Navigating TFL
I have been following this site for several months, now, and posting occasionally, but I still feel frustrated in trying to find specific threads. I get notified of new topics by email, but I haven't found any way to follow an ongoing thread. The "Suscribe" button doesn't seem to have a function on this site. If a discussion has rolled off the top end of the most recent list by the time I come back to the site, I have no clue how to find it again. I know there is a way, because other people sometimes post to a thread that is months old.
The same thing is true when I want to relocate a particular post. Some people are really good about providing links to supporting or illustrative information elsewhere, and I frequently want to go back to one of those to refresh my memory when someone posts what I think is contradictory information. But, I can never figure out how to find them again. The same applies to interesting recipes people post.
Is there perhaps a FAQ I haven't noticed?
Would one of you experts provide some guidance?
Thanks,
Dave
There is a big FAQ in the navigation. The FAQ isn't terribly useful, but the link is very much at the top of every page.
Subscribe does work to follow a thread, most of the time in most browsers. I'm sure there are certain combinations it doesn't work in.
Sorry to hear you are frustrated, but ... I'm not really sure what to tell you. I do what I can to make the site better, but I have a family and a day job and no hired help, so I'm not going to promise you a navigational revolution any time soon. If you find the site that frustrating, I guess... I guess I wonder why you're still visiting. This isn't the IRS or the DMV or some place else that you have to visit to get your job done. It is a hobbyists' site, free to join but certainly imperfect.
Sorry, Floyd, this wasn't a complaint about the site, just a request for those users who obviously already are adept at navigating it to provide some useful tips to us newbies.
The reason I keep coming back to this site is that it is a wonderfully rich source of information and advice on baking--certainly the best I have found. That is also the reason I keep recommending it to others. My frustration stems from my own ineptitude in taking full advantage of all the site has to offer.
Please don't take offense. You are doing a great job, and providing a valuable service.
Dave
Sorry if I misunderstood you or came down on your unfairly. My daily allotment of cordiality was already used up elsewhere today so I was less courteous than I should have been.
I'm the first to agree that the navigation stinks and it isn't just your ineptitude. Well, let me take that back (not "your ineptitude", that the navigation stinks).... the content is not well organized or tagged consistently, so it is difficult to find a particular piece of content that you might be looking for. This is partially by design and partially just the way the site has organically developed.
The handbook which we are starting work on will hopefully give the site a stable core, a "trunk" which we can branch out from. But given the sheer amount of content on the site now, it still won't all be easily navigable.
For myself, I pretty much keep track of what is happening here by watching the home page and opening seperate tabs for the threads I want to follow. I don't subscribe to threads, nor do I navigate into any of the sub-folders in the forum. To find older threads that I want to go back to, I usually search rather than browse. Search is more often that not successful, but certainly not always.
Dave,
There are a number of recipes that I come back to all the time. I use the search box to find these. If you're interested in following a thread but don't like the way the Subscribe function works (I never use it myself, so I'm not sure what it does), I would suggest that you simply bookmark the page using your browser's "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" feature.
Don't forget that you can browse old messages by clicking on the Forums link. You can also use the Activity Tracker (link at the bottom of your screen) to view all forum topics, replies, and blog posts chronologically.
Hope this helps.
Eric B.
Now there's a tool I should have found on my own!
Thanks, Eric,
Dave
With all the problems some people may have this is still the best bread site there is. a