A question about Sidebars and Keywords: How do you use FR?

one man's opinion....

[ken5050]

First of all, before anyone gets upset, this thread is not a complaint, not a critique. FR works fine for me. I'm a happy camper. But I am curious as to how others navigate around the site, and what, if any tweaks might be worth considering; and maybe provide some food for thought for the folks in charge.

[ken5050]

When I go to FR, I first click on MAIL ( if I have any), then my PINGS, then I go to the FORUM ( my default is "Everything")and start scrolling down. Occasionally I'll click on COMMENTS to see if there's a thread with lots of activity...it's usually worth taking a looksee.

I can't recall the last time I looked at the Sidebars, and I have yet to click on a KEYWORD, nor any of the HOME/ABOUT words at the top of the homepage.

So first of all, I'm curious how others approach it..maybe I'm missing something that would let me enjoy FR more.

One last thought. What led me to ponder this was early this morning, scrolling down through a thread, towards the end, I came across an extended comment that was absolutely stunning...brilliant in its observations..

I replied to the poster, and then thought it a shame that more Freepers wouldn't be able to read it. I could BTTT, with a comment that it's a must read, or ping a few FRiends to the thread..telling them to read post #xxx, or ask someone who runs a ping list to ping that list to that particular reply..

That's about the options available now. And then I thought..wouldn't it be neat if there was a sidebar where we could tag really good comments?

I guess it could be abused easily..but the mods can delete the bad ones by checking it often, or the ABUSE button would get lots of hits..

As I said at the beginning, I'm not complaining in any way, shape, or form..but am curious as to how others use FR..

[ETL]

I came across an extended comment that was absolutely stunning...brilliant in its observations..

Why thank you (blushing). But I don't recall receiving a response from you. :)

[ETL]

I was just joking.

[jwsea55]

I came across an extended comment that was absolutely stunning...brilliant in its observations..

<< Why thank you (blushing). But I don't recall receiving a response from you. :) >>

ETL, I think he was referring to my post. :-))

[Yosemitest]

There's no need to check mail.
If your pings are turned on, you'll get a notice in red font, at the top of the "Latest Post, Comments" telling you that you have mail, or new comments (to you).
The Sidebar is a good place to read new articles, BEFORE they become "popular".
If you see an article you think deserves the Sidebar, you can add it to the sidebar, if you notice what subject it's posted under and add a "highlight" key word to "ADD TOPICS".
Have fun.

[DannyTN]

Side bars are where you have drunken conversations with real people to get ridiculous ideas to post on FR.

There's only a few really important keywords:

• Conservative ...describes your opinion.
• Liberal ...Describes any other opinion that doesn't match yours.
• Hugh ...something's big.
• Series ...Something's important.

[CedarDave]

I have a bunch of topics and keywords in my side bar:

These topics: Breaking news, front page news, extended news, editorial, New Mexico news.

Keywords: Palin, Romney, Ryan, globalwarming, climatechange

For any of these the way to get them in the side bar is to click on the topic or keyword and scroll down to the bottom. Click on “Add to my Page” and a screen “My Page Layout” comes up.

You can choose to put the topic or keyword in any location or order (”weight”) you want. You can also control the color and size (number of threads) you want to show. For example for myself, Breaking News has 10 thread titles shown, Front page 15, and New Mexico 5. When done, click “Modify” and your new arrangement shows up. It’s a brilliant way to keep track of the topics you want to follow. But it relies on the thread poster or subsequent readers to put in relevant topics or keywords. Otherwise a reader would have to use the “search” function to locate an article.

[Hardraade]

Actually, FR is hands down the best forum design around. The only thing I would wish for is in-house hosting, but that’s a separate thing.

It may not be the easiest to admin, but for the users none of the commercial stuff comes close.

[Cboldt]

I use a text-only browser (lynx) and like you, set my reading preferences to "All." I have the home page refresh on new comments rather than new threads, so I miss the "quiet" threads - at least the ones that are quiet when I'm browsing.

That arrangement tends to focus on whatever are hot topics of discussion at the moment.

[ETL]

I can't recall the last time I looked at the Sidebars

Why wouldn't you look at sidebars such as "Breaking News" or "Front Page"? In any case, you can select and organize the sidebars you want. See "Configure Sidebar" at the bottom of the sidebar section.

[justlurking]

There are some things that I wish I could do at FR, that are supported by other forum software:

• Auto quote a posting in a reply.
• Notify me (by email) if someone replies to one of my postings.
• Notify me (by email) if someone sends me mail.
• Embed a video.

I like the category subscription model, especially the sidebars.

[Gil4]

I just have the All Articles link as my home page (http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index). If I have pings or mail, they will show up in red at the top and I will check them. If not, I just scroll through and look for something interesting. I can read the first 4 lines of 50 articles in a short time (and scroll to another 50 if I chose to.)

If I want to search for something specific I will check the keywords at the top, but usually end up chosing my own search terms.

I glance at the sidebar listings but usually see the articles listed by my usual method.

I rarely go to speciic forums.

[aimhigh]

I use the list at top to get to Banglist. I never look at the sidebar listings. I’d like to see a single banner ad at the top to support FR. Limit the advertising for firearm companies such as Ruger.