How to use a sticky pin.

[mklotz]

Hi Homeengineer, I don't look in the other forums too often. I hang out here so posting your items here, for me, works great.
I have noticed the the administrators will move posts that fit in another forum that they have as necessary.
Tool tips and trick's is a forum I will start watching since many tool uses either commercial or home built could be posted there first.

Cheers, JR

Well now that got me thinking. I just checked all of the moved items from the homemade tools forum and all of the moved items were
moved to the must read forum. So looks like if it is posted here it stays here. I will still start checking the tips and tricks forum for new ideas....

Double Cheers, JR

Rather than going to a specific sub-forum, I find it more profitable to read "What's New?"...see the button at the top of the page or use this URL...

Activity Stream - Homemade Tools Forum

This way, I see all the new posts from all the sub-fora.

[Jon]

Another trick is to browse this page: https://www.homemadetools.net/best

We setup that page so that it ONLY features tool builds from the Must Read subforum. Nobody can start a new discussion in the Must Read subforum; discussions are manually moved in there monthly, once they accrue 5+ Thanks votes (and weekly if the thread starter wins a Homemade Tool of the Week award). On the Best page, each tool card links directly to the exact featured forum post. Almost all of the "Moved: " threads you see have been moved into Must Read because of their high quality.

We did this after a months-long retention test. Turns out that viewing our Must Read subforum was strongly correlated with long-term forum retention. I've been recommending to all forum admins that they implement some sort of permanent system to filter out and constantly promote their forum's best threads, beyond just sticky'ing good threads to the top of a subforum.

Another trick is to roll your own search url, like this:

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/search.php?do=process&contenttype=vBForum_Post&exclude=12,24,26,29,30,31,35,37,41,42,43,44,45,46&searchdate=2&beforeafter=after&sortby=lastpost&showposts=0

The above url searches for new posts from the past 2 days (searchdate=2), sorted by newest first (sortby=lastpost), and displays results as threads, rather than posts (showposts=0), and excludes new posts from various forums identified by forumid (exclude=12,24,26,29,30,31,35,37,41,42,43,44,45,46).

Beyond that, you can use an RSS reader to pull new posts per your specifications, even combined with a desktop RSS feed notifier, so you'll get a little notification every time there's something new that you want to see. This trick is best for rapidly skimming new stuff from multiple websites at once.

The new homepage is also not terrible: HomemadeTools.net Homepage . But it will be a bit light for more frequent site users.

And if there is a builder whose work you like, view all his tools here: Homemade Tools Builders - HomemadeTools.net . We're still working on adding a "View all my tools" link to everyone's forum postbit (under their avatar). There is an entity resolution challenge here, in sorting out "Toolguy123" on HomemadeTools.net, from the same-named user on some other website whose tools we've indexed.

[jjr2001]

Thanks Marv and Jon. That What's new link is very worthy of my attention from now on.
I usually just look at the homemadetools forum and sort it by new first.

Jon, thanks for the explanation of the web site and the notes on Best and Must Read forums.
I will try to use them more often than I used to.

Cheers, JR

[Frank S]

I'm an avid searcher on this site and have been so for a few years. Daily and often several times a day I scroll through each and every sub-forum when there are new posts I look at the post times compared to my last visit. When it comes to the builders page I frequently fall down a rabbit hole reading their older builds. If there was a click pay to my browsing we could pay the national dept with the proceeds

[mklotz]

Thanks Marv and Jon. That What's new link is very worthy of my attention from now on.

It's not just this forum. Most of the better fora have the equivalent of the "What's New?" button.

I like the feature because it more or less forcibly exposes me to material I might otherwise skip over. For example, the Chaski site has a very active Live Steam Railroading sub-forum. Having no interest in that subject, I would never look at it. However, new items pop up in front of me and, unsurprisingly, on a number of occasions I've learned something, even extending to a few new tools.

[jjr2001]

Great idea Frank. I think we should call it Hmtcoin and have it automatically sent to the treasury.

Cheers, JR

Good point Marv, I find HMT is my institution of higher learning.

[Moby Duck]

[QUOTE=Jon;106530]Another trick is to browse this page: http://www.homemadetols.net/best

Jon:- This link is not working for me. Check the typo, "tols" instead of "tools", but even when I change it to tools it still doesn't work.

[Jon]

Another trick is to browse this page: http://www.homemadetols.net/best

Jon:- This link is not working for me. Check the typo, "tols" instead of "tools", but even when I change it to tools it still doesn't work.

Derp, thanks, fixed. You would think I would be able to spell "tools" correctly.