(I guess this *almost* fits here.)


While visiting the home of a fellow 4x4Wire member, I was standing over his shoulder while he was logged-in, and I noticed that he wasnÆt taking advantage of a very useful feature on the Main Index Forum Pageà

Since he hadnÆt ever notice it before, I thought IÆd mention it here in case maybe others out there were unaware of it as well.



Next to each of the individual Forum Categories, located on the far left hand side of the green margin division, is a small gray box containing a minus sign symbol (sometimes theyÆre almost invisible on some monitors)à

Clicking one of these Minus Sign Boxes will collapse that section of the Main Forum, making it so that only the Title Bar for that forum-set is visible. --- If you almost never visit a particular set of forums (perhaps even several sets), then using this feature will æcloseÆ them û making it a whole lot faster and easier to scroll down to the forums that you do visit.

And donÆt worry, itÆs equally simple to reactivate a æclosedÆ forumà you just click the yellow plus sign symbol, and *poof*, itÆs right back to normal again.


* Note: You may have to hit the Refresh Button on your browser to get a newly changed setting to show-up the first time.


(Just a thought: But changing those Gray Minus Signs to Yellow, like the forum reactivation Plus Signs, would probably help a lot more folks become aware of the feature. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> )


<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

After reading your post I found, but could not see, the minus sign at the left of the forum title. It does make it easier to scroll by collapsing the unwanted forums.

One other suggestion; usually I look through the posts before logging on, then only log on if I want to reply or post. I imagine most people do it this way. Anyway, it would make it easier if the site took you back to the thread you were on after you are logged on. Now I have to go back to main index and start over to find the thread.

Most people log on and select the option Remember Me or save login (depending on browser), then every time they come here they're logged in.

This facilitates post tracking, every time you come back you have clear visual indicators of new posts or replies.

If you're not logged in, then log in, there really isn't any way to associate the unlogged-in user actions with the logged in user, esp since several to hundreds of users can have the same IP address, as with AOL. And you don't have the cookie, so no updates can be made.

Simple answer: log in, and be logged in every time you visit.