When I look at the posting statistics in this forum, I'm floored by how often some of you post--and with helpful, content-filled responses, too! A lot of what Googlers do on this forum is "silent" (we take back your feedback/suggestions to our teams, investigate problems that you report, etc., and we don't usually post an update every time we do so), so I certainly won't be approaching "top poster" status anytime soon; but it's obvious to me that many of you must have following threads down to a science. Would you mind sharing some of your productivity tips?
How do you keep up with what's going on? Do you use the Google Groups UI? Do you use our RSS feeds to follow threads? How do you decide which threads to read? Do you stop by a couple times a day, or are you constantly following new posts as they come in? I'd love to pick your brains and get some ideas on how to become a more efficient/effective participant during the time I spend here.
I'm a very minor poster here, but I do try to drop by every day when possible.
Sorry to be negative, but the search here sucks - I generally have to view my profile to find threads I posted to. I'm reluctant to start adding feeds to my reader in order to keep up. I wouldn't mind getting an alert when a thread is updated (if I can specify on a thread-by-thread basis only).
In terms of what to read - I check for post count and sometimes the starring to decide whether to read particular threads. Also look at the last poster - some folk are very worthy of a read.
Ignore virtually all threads about pagerank going from 4 to 3 'I'm worried about my pagerank'. Might be interesting to see if there is any correlation between thread title and responses given. Not sure if JohnMu looked at this previously.
Rgds Richard
PS - I'm sure you wont remember the issue I got in touch with about previously, but I followed up during the week [#176342323]
> When I look at the posting statistics in this forum, I'm floored by > how often some of you post--and with helpful, content-filled > responses, too! A lot of what Googlers do on this forum is > "silent" (we take back your feedback/suggestions to our teams, > investigate problems that you report, etc., and we don't usually post > an update every time we do so), so I certainly won't be approaching > "top poster" status anytime soon; but it's obvious to me that many of > you must have following threads down to a science. Would you mind > sharing some of your productivity tips?
> How do you keep up with what's going on? Do you use the Google Groups > UI? Do you use our RSS feeds to follow threads? How do you decide > which threads to read? Do you stop by a couple times a day, or are you > constantly following new posts as they come in? I'd love to pick your > brains and get some ideas on how to become a more efficient/effective > participant during the time I spend here.
Again, I'm a relatively low-volume poster here. Ditto on the Cardinal's comment about the search; I mainly use my profile to keep track of things but, depending on my personal activity level, I also occasionally bookmark threads if they're in a busy group and likely to disappear into oblivion after five minutes.
I try to stop by at least once a day when time/work allows. As for determining factors about what I read, post title & snippet [Good point there about trying to correlate title with response numbers], reply count, starring and the thread-starter & last-poster all play a role. Now that I think about it, it's kind of hard to rationalise. I just scan my way down the page(s) to see what may be interesting.
> When I look at the posting statistics in this forum, I'm floored by > how often some of you post--and with helpful, content-filled > responses, too! A lot of what Googlers do on this forum is > "silent" (we take back your feedback/suggestions to our teams, > investigate problems that you report, etc., and we don't usually post > an update every time we do so), so I certainly won't be approaching > "top poster" status anytime soon; but it's obvious to me that many of > you must have following threads down to a science. Would you mind > sharing some of your productivity tips?
> How do you keep up with what's going on? Do you use the Google Groups > UI? Do you use our RSS feeds to follow threads? How do you decide > which threads to read? Do you stop by a couple times a day, or are you > constantly following new posts as they come in? I'd love to pick your > brains and get some ideas on how to become a more efficient/effective > participant during the time I spend here.
