How to use this like the old fourm

[Jim K.]

I know, I know, I'm just too used to the old ways (hence the love of old Corvettes). I have tried to view the posts with the headder bar to show new thread on top and older as they go down, regardless of who replies and when (like the old display). I just don't like to have to read through the popular questions over and over. I do want to see them all and had a good system for doing it the old way. Any pointers (besides to embrace something new)?
Thanks!!!

[Gary C.]

Re: How to use this like the old fourm

Jim, first check the FAQ's. Alot of other members have their profile viewing options set to "hybrid" mode. Also use the "New Posts" on the main tool bar which will search and sort by posts you've not read yet. Also on the main tool bar is the "Quick Links" menu which you can sort by "Today's Posts". Once you've read a post use your browser's back page arrow to get back to where you were. Hope this helps. Enjoy the new TDB, Gary....

[Chuck S.]

Re: How to use this like the old fourm

I know, I know, I'm just too used to the old ways (hence the love of old Corvettes). I have tried to view the posts with the headder bar to show new thread on top and older as they go down, regardless of who replies and when (like the old display). I just don't like to have to read through the popular questions over and over. I do want to see them all and had a good system for doing it the old way. Any pointers (besides to embrace something new)?...

Any pointers I give here will be in the context of using the "Hybrid" display that Gary mentioned.

(1) Use the year class icons to skip any threads about year classes that don't interest you. (Thank you, Rob! )

(2) Scan down the list of thread titles to determine if the topic is something of interest to you.

(3) If there's not enough info in the title to determine if you may be interested, then pull the cursor over the title...the first few words of the thread will appear in a window allowing you to read the first sentence or so. This feature is a HUGE advantage over the old TDB format which required you to click on some stinkers to find out what they were about.

(4) Note who started the thread, and the last poster's name...We have some really experienced folks here, and you soon get a pretty good idea of who knows wherewith they speaketh. Even though I have little interest in most C1 or C2 threads (highly unlikely I'll ever restore one of them), I often read C1/C2 threads just to find out what certain people have to say about them. Of course, there are other members who are likely to have a good story, or go politically incorrect and start a perfect storm, etc..this technique also works to find such, er, non-technical threads suiting your preferences.

Edit: My thoughts are that the only disadvantage of the "Hybrid" display format is that if you haven't checked in frequently to follow a thread you're interested in, and a lot of new posts have accumulated, you HAVE to follow the post sequence progress using the thread "outline" at the top of the thread page. The listing of post "frames" below the thead outline are in chronological order, and sometimes it's impossible to figure out who's responding to whom from the post frame sequence. I don't think this characteristic is limited to just the "Hybrid" display mode. The listing of posts chronologically below the thread outline saves a lot of clicks (another HUGE improvement over the old TDB), but it also makes it tough to follow the discussion unless you constantly refer to the thread "outline"...on a long thread, this can get to be inconvenient, but I'm not complaining.

[Jim K.]

Re: How to use this like the old fourm

Thanks Gary and Chuck I think I got it by using the bottom left of the screen sorting by thread starter time in decending order... Thanks!!! BTW, where and why did THIS thread move???

[Gary C.]

Re: How to use this like the old fourm

Jim, this thread hasn't moved. Still in the "Help" forum section. On the main Tool Bar you can select "My Posts" and that will search/sort/list all of your posts. The software moves threads downward within their respective section when there are newer threads. Gary....

[Rob M.]

Re: How to use this like the old fourm

It did move. These kind of questions (about the workings of this forum) reside together in the Help! section so they can easily be digested by others to learn from previous questions.

greetings,
Rob.