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