Hi Susan I would post a lot more, if only the groups had a mobile-friendly interface :-)
When I am short on time, I concentrate on the following kinds of threads: - go back to page 30 (aka the day before yesterday, lol) and check threads that either have no responses or only two or three, with the last one not by one of the "trusted regulars" - threads that come back with repetitive posting by the "trusted regulars" (ie if they post more than once, it is likely something interesting) - threads started by one of the "trusted regulars" - threads older than a day or so, last responded to by one of the "untrusted regulars" (when I can imagine that the answer was not correct and I don't want to leave it at that) - threads where I notice that old myths are being dug up - "hacks" (mention that and I'll come for a visit :-); I even have alerts on various forms of that for these groups) - complicated technical issues with weird calculations, algorithms, etc. (brain-food)
A sure way to make sure that I don't reply: - starting the same thread in multiple groups or multiple times in the same group (I want a delete button, heh). - lots of exclamation points in the title (ok, sometimes it works)
What I try to avoid: - grabbing the first answer to a thread. There are so many really great people here and I don't want to take their chance at getting a great first-response in. That includes a lot of new users. - posting when upset
When I have the time, I'll ignore most of that and just post whenever I can, haha, day and night.
The big problem is, as I see it, that there are so many new threads being posted in the main group that if you only check once a day, you are bound to miss many of them (the average front-page time is way under 24 hours, on the days I checked). The best time to get work done (in the groups) seems to be morning my time (say 7:00-12:00 UTC), since the US is asleep and the number of new threads isn't growing exponentially. Too much online activity can be bad for answering a poster: it makes it hard to spend the time required to write out a good answer. Sometimes a good answer that takes 30 minutes to work out and write down can save a thread from going back and forth over days.
My workflow: When I reply to a topic, I star the thread. That way I can track to see when people respond. When a topic is vital, I will subscribe to it via email. Sadly, sometimes the stars and the email subscriptions fail, so you have to be on the watchout all the time.
The #1 problem that really kills post frequency of the regulars is ... technical difficulties. "Groups down" is one thing, but postings disappearing is even worse. Stars not working. Email alerts not working. Posting and getting the "all ok" but then the post disappearing. It's hard to justify spending time here, helping people, when you see your work going to /dev/nul. It appears to be better now, but it would be really nice that IF things were going whacko, some sort of notification was given right away. It's no problem to go away and do something else for a day, if you know it's being worked on. But going in and answering posts for an hour or more only to find out that all of your work was for nothing... is extremely frustrating... and it remains frustrating for a long time afterwards.
The #2 problem is something JLH mentioned once (or twice? not sure): Googler participation. I hope we can push that up a bit (a lot?)!!! His comment, and it's really how I see it as well (and saw it in the past years here): "Log on and just tell us the weather, what you had for dinner, the local time, if there is such thing as a -XXX penalty (whoops I snuck a real one in there!!), what's heavier a pound of feathers or a pound of gold, anything would be appreciated. Any comments with a blue badge lets us know that we are not alone there." Imagine doing hours of "Google" support here and not even being certain that "the company" notices.
Oops, that one turned out rather long :-).
Something to ponder until I bother you with even more suggestions: how about something like this: http://www.eeqp.com/ for the groups? I lived off of the ticker for two months and managed to do over 1800 posts in that time.
Read every new post and track old ones through the "Active Older Topics" interface.
> Do you use the Google Groups UI?
Yes, along with a little help from my "friends". ;-)
> Do you use our RSS feeds to follow threads?
Nope. Does it work?
> How do you decide which threads to read?
I don't decide, I read them all. The question is, which threads do I decide to reply in.
> Do you stop by a couple times a day, or are you > constantly following new posts as they come in?
I"ll say constantly, but I have a "helper" so that I know when there is a new thread or a reply to something I am watching. Also, I work on a bajillion different things during a given day and take often breaks in between finishing a page or touching up a script or when switching from one project to another so I have lots of short breaks that I see what is waiting and then go from there.
> I'd love to pick your > brains and get some ideas on how to become a more efficient/effective > participant during the time I spend here.
Then you'd not be wanting to pick my brain. Effective, brute force usually is, but efficient, no way.
Hmm.. Susan, I usually follow a similar strategy to John.
