As a new gardner who is keen for knowledge I try to read about everyones problems and the answers to them.
BUT HOW does one keep track of all these messages ???
HELP me, Ken John.

OK, just above the message you will see an icon that looks somewhat like a pair of binoculars. The caption is Watch This Message. Click that. Next time you log on click the Icon that says "Your Watches" Another thing you can do is run a search.

The 'search' feature is an important one on this site. So often the same question is posted over & over, when really, all that the poster needed to do is type in the key word of his/her question, & the stored answers are all there. Not that we ever tire of talking about compost, rabbits, & powdery mildew; ask away!! But if you need an immediate answer, chances are, if you do a Search, it'll be there.

Patience sir, and lots of reading! Read and read those posts, and if a particular line of conversation is very interesting, save that as one of your "watches". Sometimes, I like to reread certain conversations, for entertainment, or for the knowledge contained therein. So, if I mark it as something to "watch", at least I can remember the title of the thread in which it is contained.

The only problem is the list of "watches" can get so darn long. At some point you have to give them up to make room for more, or drive yourself nuts tryin' to remember. The good news is that the topics do get repeated, and new stories get added, and those entertaining little tidbits get thrown in here and there.

Forums, threads, and individual messages: how can you tell what's new and what's read?

The way I see the writings, on each forum, anything that's got a new reply is at the top of the listing of thread titles.

Then, the words of the thread title that I've already clicked on are shaded kind of light green-gray. The ones I haven't yet opened for reading are still red.

If an already-read thread (hey, that rhymes!) is green-gray, then I look left of it at the little dots. If the dot is gray, I know that there are no new messages on that thread. If it's still red-orange, then I know there's a new message on that thread to read. Once you leave a forum, all those dots are grayed out because the computer assumes that you've seen all the titles listed.

I hope that made sense!

Thank you one and all for that good guidance and advice. Much appreciated :x Ken John.

Hey Aris, you summed that up quite nicely. I have found that if I do NOT log on, when I go to the highlighted threads, the messages I personally, have not seen have an ! exclamation mark by them. So I can read all those I haven't seen yet, BEFORE logging on. Or, if I want to reply, I log on, write my message, post it, then LOG off so I'm back to getting those exclamation marks. This makes it much easier to find messages that are tucked into the middle of a line of conversations, without having to look at the date/time of each reply. However, once I leave this website, if I didn't get around to reading all the ! messages, the next time I come here the ! are not there. The other problem with not logging on is you have to click on each person's comments to bring them up, rather than being able to read them all (as in the "threaded" choice on your settings/profile page).

Log on or not? If you have your cookies turned on and then click the lil box in your settings that asks "remember me?" you will be automatically logged on as soon as you open the page. Saves the hassel. Does anyone ever log out? I don't, just go to another site.