What catches your attention?

[LLigetfa]

I was thinking of doing a poll but couldn't decide on how to word it so as not to be ambiguous, so I will just pose a few questions instead.

1. When reading posts, do you only frequent certain forums and maybe wander into others rarely?

2. When scanning titles, do you read them all or does the poster need to capture your attention with a well worded title?

3. When reading the OP's post, does lack of punctuation, paragraph breaks, and/or sentence structure cause you to hit the back button?

4. If luke warm on a thread, do you often only reply based on what someone else replied?


Now for answers to my own questions...
1. There are only 3 forums here that I frequent but my shortcut is to https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums so now and then a title catches my interest.

2. If I'm not enticed by the title, I may not read it unless the board is real slow. If it looks like just another "asked and answered a million times" post, I might pass on it. I also try to pass on the controversial ones where they troll for responses hoping to start a 10 pager that's sure to get closed.

3. I do try try to read a post if the title caught my interest, but have a low tolerance for poor punctuation and sentence/paragraph structure. Sometimes I will drag my cursor along to block the lines as I read but more often than not, I hit the back button. If the OP cannot be considerate enough to make it easy to read, I have better things to do than suffer through it.

4. Ja, sometimes it is another person's reply that engages me. Either the OP didn't catch my interest or was too ambiguous. The reply may have added clarity or perhaps I took exception to it.

 

[eclecticcottage]

1) yeah..the hearth room, pre epa stoves and here, occasionally it's a gas, the woodshed or diy. We don't have a pellet stove or wood boiler so no real reason to go there, and I have tried to swear off arguing on the net so I stay in the nook or above...

2) if it's a general thread about something that interests me or about a stove that interests me, I'll click.

3) nah, unless I really can't follow

4) yup, if someone mentions something I have a comment on that pertains to it, sure.

BTW I thought this was going to be a thread for those of us that say we aren't easily distracted but are...by things like sweet cars and scroungable wood...or shiny things, like chrome

 

[firebroad]

1. Yes.

2. I read what I think will be interesting to me. Really, I usually like to check out things that I think would be of interest to me, in my situation. I am going to use the search box if I want to look for a certain answer to my current conundrum, or I will frequent the forums that I have something in common with, just like everyone else. I don't usually look into things such as pellet stoves, It's a gas (we don't have gas lines where I live, and propane is too expensive), and so forth. I will glance over all of the "rooms", and if a recent post catches my eye, yeah, I'll have a look-see. So I suppose I DO become attracted to the well worded title. "Need help with new XYZ-001 stove" would not interest me unless I owed and XYZ. Now, "Free Firewood" would definitely grab my attention.

3. What's an OP?

4. I reply when I think I have something that would be of help. Otherwise, I am a lurker. Oooh, that sounds shady.

Oh, and pictures! That catches my attention every time!

 

[pen]

3. What's an OP?

4. I reply when I think I have something that would be of help. Otherwise, I am a lurker. Oooh, that sounds shady.

OP is original poster.

Being a lurker is not bad, being a creeper is what should be avoided :coolsmile:

I read most everything that time and sobriety will allow. Haven't read a good book in a long while thanks to hearth.com

pen

 

[GAMMA RAY]

1. I frequent all the forums except for the pellet and gas ones, since I have no interest in them. I favor The Hearthroom, The Picture Perfect and The
Inglenook. At this time of the year, I am serious about burning. I am trying like hell to learn everything I can, so The Hearthroom is my main squeeze.


2. I pretty much read all the titles, but yes, a well worded title captures my attention quicker. I tend to click on titles that have my current stove name in it or the names of my last 2 stoves. I will also click on titles that were started by some of the burners I met in person at the Woodstock open house. I have some favorite members and I will always read what he/she posts. Some members are sure to always give me a little smile when I need it.


3. Yes, lack of punctuation does influence if I will continue to read the whole post. I am not perfect with my punctuation but if it is a very long post in one big paragragh and I have to get my reading glasses, fahgettabouttit. One big paragragh=not good.


4. If a thread is luke warm and I want to comment either to the OP or another reply, I will do so, especially if I find something very amusing. I love humor. Humor=good :lol: :lol: ;-)

 

[Jack Straw]

Posts need to be as short as possible. I have a hard time reading a long post.

Maybe that's just me.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Generally I stick to a couple forums. I open the post, scan for bad words or pictures of boobies, then go to the next thread.

 

[GAMMA RAY]

Now my sentence structure was good when I did the preview. What the eff happened that it cut off between The and Inglenook? >:-( :lol:

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Now my sentence structure was good when I did the preview. What the eff happened that it cut off between The and Inglenook? >:-( :lol:

I don't know, I didn't read it, it was so bad!!

