navagating the forum: help for newcomers

[FiEND]

i've noticed an influx of newcomers and wanted to help those who may be unfamiliar with the platform.

first is the search feature. if you dont see a search bar in the upper right, click the + icon
http://imgur.com/oiTLabD

while the search bar is rather useless a more advanced search is possible! simply click the spyglass icon to the left of the search bar.
http://imgur.com/pAFcawi

the next feature is one i use the most Show unread posts since last visit. this brings up a list of threads that contain new posts. while it seems like a simple list at first, there are icons to help expedite the process. the arrow icon to the far right will bring you to the very last post in the thread. however by clicking the NEW icon just to the right of the topic title you will be brought to the newest post you have not read.
http://imgur.com/o8uHE7d

lastly i'd like to point out the bottom of the home page where stats and the View the most recent posts on the forum link are found. many helpful statistics including the male to female ratio which as of this post is above 27:1!

of course i welcome anyone else to share any helpful hints.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

http://www.special-interests.net/forum/index.php?action=recent

That link, can be found from bottom of opening page somewhere, is one thing that makes it faster to browse forum, if one wants to "keep up", but not really interested to click through all topics. It shows all the recent posts in chronological order. So instead of opening each release announcement, or one-liner comments etc, one can view all pretty neatly from one continous view.

Of course, when finding actual discussion, one may have to click the topic link to be able to follow discussion in correct order. Anyways, that is one way to browse forum quickly.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I'm also curious to know why there was an impressive 1000+ members online around the 20th and 21st of January 2020 - a sudden influx of spam accounts being registered?

I think that might be misleading. It is actually different number that is "registered members" online, and what is just "people viewing forum". Due rather free minded content of forum (and perhaps reputation of the man who pays the bills), it is no surprise that it gets occasional DOS attacks and this registers as "people viewing" even if it is just bots. Normally it is not more than couple hundred at once, I recall.

I am very positively surprised that like forum statistics shows, it is pretty much stable and constant activity since beginning. Number of posted topics, replies, visits, etc remains almost the same as 10 years ago. While pretty much all music forums of the time, are long gone.

Forum belongs to "traditional internet", where you need to consciously go to, and select what you browse. If you write there, you need to actually write. For people who mostly use phones now, and prefer simply get stream of things popping and and contribute merely by posting pic and possibly one-liner... forum is heavily outdated format. For me, it seems vastly more important, though.

It depends what time of year it is, but it has been about 500 members visit at least weekly, many daily, on this forum. Those who are not logged in, don't register as "member visits" so number may be vastly bigger. In context of noise and power electronics, I find that number pretty big. I am fully aware that there is a lot more people globally involved, but also fact remains that most of noise struggles to move 100 units of release, hah... So how to measure what is big amount in noise? How to get people talk on forums, instead of chat applications and such? I doubt one needs to be concerned. Forum has specific advantages and function, and posting on social media or chatting with friends has other.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Forum belongs to "traditional internet", where you need to consciously go to, and select what you browse. If you write there, you need to actually write. For people who mostly use phones now, and prefer simply get stream of things popping and and contribute merely by posting pic and possibly one-liner... forum is heavily outdated format. For me, it seems vastly more important, though.

Yea, I think I read something somewhere to that effect, too. "The kids" aren't using forums like this but the more immediate, instant-gratification type of internet social media outlets.

This thread should be a sticky, or something. I've thought for ages that this forum (and the Troniks forum, previously) should have a list of suggestions such as Harvest makes for newcomers. I seem to remember making that suggestion on the Troniks forum, but it was decided against, although my memory could be playing tricks on me. But Harvest is right, there's been a few new comers who are asking old questions, and that in itself is no great crime (nothing wrong with going over older ideas, especially for newer people), but it might help new comers get the information they're after, quicker.