New to DU - First Post - A few questions not covered in the FAQ

[Mumblefratz]

I've just recently joined DU, however I have been using DU as a reference for at least a year now.

There are a couple of terms that I've seen frequently used here that I'm not familiar with and I couldn't find them covered in the FAQ.

K&R is the first one. From context this seems to mean kicked & recommended. The recommended and unrecommend links became obvious once I actually joined and those functions became available to me, however the term "kicked" still eludes me. The explanation at the bottom of the Latest list implies that kicked is merely what most sites consider "bumping" a thread which is replying to a thread solely for the purpose of bringing it to the top of the most recent posts list.

The Latest seems to be pretty much analogous to what I'm more familiar with as a recent posts list except for the fact that replies do not "kick" a post back to the top. So my question is if a recent reply does not "kick" a thread back to the top of the Latest list then how exactly do you "kick" a thread?

I personally find the lack of this function limits the usefulness of the Latest list. It seems that a thread will start at the top of the list only once when created and thereafter quickly fade to oblivion. In order to get around this which I perceive as a problem I typically will simply monitor a forum of interest directly like the General Discussion forum and there at least threads do get "bumped" to the top when they receive a new reply. You also get the indication of "hot" threads there that you don't get in the Latest list. The downside of this is that you can only monitor replies in one forum at a time and can easily miss replies of interest in other forums.

My questions are can you really kick a thread back to the top of the Latest list and if not how do you deal with the issue of threads dying quickly simply because they are no longer visible on the top page of the Latest list? Or is there some other way of viewing forum activity about which I am unaware?

The other term that I've seen is n/t or sometimes simply nt. I have no clue as to what this means. Can anyone help a brother out here?

Also are there any other idiosyncrasies specific to the site that I might not have encountered yet?

Finally I haven't contributed as of yet. I am still kicking the tires so to speak, but I have no issue with supporting things that I feel are worthy of support. I know that being able to download your own avatar is one thing reserved to contributors, are there other functionality or benefits to contributing of which I am not aware?

Thank you for your anticipated assistance. :)

[Ptah]

1. Welcome to The Lounge.

[taterguy]

2. N/T stands for Nicholas Tremulis

It means the poster is a big fan of his work

[Mumblefratz]

4. You're kidding right?

Or perhaps not, however I googled Nicholas Tremulis and am not any the wiser as to who or what he was or is.

[taterguy]

11. Don't trust Google

It suppresses all the really important information

[muffin1]

5. tsk-tsk

:P

[ChoralScholar]

3. I'll go from bottom to top

Contributing gets you the avatar, and also lets you use the more powerful non-Google-based search. Also in periods of high traffic, it's another striation in the hierarchy. If the site needed to be limited access to control traffic, a contributing user would be a level above a non-contributing user. However, I don't think we've ever made it that far into DEFCON, so to speak.

n/t means 'no text'. You might put it in the body of your message if the subject said all you intended to say. It's a way of letting the reader know you meant to leave it blank. I use EOM 'end of message'

The rest of your questions seem to deal with not knowing how to view posts outside of the 'Latest' function. Latest is just that - the very latest threads in every forum (except the lounge, I think).

Now, if you go to the forum itself, (click on Lobby, then your desired forum) then you'll see the 'kick' or 'bump' come into play. The last replied message will be at the top (however you can sort by start time as well - sometimes you might want to).

The latest list is most useful for people that come looking for news, or new discussions they haven't seen.

Maybe that'll answer most of your questions.

[Mumblefratz]

6. Yep that's pretty much it.

Other than the latest list. I guess the question boils down to what do most people use, the Latest list or do they scan through forums of interest looking for recent activity?

Has there ever been any reason given as to why the Latest list does not "kick" or "bump" based on recent activity?

[ChoralScholar]

8. Not that I know of...

I personally, just go to the lounge forum, and see what's up. My browser bookmark takes me to the lounge first. Most of the time you can get into a back-and-forth which makes the bump/kick useful.

If I've just got a few minutes, and I want to see what's up - what's new, etc, I'll click on the Latest list.

Also, if you want to see what's really getting people stirred up, check out the Greatest list.

It's all basically personal preference. Whatever way you get used to using the site is the way it works for you.

I will tell you there is a lot of information here, and a lot of very intelligent people. There are also a lot of inside jokes, which you will come to understand as you spend time here.

Welcome to DU!

[HopeHoops]

7. welcome to DU. In case you missed it, "moran" is a joke, not a typo.

It is a reference to the guy with the "Get a brain morans" sign.

[bigwillq]

9. Hello.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[MrScorpio]

10. Welcome to DU. Mumblefratz

Please stick arounds!

[onestepforward]

12. Welcome to DU!

Navigating around the site is a little confusing at first, but you'll get it down with a little time!

:hi:

[bridgit]

13. Cool. Welcome to DU. Remember its all my fault and do *not* leave home without your Multi Pass

[Orangepeel]

14. It's a donkey kick

:kick:

And it kicks it back up to the top of the forum it is posted in.

The latest and greatest pages are relatively new additions to DU (recommend is even newer). Kick precedes all of them. There used to be only a few forums (only Latest Breaking News and General Discussion when I joined way back in 2001, if I remember correctly). DU is constantly being improved, which is the biggest reason to donate IMO.

Welcome to DU :hi:

[AsahinaKimi]

15. Welcome to DU ~Yokoso ji DU, yatta!!

And the Lounge, hope you have fun! :hi:

[av8rdave]

16. Welcome! I don't know how much this helps, but....

I got the impression you're looking for threads that generate the most interest/activity. Don't forget to take a look at the far right column in any group/forum. You'll see the number of times the thread has been looked at.

Sounds overly simplistic, but I've found it pretty useful in deciding what might warrant a closer look. That and the really recent stuff, of course.

Hope this helps a little. See you around the forums!

[RushIsRot]

17. The DU Glossary will answer most of your newbie questions.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=358&topic_id=190&mesg_id=190

[Canuckistanian]

18. n/t = No Text

That is, the post title is the entire message.

Of course, you could just look at the whole post and see that there's no more text, but that would require another 0.05sec. worth of viewing effort.

We're all about efficiency here.

Welcome to DU!
:toast:
:hi: