Optimize the CD experience

[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 :-)