h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think it was Sho who came up with the A-page idea (which I liked).

I haven't unsubbed from any of my friends. The first few days of the month were crazy-busy work days for me, and when I got home, I just deleted anything with at 'JoMo' type title. Friday and yesterday, I read everything in my conversation list even if I didn't have time to reply (or anything to say in reply). That happens with regular journals, too, for me- sometimes I have nothing useful to say and after a couple days of not saying anything, I just delete them. I delete conversations I have posted to after a couple of days, too, including removing my own journals from the list, to keep my conversation list "clean" enough that I can find things later. So I'm not discriminating against journals in particular.

Years ago I started a blog, too. A number of hootooers did that in response to the swear filther, and since I found most people subbed to my journal were blogging, I thought I'd give it a try. And that was when I realized that I don't really enjoy writing about myself much. All of my blog entries were about food- and the blogosphere attracted all kinds of people with useless commentary about my eating habits- or my cats.

I think one reason I've managed a few more of your journals, Ivan, than some others, is that I see and hear from certain people in several other venues while my primary means of contact with you is your journal and those emails we squeeze in between pummellings at the office.

Oops, indeed, now that I looked at my U-page and so on. I always use the pop-up convo list, so I didn't even think of that option.

Bel

I have found that I've been clicking on a thread in my convos list and then staying in that person's message centre and reading all their journals. Not that that need interest anyone, but it's a way to coherent reading.

I doubt that I would bother with JoMo if I had to do the A page idea. It's journal month, not A page month For me the time issue is around ease of access in writing and the A page thing will be a disincentive. I'd much rather see a technical solution than a manual one.

I'm not sure I quite understand what the issue is. But then I come into h2g2 each day via this link http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/MP212656?show=200&skip=0 which invariably shows a whole bunch of posts I'm not going to read. I sub tp posts I'm interested in and that I think I need to keep up with, and I'm automatically subbed to journals and some forums. But I don't get to read all of them. I've never really used the convo list as something for only posts/threads I am going to always read. I agree with Sol, that as the site gets busier, this overwhelm of the convo list is going to get worse for people that expect their convo list to be relatively clean. I'm already such a thread magpie it won't affect me as much.

Having the forum name in the thread title would be very useful as would having those details show at the top of the browser tab once the thread is opened.

Sadly, if I don't keep my convo list clean, convos I am trying to read/ post in get lost in the backlog. With less than an hour a day to keep up with personal email, h2g2 and Facebook (except weekends, when I sometimes manage to pop in a couple times a day or for a couple hours early in the morning), if I have to look for something for too long, I'll never find it again.

Re-reading my own post, it may seem that the most logical solution is to pare down my friends list... but I really don't want to do that. I do want to read most of my friends' journal entries under ordinary circumstances. It's just that with even a half dozen friends writing a journal entry every day, that's 30+ new entries to read on Saturday morning when I finally have time to catch up. By then there's no point commenting on most, as things will have moved on and most convos related to those entries will have ended.

Damn this having to work for a living thing. It takes up so much of my time!!

I completely understand. Now you know why I don't do email or FB. I can hardly keep up with personal convos onsite, never mind off.

Yeah... email and FB have lots of non-hootoo friends, and family members, so I try to give everyone equal time.

I miss my old job where I had a good couple hours of down time cumulatively throughout the day, or at least could manage to actually *take* my lunch breaks. I could check in more than once a day back then.

I'm with PC - would rather chuck in my job than delete friends from my list or unsubscribe from threads


For the time being, I'm trying to juggle both.

Solnushka's right. As the site gets busier, we'll all have to find a way of coping with backlog. I'm lucky in that I'm a speed-reader (though a dreadfully slow typist) so I can afford to keep unsubbing to a minimum. Which isn't to say that I won't occasionally ditch a thread if it's past its best or bad for my blood pressure - but that's more likely the case with Ask threads, not journal threads.

Come to think of it - this is how busy the site used to be, once upon a time. Those of us who were here then, coped then.

This will be a useful thread to look at once NaJoPoMo is over for the year - both for the ideas about how to proceed next year, and to see if we've changed our minds about any of it. There are still 23 days to go, after all.

I remember when it would have been a complete folly to subscribe to Ask - you'd be flooded out in a matter of hours. These days you could get away with it as long as you didn't mind unsubbing when a thread wasn't for you.

I still subscribe to MiscChat and HowDoI? though. You pick up the odd gem from time to time. And the odd newbie. Hopefully those places will get busier as well.

Yes, I was subbed to Ask for a couple of years and managed the backlog. It's going to be a Very Good Thing if it keeps hopping now. Even if it means that I've unsubbed from the forum itself and will just pop into conversations that appeal to me as I go.

I'm subbed to Ask and live in hope of being swamped by it again one day.