Having just returned from a happy visit to Canada for nephew's wedding (lovely photos here) - I need to catch up on all the happenings in forumland.

What do you do it - go through pages of 'view new post', drop into the cafe, check out your instrument?

Me, I make sure I have a very long time, start in the cafe, then Viva Woodwind, then the Teachers... etc. til I get round them all!

Lovely pics by the way!!

slowly. I don't try to read everything I've missed, usually. I put myself on " not stopping, just looking in to pick up the post" mode for a few days and gradually tune in to what's being discussed. Probably start in teachers' and cafe.

Glad you had a good trip, BachPensioner - welcome back ! Will have a look at your pictures later in the day when I have a bit more time.

With difficulty!!! There's so much to catch up on even after a couple of days away it's often a bit overwhelming, but I do a bit like maggiemay - do a quick title scan, look through a few that really capture my attention, and then gradually try to fill in on the others over the next week........otherwise I'd be glued to the computer for a good 2-3 hours at least just trying to read everything!

Click on the "view new posts" link. It brings up a list of all of the threads which have had posts added since you last logged on, and if you click on the little orange box next to a thread title, it takes you to the first new post in that thread since your last visit to the Forums.

Once in the list of new posts, I just scan the titles and see if anything looks interesting or relevant, or is new in the threads I've been following. It's amazing how much isn't actually relevant

I usually "view new posts" if I'm checking in fairly regularly, but if I've been away, I find that the number of pages for "new posts" is a bit daunting, and many of the posts aren't relevant because they're not for my instrument. So then I work my way down each of the "relevant for me" forums in turn, and I usually leave the cafe till last cos that takes the longest!

When you've finished reading a forum, you can either go to "Forum Options" just above the pinned threads and go to "Mark forum as read and return to board index"; or when you're back on the main board index, click on the dark blue IPB box next to the forum you've just read and it will turn light blue to show that you've read it.

Glad you had a good holiday and welcome back

Welcome back! When I was out of action, so to speak, for a few months a while back, I was totally overwhelmed by all that was going on when I logged in again, and I felt like a stranger - new members, big long threads, etc - so I spent a while just reading before I started throwing my oar in again.

I look at the last posts of the first thread on the list and reply to them - same as any other time really...

In other forums that I've used, I've tended to come home, visit the forum to mark everything as read, and then carried on the next day as usual.
On this forum, it's a bit different. This is the only forum I've ever used where I use 'View New Posts', rather than going in to the separate boards and seeing what is new. So when I got back from my holiday, I just did View New Posts. There were 14 pages (I have it set up to more-threads-per-page than the default). I looked through and caught up on a few things, spotted a few new things. Just like normal, only a bit more focussed than usual - not reading say 50% of threads, just the 25% that were really of most interest. Then I marked everything as read. Then I went to the Diploma board and read the results, as somehow I missed that in my browsing

That's more or less what I do.
Have a quick scan for what might be of interest then mark every board as read and start afresh.