Comments on: Effective Online Forum Usage

By: Qwashenu

Qwashenu — Fri, 27 May 2005 15:51:05 +0000

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…

By: N.

N. — Fri, 20 May 2005 20:35:02 +0000

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.

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 20 May 2005 00:32:09 +0000

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.

By: Insomniac

Insomniac — Thu, 19 May 2005 19:07:55 +0000

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.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 19 May 2005 14:45:32 +0000

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!

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 19 May 2005 07:16:40 +0000

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.