Optimize the CD experience

[Foster]

During the last year I have become mindfull on the hours spent in CD, and I'd like to greatly reduce that number.

I'd like to know how you "read" CD. What options do you set, what threads do you look at, what ones do you skip? Forum management? Is everyone but dlavery and JaneYoung on your ignore list? Tell us your secrets to wading through the deluge of posts to find the important messages to read!

Thanks!

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Foster

During the last year I have become mindfull on the hours spent in CD, and I'd like to greatly reduce that number.

I'd like to know how you "read" CD. What options do you set, what threads do you look at, what ones do you skip? Forum management? Is everyone but dlavery and JaneYoung on your ignore list? Tell us your secrets to wading through the deluge of posts to find the important messages to read!

Thanks!

Thread Titles. If the title looks interesting to me I hover over it and read the first couple sentences. If the title is "WE NED HLP!!!!!!1" I ignore it.

As far as going through threads quickly, I just skim the posts for relevant points. If I see an interesting point I read the rest of the post. Obviously there are a handful of people who, over several years, have demonstrated that I should just read their posts before skimming them. Sadly the converse is also true, some people are on my mental ignore list. I only use the real ignore list when someone just grates on my nerves too much. I also clear off the ignore list once every couple months.

And, just for the record, dlavery is on my mental ignore list from September until January if the thread involves the word "hint" at all.

[rtfgnow]

I will view most of the threads when they first appear, after some things get too long for the subject (IMO) or there are too many posts repeating the same thing I will stop reading them.

I try to read all posts in some of the better threads. IMO a lot of the people on CD could learn to be more concise in their posts.

I only have two people on my ignore list. It's not that they are bad people or have rubbed me the wrong way. They just have avatars that flash rapidly and get distracting. I wasn't able to read other posts because of them.

[Jon Stratis]

Two methods: First, browse thread titles on the right of the portal page. It gives a nice summary of what the community is currently discussing across the entire site, and allows me to dive in deep on topics that interest me (note: you can hold your mouse over the topics and the text of the first post will pop up). Second, dive into specific forums that could contain useful information for my role on the team as the electrical/programming mentor and browse recently updated post titles there. For these forums, I utilize the "Mark these forums as read" button to help indicate posts/threads i've already considered and either read or dismissed.

[EricH]

I look at the thread title and forum. Fantasy FIRST gets a lot of attention, as does Rules/Strategy. General Forum depends on the thread title; a lot of stuff goes in there that should be elsewhere.

If someone else has already answered a question and I don't think I have anything else to add, I go on to another thread.

I'll follow threads that are interesting until either there is too much stuff or until they die. Game hint threads get sporadic attention at best.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Foster

I'd like to know how you "read" CD. What options do you set, what threads do you look at, what ones do you skip? Forum management? Tell us your secrets to wading through the deluge of posts to find the important messages to read!

Does anyone know if there is a way to mark certain specific threads like "Word Association" and "Ban the person above you" so that when I click on "New Posts" I don't see them ?

[Foster]

To some extent you can block the forums they are in.

Click on user cp (orange bar) and then on Recent Posts Configuration (left side nav bar)

Then uncheck things like: Games/Trivia where those threads normally end up.

[DonRotolo]

I'm going to answer this one without reading previous posts.

I check in to CD almost every night. I first check the User CP, to see if any of my subscribed threads (the number varies from zero to 4 or so) have responses, and if I got any new feedback.

Next step is to check "new posts", and I scan the message titles until the "line" that CD puts up (The threads beyond the line have no new posts since your last visit...). These days that's 3 pages of titles, summers it can be less than one. Interesting titles cause me to hover, displaying the first 3-4 lines of the thread. If all that interests me, or I just want to stay updated on a thread I remember, I go in.

Normally, I'm in and out in 10 minutes.

Every once in a while I'll have more time, in which case I'll read more threads (even beyond the 'line'), seek out older (1+ days) threads with 0 replies and throw the OP a bone, or just wander aimfully for some time.

So, in summary: User CP, New Posts, and gone.

[Billfred]

I start with the new posts almost exclusively--to the point that the CD bookmark in my browser's bookmark bar is to that page instead of the portal.

From there I skim. Areas that aren't my expertise (programming, 3D animation, some control system items, etc.) largely get skipped unless the thread title seems relevant or interesting. Most of the game threads (caption contest notwithstanding, of course) get skipped too.

After I get done with that, I check the control panel to see if there've been any reputation changes posted (particularly since some use a neutral rep as a one-line PM), then go onto the portal to check for any new photos or papers that didn't get new threads that fall under the categories of useful, interesting, or future caption contest material. After consuming and disseminating the material as needed (occasionally something is so awesome that I have to blast it on 2815's email list), I'm pretty much done.

[RyanCahoon]

I guess I'm mostly the same as those above, my difference is I use email to notify me of subscribed threads (I have it set to auto-subscribe me to threads I post in, plus I'll subscribe if it seems interesting) and personal messages, which works better for me because I live out of GMail anyway. I then check new threads using RSS, first skimming titles, then reading the first post of any that seem interesting; I then decide whether to open the entire thread based on that. Using this method, there are a fair number of days I won't actually go to chiefdelphi.com.

--Ryan

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Foster

To some extent you can block the forums they are in.

Click on user cp (orange bar) and then on Recent Posts Configuration (left side nav bar)

Then uncheck things like: Games/Trivia where those threads normally end up.

Thanks Foster. But I want to block high-volume individual threads that I have no interest in, without blocking potentially interesting new threads in the same forum.

Does anybody know if it's possible to blacklist particular threads so they are not shown ?

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Ether

Thanks Foster. But I want to block high-volume individual threads that I have no interest in, without blocking potentially interesting new threads in the same forum.

Does anybody know if it's possible to blacklist particular threads so they are not shown ?

It is not possible to opt out of seeing individual threads.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Madison

It is not possible to opt out of seeing individual threads.

Maybe I could talk a mod into putting all the threads I don't want to see into their own separate forum :-)