1. See if DI, Anil, or MasterPlan have posted anything.
2. Visit Vanguard to check on our Portfolio Showdown prep.
3. Get distracted by some idiotic Politics post - and then ask myself why M* even has a Politics forum.
   

I'll participate:

1. Check my email to see if any of my favorite threads have been updated. Would be nice if my favorite threads were listed on the web as well.
2. Check the morningstar.com forum.
3. Scan the All Posts tab to see what is making news.  Click through when something catches my eye, or when one of my favorite posters is writing.
   

~~~

For those curious, M*_Jacob is the Discuss team's designer.  As part of our fall update, I've asked him to revisit the navigation, sorting, usability -- basically overall design of Discuss to identify ways that we can make the site more user-friendly. Something that catches your top three activities and delivers them to you in one page, versus having to dig around for it.

Thanks,

M*_Darrin

"#3 Get distracted by some idiotic Politics post - and then ask myself why M* even has a Politics forum"

Ha, we have it to keep those topics less distracting from the regular topics 

I would like to put in a bad word for the ratings boxes.  I hope they are eliminated entirely as they have proven to be disruptive and fodder for mischief-makers.

pjstack

M*_Jacob:

What's the FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD thing you ..... want to look at when you visit Discuss?

I want to look at the recent topics/conversations of my favorite three forums all on the same first page after I click 'Discuss."  I'd actually learn how to name my favorites if that were a result.

For example, if my three favorites were Income & Dividend Investing and Diehards and CEFs, THOSE THREE would be on that first page with maybe the most recent half-dozen posts for each.

But also give me a one-click option from that proposed first page to get to all the forums and the most recent topic on one page (as exists now).

Regards.

Cliff

Scan the Names of the Forums for my favorites (and wish they were easier to locate)

Click on and read titles of interest and occasionally post

Wish the distracting rating boxes would disappear

You asked and said not to think so here's my response:

First, I typically think I'll go to M* where I may learn something that may help me invest. Second, I go to my favorite forums where I see useless ratings and I get disgusted. I then remember why I'm here and start to read posts that interest me. I see valuable responses to various questions that are rated down and again I get disgusted and ask why M* insists on this. Third, I ask why I even came here.

Now I hear posts will become "recommended" or not sometime this fall. Geeze... I think my days of even stopping in here are numbered. Hope this helps! :-)

Hmm....something tells me people here don't like the rating system... -_•

The current rating system is going to go away, but we would like to have some kind of system to allow users to vote for useful posts, and to show which users are more active in the forums. This will be given a lot of thought and will be executed in a way that makes more sense to anyone using the forums, and can’t be abused by having people “downrate” someone for no good reason.
Don’t think of the current system as an example.

 we would like to have some kind of system to allow users to vote for useful posts, and to show which users are more active in the forums.

Why?  Are your readers that stupid?  Have you bought into the thought that newbies have to be protected?  Do you think that "you" have the answer and others have to be protected from being enticed by the dark lord?

Anybody who reads the boards will soon figure out who posts frequently and there are certainly enough naysayers around here, no matter what your investing philosophy is, to give anybody with two brain cells feedback whatever.  And certainly enough different approaches that give some people apoplexy.  That is their problem.  You are going down the my way or the highway path.

Why do we need big brother?  This is the outgrowth of a paternalistic belief in your own infallability   People who can't read or comprehend shouldn't be managing their own investments.  The market and investing is as darwinian as real life.  Would you use a programmer b/c he was a nice guy or could talk a good game?  You have programmers who are good at slog work and programmers who make jumps; do you only want the sloggers?

Roberta