 

[GAMMA RAY]

Generally I stick to a couple forums. I open the post, scan for bad words or pictures of boobies, then go to the next thread.

If you are looking for the latter, all you have to do is click on all the posts from Iseedeadbtus guy. If the mods are drunk or lax, they will "pop up" trust me! :gulp:

 

[kenny chaos]

I check the ones with a reply from Gamma. :red:

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

If the mods are drunk on ex-lax, they will "pop up" trust me! :gulp:

You mean I got THAT to look forward to when I get THAT old?!? :grrr:

oh, and I found out ONE person here don't like boobies, so no more boobies :shut:

 

[Jags]

1. Yes - Hearth room, wood shed, gear, DIY, green, here, ash can, old stoves, the plumber room, then others, in that order.

2. After answering the question of "why is my fire hard to start and my glass is getting dirty and I have 3 gallons of creosote from my first sweep" for about the 400th time, I find myself shying away from it. Plenty of other folks here that will chime in. I also find myself looking at how many responses have been made. I don't really care to be the 47th poster that says "Elm"

3. I am not a English major and don't assume that the OP is either. HUGE posts bug me more than poorly punctuated short ones. Huge unpunctuated ones get the Back button slapped to them.

4. If luke warm I often don't respond or respond at a later time if I find a low post count to the questions. After all, this is a place for a common community with similar interests to help one another. Other posters can trigger a response from me if there is some questionable advice given or by subject matter like "I jest squirt fuel ole on the 2 week split far wood and throws me a road flare in there" or "Why can't I just drill a bunch of holes in the top to let more heat out?"

But I have to admit - being a member since 2006 (and lurker before that) with over 6000 posts, I still find this place engaging and I simply enjoy helping people and solving problems. I don't even have to be the problem solver - just that it is solved.

Edit - and AP, I was going to include "Boobies" for point #4, but didn't want to make you read my whole post. :lol:

 

[Delta-T]

I likes the Pellet room...its my scientific speciality, but I tend to paruse all forums in my quest for knowledge (power). I cannot spell words, so I don't give people flack for poor spelling or grammer. I have never posted "Elm" to any forum...though I await the day that I can. I read, and reread any thread that has "boobies" in it (so I tend to read, and reread things posted my AP and Jags).

 

[hossthehermit]

yes
no
sometimes
maybe

 

[LLigetfa]

3. What's an OP?
...
Oh, and pictures! That catches my attention every time!

OP = Original Post or Original Poster.

Pictures are good. Sometimes I don't even read the text.

I check the ones with a reply from Gamma. :red:

I check the ones with a reply from ISeeDeadBTUs, mostly for the pictures.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I was thinking of doing a poll but couldn't decide on how to word it so as not to be ambiguous, so I will just pose a few questions instead.

1. When reading posts, do you only frequent certain forums and maybe wander into others rarely?

I tend to go to the Hearth Room, then the Wood Shed, Sometimes to the Gear section and DIY, Perfect Picture and Inglenook. If time restraints, than only Hearth and wood shed.

2. When scanning titles, do you read them all or does the poster need to capture your attention with a well worded title?

Tend to read most then look at what post where I might be able to help someone. Sometimes I'll read all threads and all posts if time permits.

3. When reading the OP's post, does lack of punctuation, paragraph breaks, and/or sentence structure cause you to hit the back button?

Many times really poor punctuation just turns me off and I don't read them. Especially those who are too lazy to capitalize letters that should be capitalized. Another is all caps. Other times just very poor grammar leads me to think it just is not worth reading further.

4. If luke warm on a thread, do you often only reply based on what someone else replied?

Depends upon how someone has replied.


Now for answers to my own questions...
1. There are only 3 forums here that I frequent but my shortcut is to https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums so now and then a title catches my interest.

2. If I'm not enticed by the title, I may not read it unless the board is real slow. If it looks like just another "asked and answered a million times" post, I might pass on it. I also try to pass on the controversial ones where they troll for responses hoping to start a 10 pager that's sure to get closed.

3. I do try try to read a post if the title caught my interest, but have a low tolerance for poor punctuation and sentence/paragraph structure. Sometimes I will drag my cursor along to block the lines as I read but more often than not, I hit the back button. If the OP cannot be considerate enough to make it easy to read, I have better things to do than suffer through it.

4. Ja, sometimes it is another person's reply that engages me. Either the OP didn't catch my interest or was too ambiguous. The reply may have added clarity or perhaps I took exception to it.

