Hi BombayBill,
Thank you for starting this thread. I am the newest of the forum moderator team and have been thinking of writing some information threads/instructions for the forum. In fact, I have some notes started. Your questions give me a good excuse to get on with the task. However, it will take a bit of time.
[Edited to add: You might not need all the following suggestions, but another new member might.]
Other members will be helpful - for example, above, the explanations about the bold thread names where there are posts that you haven't read. (Somewhat like unread emails on your computer or phone.)
The way that I find most convenient for using the forum on a daily basis is the following:
- Go to What's new in the blue band at the top of your screen.
- On the dropdown menu (using the little triangle beside "new') select New posts
- Once that page loads, make it a favourite or bookmark it using whatever way your browser provides.
Then in future, whenever I get on the computer and want to read the forum, I simply click on that bookmark/favourite. I am taken to a list of all the threads that have posts that are new since my last visit. They are listed from newest to oldest (time of the new post, not of the original thread).
Now, as for a new member who has thousands of unread posts, they are probably looking for specific information, or perhaps even general experiences. For this,
- You can browse through the forums and sub-forums listed on the Home page. This can also be a bit daunting, but I think some improvements are gradually underway.
- Look at the tags (Popular Camino Topics) on the Home page. Click on one of them to go to a collection of threads on that topic.
- Use the Search function in the upper right. Again, this is not the most brilliant search function in the world, but it helps. I will leave further instructions on how to use the Search function more effectively, to a future post.
Searching and knowing where to look can be hard for newcomers. Feel free to post a question on a new thread, or even here on this thread, and we will direct you to further information.
It is useful to be familiar with the private message function - this forum software calls them Conversations. I will send one to you, and you should see an alert notice by the envelope icon in the upper right of your screen. That is a private message. If you reply to that, I'll know you have mastered that function!