While I've only been on bitcointalk for a few months, I have recently come across a
severely under-rated tool that I believe vital to utilizing the forum to its full potential and enhance the community, your own knowledge-base/awareness, your personal relationship with the community, as well as increasing your potential profit. While more tenured members may use these features regularly, I haven't noticed a topic posted here on the beginner's forum that outlines the use-cases, so I thought I'd share my insight and hopefully, we'll entice more community members to provide additional suggestions on ways we may all benefit.
The Watchlist feature is a tool on bitcointalk that allows you to:
-Track
NEW topics posted on bitcointalk boards of your choice (such as Beginners & Help, Marketplace, Mining, etc).
-Track replies on topics to which you've previously responded.
-Track replies on any topic that you find interesting.
-Easily edit/remove topics you are not interested in watching.
Why is this important and what are the benefits of using this tool?Community Benefits -Because you can track all posts you find interesting, you're more likely to provide communal discourse by responding to people who are replying to you. You can spend more of your time focused on discussing the things you enjoy and are knowledgeable of, or have a desire to learn about. The more that people respond to posts that they're interested in, the less spam the community will receive overall.
Knowledge Base/Awareness Benefits -Maybe you have a question about a specific project or news article, maybe you'd like to track all of the
*NEW* Bitcoin News Articles posted, perhaps you value speculative reviews on the current standing of the crypto community,
ALL of these things can be tracked and can potentially increase your knowledge base without requiring you to sift through 10 "will bitcoin die?" topics every time you refresh the page. This is essentially your own personal content filter.
Personal Benefits -Apart from the previously mentioned benefits which can arguably be applied to personal benefits as well, you can enhance your personal relationship with the community by responding to people who respond to you and by providing insight on those previously mentioned 'topics of interest.' No one finds friends or develops a love for a certain community unless they feel like they relate in some way. The best way to relate to someone is by finding shared interests, such as the topic you've already decided that you're interested in!
Profit Benefits -Not only are you more likely to get rewarded merit for responding to topics that you're genuinely passionate about, but you can also designate entire boards to show new topics in your watchlist (Hello Early Bounties/Airdrops!)
How is this different than showing your unread posts since last visit or showing new replies to your posts?When you 'show all unread posts since your last visit,' you're viewing every single post on every topic on every board since your last visit. Your watchlist only shows the posts/topics of your choice!
You would use the watchlist over 'show new replies to your posts' if you wanted to eliminate certain topics, such as bounty topics that are constantly updated with reports.
Watchlist basics:Begin by clicking on the 'watchlist' link in the top left corner of the page.
To delete topics -
- Choose 'Edit Watchlist'
- Check the box next to any topic you no longer wish to see
- Click the button labeled 'Remove Checked'
To be notified of any new topics posted to a specific board -
- Select 'Watch board'
- Enter the ID number at the end of the board link.
ex. The link for the Beginners & Help board is "
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=39.0" - So you would enter the number 39.
To add all topics that you've posted in previously -
- Select 'Add posted-to topics to watchlist'
- Click the button labeled 'Do it'
To add notify* enabled topics to watchlist -
- Select 'Add notify-enabled topics to watchlist'
- Click the button labeled 'Do it'
To add a specific topic that you have not replied to -
- Go to the topic.
- Select 'watch' next to the reply option located on the right at the top and bottom of the topic.
Notifications and YOU *BONUS* -
Notifications allow you to be notified via email of any new post AND/OR thread you designate. This can be beneficial if you want to watch something specific on the board, but need to step away from the website for a while and have access to your email.
You can change your notification settings by going to your profile and selecting 'Notifications and Email' on the left under the section labeled 'Modify Profile.'
The options allow you to:
- Watch topics once you've responded.
- Receive important notifications by email.
- Only receive a reply on a thread after ONE person responds (as opposed to receiving an email after every response/PLEASE SELECT THIS OPTION UNLESS YOU LIKE SPAM.)
- Turn on notifications for threads you respond to.
- Receive a 'preview' of the post you're notified of in the notification email.
- Customize what you'll be notified of (Depending on your situation, You may need to turn on moderation with replies, or only the replies themselves. Though I'm not entirely sure what the moderation notifications cover just yet, maybe someone could help)
To add Topics or Boards to your notifications list, go to the page of the desired board or thread and select 'notify' on the right side of the page-
Board - New Topic | Post New Poll | Mark Read | NOTIFY
Topic - Reply | Watch | NOTIFY | Mark Unread | Print
Please let me know if you have any suggestions of possible beneficial uses or if I've helped you navigate the waters of bitcointalk a little easier! Thanks!
I don't understand why anyone would not use the watchlist. You can configure the watchlist to be exactly the same as "show new replies to your posts" by configuring your posts to be auto-watched and adding your posted-in topics to your watchlist. After this is done, you can unwatch topics that you don't want to see.
references and sourcing :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=121853.msg1311529#msg1311529https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=watchlistNotification and Email section of Modify Profile
