Effective Online Forum Usage
May 18th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
Email this article to a friend
“My name is Steve, and I’m a recovering online forum addict.”
“Hi, Steve.”
I posted a new article called “Effective Online Forum Usage” in the free articles section. This is a straightforward piece with 8 tips on using forums productively, with an emphasis on avoiding (or recovering from) forum addiction.
For years I was a heavy user of online forums, newgroups, and message boards (most of them software-related), figuring it to be a relatively benign habit. I even met my wife on a computer bulletin board system in 1994. But in 2004 when I figured out how much time it was actually costing me to support this habit and what I was giving up in order to maintain the perceived “benefits” of participation, I dropped it like a rock and never looked back.
On a related note I also dramatically reduced my email usage, which is now at about 15 minutes per day (down from 60-90 minutes). I already wrote about that in a previous post: Efficient Email.
P.S. If you want to have some fun (and do some free marketing work for me), post a link to the new article (or this blog entry) in your favorite online forum, and watch the addicts squirm. 
May 18th, 2005 at 11:16 pm
I guess I’m suffering from forum (and blog-reading!) addiction. One point I’d like to add (which helped me a lot): before participating in a discussion, think twice whether your post will really contribute to the subject. Often I figured out that I was not contributing anything new at all, instead I was merely chatting and just satisfying a “me-too” habbit.
Posting in forums can be a perfect way of procrastination, because at first it looks like I’m productive, where in fact I’m just wasting time.
May 19th, 2005 at 6:45 am
Actually, my 30 day challenge was to give up forum usage from one one my forums. It may not sound like much, but it was the only one that had sucked too much of my time.
While I do like the increase in my efficiency and time, I can definitely see the benefits of belonging to a community where you can get the help you need more easily. But the amount I used to use it was far more than I needed to get the benefits.
Thanks for the article. I’ll read it right now!
May 19th, 2005 at 11:07 am
I was a forum addict, too. Now I practice some habits which help me stay away from useless forum browsing most of the time:
1. When browsing the list of threads, I got into the habit of only opening and reading the threads which are clearly VERY valuable to me. Before I used to read many forum threads. Now I only open and read 2-3 threads - only the most useful threads.
2. When I start to browse a forum, I got into the habit of stopping for 2-3 minutes to think whether this is the best use of my time, or whether I can find a better way to entertain myself. If the answer is no, then I go straight ahead to browsing the forum. If the answer is yes, then I do the other activity which came to my mind.
3. I don’t write posts unless I can seriously contribute. Then I write a whole article and post it in the forum and in my blog. With this I accomplish several things with one action (writing the article) and with less time: I help people, I gain reputation on the forum (which I can later use to ask questions which will be answered, gain favors, etc), and I drive traffic to my blog.
May 19th, 2005 at 4:32 pm
One thing I found that can be incredibly time wasting is pointless debating threads.
The key thing to remember when posting is that you aren’t going to change anyones opinion if they already have one. Sometimes people lose sight of this so they argue constantly with very long posts. While it may not be outright flaming (some debates I have seen have been well-thought) it is still pointless.
If the point of your forum usage is to gather information about a subject, don’t use it to try and convince others you are right. That can probably be the biggest timewaster.
May 20th, 2005 at 12:35 pm
Now instead of forum addiction, we have blog reading and responding addiction, no?
With RSS it is even easier to get addicted, since it lets you know when to go read and post.
May 27th, 2005 at 7:51 am
About pointless debating threads…. what is it with them that they are so attractive??? not only for the people arguing, but I also find them entertaining to read and I can consume some considerable time just reading absolutely pointless arguments about really irrelevant subject…