First and foremost I scan down the page for items without a response - there is usually a reason - either the question is one we don't have a standard answer for (I like them) or more likely, the person hasn't put the question in a way that is clear - so I'll often prompt them a bit and try and get the ball rolling.
Then I scan the second page, in particular if there are older posts without an responses from people I know / trust.
If there is something in particular that seems to be a common problem that we all don't have a real answer to, I like to start a thread abt it, but I haven't done that in a while.
> Read every new post and track old ones through the "Active Older > Topics" interface.
> > Do you use the Google Groups UI?
> Yes, along with a little help from my "friends". ;-)
> > Do you use our RSS feeds to follow threads?
> Nope. Does it work?
> > How do you decide which threads to read?
> I don't decide, I read them all. The question is, which threads do I > decide to reply in.
> > Do you stop by a couple times a day, or are you > > constantly following new posts as they come in?
> I"ll say constantly, but I have a "helper" so that I know when there > is a new thread or a reply to something I am watching. Also, I work on > a bajillion different things during a given day and take often breaks > in between finishing a page or touching up a script or when switching > from one project to another so I have lots of short breaks that I see > what is waiting and then go from there.
> > I'd love to pick your > > brains and get some ideas on how to become a more efficient/effective > > participant during the time I spend here.
> Then you'd not be wanting to pick my brain. Effective, brute force > usually is, but efficient, no way.
ahh, that's a no as half the time, they don't work
>>Do you stop by a couple times a day
Depends on my day but usually yes
As for what I respond to...it's more like "What I don't respond to" If there are multiple posts asking the very same thing on the very same day, I have started to skip some rather than post "Hey you? Can't you read?"
For following threads I use whichever of the two is working favorites (aka Stars) or my profile. When short on time, I quickly scan the x new of x which is next to never working on all threads, just some of the threads.
If Google Groups functions all worked even "most" of the time, everyone could be more productive.
> When I look at the posting statistics in this forum, I'm floored by > how often some of you post--and with helpful, content-filled > responses, too! A lot of what Googlers do on this forum is > "silent" (we take back your feedback/suggestions to our teams, > investigate problems that you report, etc., and we don't usually post > an update every time we do so), so I certainly won't be approaching > "top poster" status anytime soon; but it's obvious to me that many of > you must have following threads down to a science. Would you mind > sharing some of your productivity tips?
> How do you keep up with what's going on? Do you use the Google Groups > UI? Do you use our RSS feeds to follow threads? How do you decide > which threads to read? Do you stop by a couple times a day, or are you > constantly following new posts as they come in? I'd love to pick your > brains and get some ideas on how to become a more efficient/effective > participant during the time I spend here.
A good frined of mine is a Doctor in pyschology and she pointed out that forums by their very nature can become addictive. Many who make a post will return to see if a response has been made and then go on to make another post in reply. Whilst doing that they see another thread upon which they can't resist a post -and so it goes on feeding a desire to communicate/help or whatever, in much the same way as any addiction. A common trait of those with addictive personalities is that they have a fearsome memory of the subject-matter of their addiction - e.g. card- counting gamblers or which horse came third in the 1986 derby etc. I think for some it boils down to their personal memory of all the threads they have been involved with. Not that i am saying those who regularly post have an addictive personality, as those above who are here to geniunly help have their own productivity tools, however she thinks from occasionally viewing this forum that some show signs of a memory that can only be associated with an addictive personality.
I admit that I didn't post much recently due to my workload and a recently popped up time waster stealing more than 100% of my spare time (moving my blog from Blogger to WordPress because many readers told me that they can't handle the Blogger thingy), but here is what I do when I've time on my hands.
No. Err. Start over. Here is what I did way back when everything worked somewhat smoothly (I'm referring to the old sitemaps group). I tagged all threads I've posted to or which had interesting contents. That means I read everything. First thing in the morning was to check my favorites list for new replies and cover that. Next I went to the main page, read everything and replied where I was able to contribute something useful.
