. We are all too busy for it.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Well, I think I prefer using the "UNREAD post since last visit" approach,  bookmarked (Thanks Seth
for pointing this trick out) to even avoid going thru the home page. Then I stay connected long enough
to read all messages I'm interested in, possibly doing other things in between, but not leaving the forum,
so unread messages stay marked as such. Then I mark ALL unread when I'm finished with the ones I really want to read.

I doubt that going through all the boards is a good way to go. We are all too busy for it.

Well, I've made my pitch!

Staying signed into the forum actually will prevent you from seeing new posts through the "UNREAD POSTS" function.  No matter how you use it, you are likely to miss a lot of forum activity relying on the "UNREAD POSTS" function.

Anyway, it might be a moot point: the "UNREAD POSTS since last visit" function will be gone in the new version of SMF.

It's so funny how things evolve.  My original intent was to discuss two other functions!  That's OK with me, since it's all important.

I have edited the poll to reflect this discussion.  Everyone please vote again!

Matthew