how much time should you spend on forums

[HunkyLuke]

what do you think, is it best to limit your forum time to just a few minutes a day or do you get more value from trolling forums throughout the day?

[GayGeek]

Only long enough so that you click on all the banners that the forum webmaster is displaying. Anything more than that and you are just wasting his bandwidth.

--Aaron

[PUMPaul]

I like Aaron's answer but,

Sometimes I spend hours on the forums looking up old posts to learn a new skill or check the reputation of a potential sponsor. Most of my blogroll links came from people from the forums.

Other days 15 minutes is enough and some days when things are busy, I don't visit at all. The new thread e-mail that Lee sends frequently gets my attention and keeps me coming back.

[HunkyLuke]

The new thread e-mail that Lee sends frequently gets my attention and keeps me coming back.

yeah that always gets me too

[HunkyLuke]

Only long enough so that you click on all the banners that the forum webmaster is displaying. Anything more than that and you are just wasting his bandwidth.

--Aaron

I use Ad Block Plus Firefox extension so I don't even see the banners / buttons here

[Bec]

I use Ad Block Plus Firefox extension so I don't even see the banners / buttons here

Curious about why you'd want to block banners for sponsors that might have something (new niche) you need or want on some of those non hunkmoney blogs you have?

[ponyboy]

I just kind of skimm over a few threads here, and on joine the impact I do some light reading

[HunkyLuke]

Curious about why you'd want to block banners for sponsors that might have something (new niche) you need or want on some of those non hunkmoney blogs you have?

I was really tired of being bombarded with banner ads, not just here but everywhere...and as a bonus I now get to see if MY banners are blocked (which so far they are not)

[ponyboy]

:scissors: i don't look at banners any more

[Teaser]

Forums are great, but I find them so distracting and I get addicted to posting the next thing i know its time to head to bed and I find I have gotten zero done for the day...

[Lee]

Personally, i spend a lot of my time on the various industry boards, gay and straight and to be honest i am constantly amazed at how much time some people really do spend on the boards.

There are several people that stand out both on gay and straight webmaster forums where it literally does appear that they are online at least 12 hours a day and posting.

Personally, first thing in the morning ill hit about 35 message boards, see whats being talked about, add some posts if i find the topic interesting or i can add something usefull for others to use.

After ive done my daily 'hit' of the boards ill then come over to GWW, read whats been posted, reply to a few threads and start a few threads.

I do think a lot of people come to the boards for the wrong reasons though, boards can be an extremely usefull tool when used correctly and i think a lot of people mistake the value of message boards being more a 'marketing' tool than a learning and networking too.

One of the things im going to be having Paul do starting next week is learn the difference between marketing on, and larning from the boards in the industry, there is a balance to had between the two but more often than not, webmasters use the boards as nothing more than a tool to spam their wares or put others down to try and make themselves look better.

I personally spend aproximately 1 hour a day on the boards... Sometimes 2 hours, any more than that and i find my 'regular' work starts to suffer.

Regards,

Lee

[ponyboy]

:fool: thinking about it on a nice summers day you should spend as little as you can and get away from the computer and get outdoors, surfs up dudes

[tim460]

Maybe some of those people who look like they are on all day are doing what I do sometimes. I'm doing my work at my computer hour after hour, but I get emails when somebody posts something on a post that I did. If I feel like it, I quickly check it out, might respond, or might see what other threads are new, or might ignore it. It might look like I'm on but really I'm working. But you are right, Lee, those breaks do add up.

[Notime]

I do spend quite some time on boards in the evenings. Beats watching TV commercials and bad news.
Most time I spend on doing reading to see what people and companies do and who are the decent and innovative ones.

Very informative but also a bit addicting at the same time I must say.

[SirGuy]

I spend a fair amount of time on various boards - but usually its while taking a break from the studio, or photo editing...whatnot.

Old habits die hard.