How do you use these forums?

Just interested to hear about people's habits.
Mine is like this:

1. I log onto LQ and click 'Subscribed Threads'
2. I open each thread that has new posts in a new tab
3. I go through them one by one and answer where necessary
4. I then click on 'View New posts'
5. That's the hardest part, using a combination of thread title, answers received and hovering the mouse to get a quick summary, i try to make a decision what is of interest to me or where i could help and open that in a new tab
6. usually until i get to the bold marker "The following threads have not been updated since your last visit but..."
7. i go through the open tabs and answer/subscribe where necessary/interested

How do you do it?

Pretty much the same, except I've an additional step before "View New Posts", I'll go for "Zero Replies" and see if there's anything I can help out with.

I depend on emails to alert me when threads I subscribe to are updated. After logging on, I check zero-reply threads and then latest posts. I repeat that periodically through the day.

Hi ondoho,

I've asked the mod for the Non-Nix General forum to move this thread to the Suggestions and Feedback forum. They may or may not, I just felt it might be more appropriate in that forum.

As far as what you describe:

1. First and foremost, my opinion is that you do an excellent job! As do your peers who have already replied.
2. Similar to your flow, eventually I concentrated on certain forums because I noticed that if I looked at Zero reply posts, you can miss ones which were removed from that list before you got to it, and also I found that I didn't always note the forum such as SlackWare or Gentoo or something and started answering, to find that the uniqueness of some different distributions caused me to be off base with my answers. For instance some distros you are always root, so my advising that someone do a mount command using sudo was ineffective
3. I therefore go to the forums where my expertise seems to be best, and "spot visit" forums where I feel there may be an occasional question I can contribute towards
4. I use many, many tabs
5. I have learned (not always!) to check the original question and see if it was a very old question that was Necro
6. I look at the time of sign-up for LQ for the OP, sometimes research what they have been doing with posts, especially if a post seems very off, or if they're very new and I suspect they may have repeats
7. And I review what has been going on in the thread.
8. Sometimes I back off even though I feel I can contribute, mainly because others have covered what I would say, but I subscribe to stay aware of the thread.
9. I don't hover over a thread title, I use tabs to open ALL of the bad thread titles and judge them accordingly
10. I pretty much do your #7 with the addition that I subscribe to the thread even if I don't answer it
11. I try to remember Jeremy's stated rule about moderator actions, "Think first what action you take and evaluate whether or not it is in the best interests of LQ and whether or not it will enhance the LQ experience" I think that recommendation applies to everyone.

And I proofread my posts, still make mistakes, and go back to fix them. I also try to remove or avoid all unclear statements, colloquialisms, slang, profanity, or overly casual language. I've seen too many threads go potentially astray because of misunderstandings. Similar to this, I used to have a signature which had a movie quote, but also had all my links and a recommendation for people to mark their thread as solved. In welcoming a new user or two, they actually got confused and asked how they would mark an introductory thread as solved. Given the change to the intro forum, that's not an issue, but I have removed my signature to avoid any confusion. Just my personal choice.

I also use multiple tabs to sometimes answer a question, such as finding links to similar threads, or to the rules, question guidelines, as well as obtain quotes from within the thread if I hadn't thought to start with that first.

I don't use the subscribe feature.

Firstly, I search "My posts" to see if anything needs adding.
Secondly, I work my way though the top-level Linux forums, looking only at those where I might know what I'm taking about (e.g. not servers or security) and checking the headings of the new posts.

Lastly I wind up in General - General, despite the guilty feeling …

Open all in tabs > start weeping, I mean reading

Desktop
General 1
Networking
Newbies
Programming
Security
Server
Software
Virtualization. # add to dictionary, really Firefox?

Wait, are you my Boss?
Crank call. Crank call!

Lastly, I look for new blogs at bottom of page at https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/

I go first to "Zero Replies" (hoping to find a question so simple that I might be able to answer it), then I check out "Newbie," "Software," "Desktop," "Slackware," and the two "Generals" (Patton and Grant). I then look at "Latest Posts" and "Subscribed Threads."

Often, when I view "Subscribed Threads," I don't find anything to add to what I've already said, because I have this thing about not saying the same thing all over again once more redundantly.

1> What are you listening to now > I like getting new ideas for shop music.

2> Jokes/Quotes > I like getting a grin on for the day. Because when I am down. Being a a biker. It is one down and the rest is up.

3> New threads > I might answer one or two.

4> Blogs > I like seeing what Exton is up to. Plus I find gems of code from time to time there.

5> Android section > I might learn something, Sometimes I answer something.

6> Jeremys stuff > Kinda sorta my news feed.

7> 4M linux distro section of forum > kinda fun running small installations. Seeing what that developer is up to.

8> any off the wall stuff that catches my interest. Even LX'er news feeds.

thanks all, nice to see different workflows!

===

Originally Posted by rtmistler And I review what has been going on in the thread.

very important. sadly, i quite often come across threads where even experienced members didn't bother to scroll back to read what has happened so far.

Sometimes I back off even though I feel I can contribute, mainly because others have covered what I would say, but I subscribe to stay aware of the thread. I pretty much do your #7 with the addition that I subscribe to the thread even if I don't answer it

these 2 usually go together; or: let's wait til op comes back with that lspci output. i love that feature of LQ, being able to subscribe without posting.

Originally Posted by Habitual Lastly, I look for new blogs at bottom of page at https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/

i have to remember that.

Originally Posted by frankbell Often, when I view "Subscribed Threads," I don't find anything to add to what I've already said, because I have this thing about not saying the same thing all over again once more redundantly.

this is a real problem here on LQ; quite often there's such a flood of helpful answers, by the time op comes back to check them, they cannot find the one that actually provides the solution.

Originally Posted by rokytnji 4> Blogs > I like seeing what Exton is up to. Plus I find gems of code from time to time there.

That person is very prolific! It's like an Encyclopedia of install articles.