Forum surfing habits

[Rafiki]

I'm curious and wondering, how do people use/access these forums? Have you bookmarked your favorite subforums and browse directly to them? Or do you take a more general approach?

To answer my own question, it depends on how long it has been since I last visited the forums.

• If it hasn't been too long (i.e. less than a day), I usually head straight for the "new posts" -button, then go through all threads, except the ones that have thread titles in French or Spanish, since my understanding of those languages is, uhm, "sub-par". (If I'd been less lazy, I'd check the forum "address" too for this, but I tend not to). I don't read everything in detail, though; e.g. some things get a bit technical into fields I don't have much insight.
  
• If longer time has passed, I start at the User CP, and with the threads I'm subscribed too, since I reckon those threads are at least as likely to have something of interest to me as any other (given that in almost all cases, I've already posted in them). Time allowing, I then take a quick look over "new posts".

Good thing about this approach is that I think I catch most of the posts that are of interest to me (provided they are in English ), bad thing is when I reply to a post thinking it's about AACW, when in fact it is about Great Invasions and my answer makes absolutely no sense in the context of the thread I might also be spending a not insignificant time at the forums

[Henry D.]

...

• If it hasn't been too long (i.e. less than a day), I usually head straight for the "new posts" -button, then go through all threads, except the ones that have thread titles in French or Spanish, since my understanding of those languages is, uhm, "sub-par". (If I'd been less lazy, I'd check the forum "address" too for this, but I tend not to). I don't read everything in detail, though; e.g. some things get a bit technical into fields I don't have much insight.
• If longer time has passed, I start at the User CP, and with the threads I'm subscribed too, since I reckon those threads are at least as likely to have something of interest to me as any other (given that in almost all cases, I've already posted in them). Time allowing, I then take a quick look over "new posts".

Good thing about this approach is that I think I catch most of the posts that are of interest to me (provided they are in English ), bad thing is when I reply to a post thinking it's about AACW, when in fact it is about Great Invasions and my answer makes absolutely no sense in the context of the thread I might also be spending a not insignificant time at the forums

That is about the way I read the forums, too...

I'm old and, according to my wife, at times quite senile , but until now I have not mixed up games by this approach.

Though, back in the days of BoA, I once wrote a heartfelt defence of AI aggressiveness in the War of Independence scenarios, not realizing that the OP was complaining solely about AI in the French&Indian Wars. Thank God for edit-windows...

[arsan]

"New posts" button????
What a neat feature! It will make easyer surfing the forums fom now on!!
´Till now, i just entered on any subforums of interest one by one and looked for the posts with bold letters... Nothing very sophisticated

Cheers!

[Generalisimo]

Your option 2 always.
When i finished checking all the subscribed threads... i get into the subforums that i am interested to see the new threads titles to see if there is something interesting.

[Duc_d_Heilsberg]

I used to do as Rafiki says.

When I often access to the forum, generally, I use the "new posts" menu option on the AACW forum.

[RELee]

I'm just too new to have a system here. So, I kinda approach these forums the way I approach shopping at Wal-mart. Picture me strolling along, very slowly and very casually, with my hands behind my back as to take my time to inspect the proceedings around me.

[PBBoeye]

I go to my fav forum - AACW - as I have it set as a bookmark. I then look at the time of the last posts. I'd like to use the 'New Posts' but....

I think the icons for [color="Blue"]new posts[/color] or [color="Red"]no new posts[/color] are ridiculously similar, so my eye doesn't naturally use them. Differentiate them more and I bet people would appreciate that. Color code, especially.

Colors. Me like colors.

[Rafiki]

I see which threads that have new posts by the corporals' chevron (for lack of better description) appearing in front of the thread title:

Clicking it brings me to the first new post of that thread, i.e. the first one to be posted since my previous visit to the forums.

Threads with no new posts don't have that icon in front of the thread title, making it easy to see which threads have had any activity since last time.

[GShock]

Regularly surfing -> new posts button. Definitely allows you to select the threads you're interested in very easily