Does anyone view this forum by first selecting a 'topic'?

When I first found the forum (quite a few years ago...) I used the "topic" but mainly to catch up on topics of interest at the time - chiefly building CNC machines.

Since then I've been keeping half an eye on "latest posts" and never now search by subject. Would be nice as said above to have a longer list of latest posts, and the ability to upolad other file types, and a decent text editor, and a standard spell checker, and...., but hey ho.

I read first the ones I find of interest.

H

Ian P... I was confused by your comment initially but now I see that you are actually referring to the "Latest Posts" page. I was actually referring to the abbreviated list in small window on the right hand side of the main page that's entitled "Latest Forum Posts". I suppose I should set the proper "Latest Post" page as my favourite.

Gerry

Martin,John, if you click "More latest posts" you get a very long list, currently 740 pages @ about 40 posts per page.

Hi Jason, thanks for that , I was aware of it and I do search the forum for particular topics too. However I still think that the list could do with being extended a little. Not a big issue just an observation, I know sometimes requests for help get 'bumped' by kind moderators when they get noticed which is good. Very 'slow threads' need to disappear but there is at least twice as much activity as there was and I don't think the list is long enough, so when or if the next revamp happens it may be something to keep in mind.

regards Martin

I suppose its a balance between what the members want and how far up the page the advertising comes.

Just had a look at a couple of other similar forums and both MEM and HMEM have 10 posts in the latest posts box which is the same as here, Smokstak has 5 and the other couple don't have a latest posts list on the home or main user page.

Aren't multiple topic categories needed to constrain the responses to those that are on-topic for that category/thread?

If you get rid of the topic categories it just becomes one big "Tea Room" and although it's already treated that way by the few, the majority are more reasonable.

You can just click on Next or page 2 of the list!.

The behaviour of the latest posts list on the right of the home page is different to that of the detailed latest posts list following the "more latest posts" link. When I click on the links to the right I am taken to the last page of the thread (the one with the latest post), which is much more convenient than when I use the detailed latest post list which always links to page one of the selected thread. In the case of "My new lathe a Warco 918" this is seven pages from the latest post. A slight inconvenience on a PC, but a real nuisance on a mobile phone.

Getting back on topic, I can honestly say I have never gone to a topic and looked through the threads, instead using latest posts when I want to see what is happening, and the search facility when I want to find something out.

Brian G

Brian, the reason you are taken to the first page is because you have that set as were you want to go. If you click "settings" on the green bar at the top of the page and then on the page that comes up click "my account" you will see the first thing is how you want a thread to open.

You do need to be logged in for this to work

Edited By JasonB on 13/06/2020 20:18:11

Thanks for that, Jason, a handy tip I was not aware of.

Rob

edit - Oh, and I rarely look for things by Topic

Edited By Grindstone Cowboy on 13/06/2020 20:25:04

Brian G said,

"Getting back on topic, I can honestly say I have never gone to a topic and looked through the threads, instead using latest posts when I want to see what is happening, and the search facility when I want to find something out."

I'm exactly the same and only ever use 'topics' when I start a new thread.

I dont know if the following behavior is normal or whether its a setting or cookie on my PC,

If I view a thread that is still on the latests posts page but has garnered a lot more replies and maybe moved on to another page, I get taken to the end (or last page) of that thread rather than to the first unread reply. I seem to remember this forum used to take me to the point in a thread where I had read upto. I cleared the brower cache and cookies but that has not made any difference. Does the forum know what I have or have not read?

Ian P

Thanks Jason, settings changed.

Brian G

I'm another who uses mainly Latest Posts, but this is a broad enough field to have people in it who confine their interests to subsets of the whole. Why shouldn't they have the capability to filter by topic if they want, providing posters are disciplined enough to categorise properly?

It's never done that as far as I'm aware, some will do it such as HMEM.