Tech: How to save time and spirit surfing threads

Subject: How to save time and spirit surfing threads
From: BSeed
Date: 30 Aug 98 - 05:16 PM

I don't know how many of you have this problem, which I think is an aol thing:

I used to go crazy trying to read the threads list: I'd click the Show Threads button, after a second the threads would appear, then before I'd had time to scan 15 or so thread names, the threads would disappear. I'd click Show Threads again and a much shorter list, usually only about one screen's worth, would appear, and again would disappear after a few seconds. Another click would bring back an even shorter list: maybe as few as three or four thread links.

Finally I figured it out (after a month of fighting it: I'm none too rapid). I noticed that I was clicking while the blue aol triangle in the upper right corner of the screen was spinning, that is, before aol's server had taken me all the way, or at least before it recognized that it had.

Solution? Just wait until the triangle stops spinning: the threads appear without being summoned, and stay there.

One other clue: avoid the Back arrow, unless you are trying to get to a thread you visited before: if you use it at the end of a fairly long thread, it takes you back to the top of the thread rather than back to the threads list. Another click takes you to the list, but you have to wait for the triangle to stop spinning. Instead, click on Forum Home and you go right back to the spot in the list you came from.

I hope this is of use to some of you. --seed