Since all that is broke nowadays (thread tags don't really work, way more posts so that I can't read everything) I changed my behavior. Now I'm checking the main section for unanswered threads with a somewhat meaningful title and threads where I've posted a reply (hopefully still tagged, for obvious reasons I miss out on some replies to my stuff and increase the number of unanswered direct questions). I avoid large threads because I think they're 80% trolled and don't reply to PageRank stuff or sitelinks questions any more. Ok, I tell noobs that toolbar PR is just for fun.
When in time pressure, I just check out this section. All attempts to use RSS-ish stuff to automate things turned to miserable failure projects. I never used email options coz my inbox gets stuffed enough. I stick with the UI.
As for the silent reading, please ask the group folks to add a flag "read by a Googler" at least for posts passing by the average BS detector. ;)
And when we're talking about regular superstars, there's only JohnMu who deserves this award, and since you've shanghaied him we've to live without rockstars here, at least for a while. ;) I'm looking forward to praising you in the same way soon! :)
> A good frined of mine is a Doctor in pyschology and she pointed out > that forums by their very nature can become addictive. Many who make a > post will return to see if a response has been made and then go on to > make another post in reply. Whilst doing that they see another thread > upon which they can't resist a post -and so it goes on feeding a > desire to communicate/help or whatever, in much the same way as any > addiction. > A common trait of those with addictive personalities is that they have > a fearsome memory of the subject-matter of their addiction - e.g. card- > counting gamblers or which horse came third in the 1986 derby etc. I > think for some it boils down to their personal memory of all the > threads they have been involved with. Not that i am saying those who > regularly post have an addictive personality, as those above who are > here to geniunly help have their own productivity tools, however she > thinks from occasionally viewing this forum that some show signs of a > memory that can only be associated with an addictive personality.
Seems like a common theme here seems to be that the UI is seriously flawed - particularly for keeping track of threads you've commented on and have received replies - sure, you can do that with the 'email replies to me' option - but if you're replying to lots of theads, the 'more options' -> 'email me replies' little hidden facility is a bit of a dog leg with each thread - I seriously think that there should be a more visible way to enable these emails - like perhaps a button?
That would not only help us, but it would also stop people from posting, forgetting they'd posted, and never coming back to check.
> I admit that I didn't post much recently due to my workload and a > recently popped up time waster stealing more than 100% of my spare > time (moving my blog from Blogger to WordPress because many readers > told me that they can't handle the Blogger thingy), but here is what I > do when I've time on my hands.
> No. Err. Start over. Here is what I did way back when everything > worked somewhat smoothly (I'm referring to the old sitemaps group). I > tagged all threads I've posted to or which had interesting contents. > That means I read everything. First thing in the morning was to check > my favorites list for new replies and cover that. Next I went to the > main page, read everything and replied where I was able to contribute > something useful.
> Since all that is broke nowadays (thread tags don't really work, way > more posts so that I can't read everything) I changed my behavior. Now > I'm checking the main section for unanswered threads with a somewhat > meaningful title and threads where I've posted a reply (hopefully > still tagged, for obvious reasons I miss out on some replies to my > stuff and increase the number of unanswered direct questions). I avoid > large threads because I think they're 80% trolled and don't reply to > PageRank stuff or sitelinks questions any more. Ok, I tell noobs that > toolbar PR is just for fun.
> When in time pressure, I just check out this section. All attempts to > use RSS-ish stuff to automate things turned to miserable failure > projects. I never used email options coz my inbox gets stuffed enough. > I stick with the UI.
> As for the silent reading, please ask the group folks to add a flag > "read by a Googler" at least for posts passing by the average BS > detector. ;)
> And when we're talking about regular superstars, there's only JohnMu > who deserves this award, and since you've shanghaied him we've to live > without rockstars here, at least for a while. ;) I'm looking forward > to praising you in the same way soon! :)
