How to use the forums to find what you want...
I find I must shorten this... if you want the full scoop, mail me...
I offer here, TWO tips to using the forums effectively and efficiently to find the information you seek... this is necessary because there is so much information here that it is difficult to find the information you are looking for, or will find useful... you cannot find the good stuff because of all of the 'garbage'...
#1 learn to use the Search button, on the toolbar at the top of the page, to enter a 'carefully chosen two or three term search'... and that is both a skill and an art... I will have more to say about how to do this soon... For now, know that the more terms you enter, and the more precise, the more exact your results will be, but you may get no, or few results... the fewer, and the 'commoner' your search terms, the more results, but the less useful they will be... it is trial and error... try a few times to find more or less 'search terms' [words] that describe the information you seek, and you will probably get better results... like i just said, it is both a skill and an art, and BOTH can be learned...
#2 MOST of what is posted on the forums daily (hundreds if not thousands of messages) is distracting more than anything else... REMOVE THE CLUTTER... You do that by doing 2 (count em, 2) Things... first, click on the Quick Links button on the toolbar at the top of the page... then select the second option, to Mark Forums Read... this 'sinks' all of the old messages you MAY NOT care about, so that they will not distract you... I just said you MAY NOT care about it, but if you do, they are not LOST, you will find them by clicking on the New Posts button, again on the toolbar at the top of the page... If there are no 'new posts', it will present you the option of seeing all posts within the past 24 hours, which are the most pertinent anyway...
You can perform the steps of #2 ( 'Quick Links'... 'Mark Forums Read' ) and ( 'New Posts' ) without concern of missing good information for these reasons... IF the good information you seek is buried 6 months in the past, you will find it by a 'carefully chosen two or three term search', or someone will end up pointing you toward it... It is much more likely that the information you are seeking is current and topical, and so will be found in recent posts rather than older ones... If a buried and forgotten bit of information is found and deemed to be important, then (New Posts) will bring that to the surface for your attention...
These two tips will get rid of 90% or more of the 'garbage' so that you can focus on the posts which contain the info you seek...
no charge...
