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Joined: Nov 2000
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stales Offline OP
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I am determined to maximise my daily AWAD experience whilst minimising the amount of my Post Edit: working day doing so. As we all know, the board can be slow and addictive and I'll bet most of us aren't the world's greatest typists. All of these add to the time we spend on line.

I've noted a recurring relationship between the 'View' and 'Reply' frequencies of each post in all of the forums that has helped me optimise my daily exposure.....

It seems that if the 'Replies' are more than 10% of the 'Views' then there's a good chance that the topic has wide appeal and has attracted replies not only from a good many people, but also a diversity of posters (not just one or two going back and forth - though this does happen). As a bit of a generalist, I find that these posts are the ones that I tend to be most interested in and contribute to.

On the other hand, where the number of replies is significantly less than 10%, the subject matter often requires specialist knowledge - in linguistics, literature, science etc (and cooking). It seems that many members avoid replying to these posts but are still happy to view what their learned colleagues have to say on the matter - perhaps being of a mindset that all information is good information.

Anyway, for those of us that shouldn't spend all their work time on the AWAD board, this may be a handy tip. Rather than ignore them completely, you could save the less-than-ten-percenters for a liesurely browse when you get home.

stales


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Well, now, isn't that interesting. Good on yer, mate.


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For me, it's a sad state of affairs to open up WAD and to find that only one or two new posts are there...

But when it opens to 8, 9, and 10 new posts, oh, happy day! I read everything; comprehension, however, is another matter...

Best regards,
WW


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Good index, stales; thank you for posting your ideas. I don't have time to read everything, much less to post as much as I'd like, so I'm gonna try your method. I agree with you that the greater diversity of posters, the better, though by your index, as you said, we still run the risk of one or two posters monopolizing one (or many, as has been the case lately) thread.

As to your converse, yeah, under 10% is a pretty good index of specialization. Then we check the thread subject, and hope for the best.

Thanks again.



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stales Offline OP
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hmmm

three divided by seventeen, multiplied by one hundred over one equals [tapping on calculator in background]seventeen point six percent!! [/tapping on calculator in background]

hey, wow - it works!!

stales


#48849 11/28/01 07:09 AM
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I know some of y'all have chosen Collapsed Threads for your Default View since this minimizes load time for the initial view of the forum. However (engineering tradeoff) this also deprives you of what may be an important piece of information; who has been posting to a given thread. We all have developed preferences to whose posts we like to read; there may be some whose posts we consider a must read and others who we would not prefer to spend our time on. In Expanded Threads you can tell that a given thread is nothing but a discussion between your two favorite love to hate posters and you can give that thread a pass.


#48851 11/28/01 04:11 PM
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We all have developed preferences to whose posts we like to read;...[if] a given thread is nothing but a discussion between your two favorite love to hate posters...you can give that thread a pass

wouldn't it be terrific if the board had an 'ignore' function and a 'flag' function? we could individually specify those users whose posts we don't have the time/inclination/patience/stomach to read, and conversely we'd have the convenience of a flag indicating a thread which contains input from those we enjoy hearing from.

i'll thank you for noting my considerable restraint in not citing examples


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I can spend all day on the board, so my system consists of looking at every new post. Any other system is bound to miss many of the best posts.


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Expanded Threads doesn't give you an explicit count of replies; you have to count them up your own self.


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