 

[Dix]

If the mods are drunk on ex-lax, they will "pop up" trust me! :gulp:

You mean I got THAT to look forward to when I get THAT old?!? :grrr:

oh, and I found out ONE person here don't like boobies, so no more boobies :shut:

Trust me, there's more than one.

 

[PapaDave]

1. When reading posts, do you only frequent certain forums and maybe wander into others rarely?
I tend to stay out of Pellet, Boiler, Gas, and Ashcan, and frequent Hearth room, and Wood Shed with forays into the rest.

2. When scanning titles, do you read them all or does the poster need to capture your attention with a well worded title?
I'll click on just about anything that catches my eye. I'll sometimes follow a thread that has nothing to do with a stove I may like to have, just to learn something new and give me insight.

3. When reading the OP’s post, does lack of punctuation, paragraph breaks, and/or sentence structure cause you to hit the back button?
Might take a couple extra seconds to decipher what's been written but no no auto back button very difficult to focus after things run together for a whole long sentence with question after question or comment then it's like listening to someone talking without taking a breath and waiting for their lungs to explode and spew fragments all over but its just hard to read so much with all the bad grammar and lack of punctuation and spelng earorz and stuff like that when all you can think about is wanting to get away.....whew, did you read all that?
4. If luke warm on a thread, do you often only reply based on what someone else replied?
I'll sometimes reply to accentuate what has already been said (while trying to not beat dead horses...uh, no offense Dixie), but often just go on to the next thread of interest.

 

[LLigetfa]

3. When reading the OP’s post, does lack of punctuation, paragraph breaks, and/or sentence structure cause you to hit the back button?
Might take a couple extra seconds to decipher what's been written but no no auto back button very difficult to focus after things run together for a whole long sentence with question after question or comment then it's like listening to someone talking without taking a breath and waiting for their lungs to explode and spew fragments all over but its just hard to read so much with all the bad grammar and lack of punctuation and spelng earorz and stuff like that when all you can think about is wanting to get away.....whew, did you read all that?

OK, OK, I get the point. At least you started with a capital letter, tossed in some ellipsis and a comma, and then ended it with a question mark!

Oh, the 3 forums that I most frequent are The Hearth Room, The Wood Shed, and The Gear, and at that I can't seem to find the time to read all the posts.

 

[yooperdave]

I would like to take this time to personally apologize to all forum members that are offended by poor punctuation. I am one of the guilty parties that never took the time to capitalize, etc. etc. And i don't use the emotions smileys or whatever they are called.

Promise to make an effort to at least capitalize.

I do read posts from certain members, no matter what the title. Probably about a dozen or more of must reads on my personal list. I also scan the titles and must admit that a catchy one gets opened up.

By the way, I think that this is one of the better surveys that has showed up lately. It also tends to improve the web-site by asking the questions it does, no?

 

[fossil]

I just cruise around through the forums looking for threads to shut down, or posts to delete, or members to otherwise just tick off. Hey, it's my job. And there's really no way to protect yourself from mayhem like me. :coolgrin:

 

[Dix]

I just cruise around through the forums looking for threads to shut down, or posts to delete, or members to otherwise just tick off. Hey, it's my job. And there's really no way to protect yourself from mayhem like me. :coolgrin:

You risque devil, you ;-P

 

[bluedogz]

1. When reading posts, do you only frequent certain forums and maybe wander into others rarely?

Certain fora of interest... Hearth Room, Wood Shed, and so on. Others on occasion. A few have no application to what I do, so I don't bother.


2. When scanning titles, do you read them all or does the poster need to capture your attention with a well worded title?

Skim 'em all. I'm more likely to read if the gives SOME indication what the post is about. Sometimes that's hard (another "Wood ID?").

3. When reading the OP’s post, does lack of punctuation, paragraph breaks, and/or sentence structure cause you to hit the back button?

Catholic-educated grammar pedant that I am, this drives me nucking futs. Some folks are more savvy than others, and some folks I'm consistently amazed can actually speak.

4. If luke warm on a thread, do you often only reply based on what someone else replied?

Personal promise- don't post anything unless it's related to the OP or adds to the conversation. Otherwise I TRY to shut the eff up. What I have to say about wood burning is not valuable enough to anyone that I need to open my virtual cake hole.

 

[PapaDave]

"At least you started with a capital letter, tossed in some ellipsis and a comma, and then ended it with a question mark!"
I'm surely not an Engrish major, but that stuff bugs me a bit, as you may have noticed.
I used an apostrophe and at least one comma too. Dang it!

Rick, I LOVE those commercials. That guy at least looks like he's having fun doing 'em.
And, I've wondered occasionally, whether I've forgotten to hit the "Submit Post" button, or the post has been deleted. I'll continue wondering.....a little. :coolsmile: