How do you read the forums

[TᴀW]

Hi,

With all due respect, these forums are THE WORST that I have come across anywhere on the WorldWideWeb.

Not in terms of content: amazingly helpful people abound.

But in terms of user experience, especially speed (like molasses in winter): both load times, and sluggish text entry (with occassional extra line feeds for good measure).

Now, I'm wondering if there are any other ways of reading the forums other than through the regular web interface? I remember fondly the days of access by NNTP, but that, I understand, no longer exists (too efficient, I guess).

But I do remember reading somewhere that someone was developing an Air application to read the forums. Maybe that's better. Does that exist? Does it work?

Otherwise, any other methods that people here can recommend?

Many thanks,

Ariel

[Captiv8r]

Hi Ariel

Personally, I just subscribe to the forums I'm interested in. By doing that I receive an instant E-Mail notification of posts and replies. In my E-Mail client I have rules that route the forum posts into specific folders. I am then able to easily scan the messages in my E-Mail client and visit the web interface to reply.

Cheers... Rick

[TᴀW]

I see. But like I said to Harbs, doesn't that slow you down when you

just want to check your email?

[Harbs.]

Yes. I also have a lot of filters.

Yes. Email takes longer to check, but it does not really bother me because it happens in the background...

Harbs

[Fred Goldman]

I am not sure about other email clients, but in Outlook there is an option to have specific accounts checked automatically every couple of minutes (i.e. your regular email) and other accounts (i.e. the email address your forum messages are sent to) only downloaded when you press send/receive.

[Harbs.]

That presupposes you have a special account for the forum... (I don't.)

Harbs

[Harbs.]

The AIR app almost exists. Jochem can comment on its status better than I can...

I mostly use email for forum access. I only go to the web interface when I'm posting code which will get killed by the forum software otherwise, or I need to see a post with images, etc...

Harbs

[TᴀW]

Hi Harbs,

So you subscribe to a bunch of forums and get all the messages in your

inbox? Doesn't that mean that every time you check your email you have

rather a long wait?

[MichaelKazlow]

I use NetNewsWire an RSS client. It has advantages and disadvantages, but for the most part it works.