ira wrote:You're the only one that knows, but what percentage of registered users still participate after 1 month, 3 months, ...? How many people who ask already answered questions for their first post remain for the long haul.

Of those who registered in the last year, 47% have posted at least once. Of these posters, 24% have returned in the last 3 months. Overall, 41% of registrants in the last year have returned in the last 3 months. That's higher than I expected.

ira wrote:But, the noise is new, only bad in the last year or maybe two and it's getting worse fast.

I wonder if it's an effect of more and more "settled" debates. Let's be honest: If you've been following this forum for 10+ years, it's hard not to recognize a prior discussion, despite that the new member thinks they're onto something unique. Moreover, my sense is that most repetition is localized to first-timer/one-off visitor forums like Buying Advice and Repairs.

Randy G. wrote:It would be nice if there was an easy way to avoid some specific forums for specific machines. As a personal example, BDB threads interest me not at all.

Most of the time, I use the unread posts and "mark read" links. Like many long-time members, I no longer follow most threads. If it's a new thread, I tend to read it, but once it's developed a page or two of replies, I have a habit of tuning it out. The new filtered list I proposed above is actually a fairly accurate representation of what I mentally do anyway. The "stop list" option I noted earlier could eliminate the Breville Dual Boiler type threads you're not interested in.

At Rainbow Gatherings there's an "A" camp in the parking lot/trail head. The gathering is quite a hike in. The locals who show up to get drunk and party are happy to stay in "A" camp and the gathering is peaceful and calm. Selfless, sober volunteers stay behind at "A" camp.

You could have a section open for new members to post newbie questions immediately and give them access to the calmer section after an interval.

Sounds like a horrible, elitest idea. I post it here not as a recommendation but just as part of the dialog.

I use New Posts, so I don't see how more forums and sub-forums would help.

This has been one of the most useful, helpful and civil forums I have seen. That said, both 'noise' and 'useful data, are relative terms. This is coming from someone who thinks majority of what is being called 'useful data' is also junk. I have seen waves of irrelevant obsessions and analysis come and go, some so easy to reject with a healthy dose of common sense. But I still browse these forums. Because, once in a while, I do get useful ideas and suggestions to buy products that are not hyped way out of proportion. If you hang around long enough you know the difference between "I tamped while dancing salsa and OMG, I pulled a God shot" vs "keep your eyes, ear, nose and brain open be persistent, you will evolve into pulling something you enjoy". Or simply know who's opinion fits your confirmation bias .
So, I am actually making a case for letting everyone talk nonsense whether newbie or oldie. Hopefully, once in a while they would contribute to something useful. Now, as I understand, the problem at hand is sifting the nonsense. The nonsense that is package nicely and gift wrapped with nice graphs and irrelevant or statistically insignificant data is highly desirable while all that nonsense of type '$-$$$$$$ budget, which setup?' are extremely boring to any seasoned HBer. And, the emissions from people suffering with GAS, Gear Acquisition Syndrome, are purely revolting. I think technology can take care of some of this sifting.
1) Appearance of post in recent topics and recent post can be thresholded. There can be a cooling period or number of posts threshold before new registrant's topic or thread can appear in recent list. That time would give serious ones opportunity to do some research (an automated note with easy instructions to use search function can be sent to all new registrations) and weed out lazy jerks.
2) There could be some forums that could be kept out of the recent lists. Like, all those whose spouse does not understand their escape into GAS, can float in there, sparing everyone else from falling into abyss.
3) Have a negative rating button to threads and posters (with generous leeway) so that "really out there" ones fall out of recent lists. The offending poster are banished from recent lists for certain period.
This could achieve a required balance of weeding the consensus junk out.
Apologies for long post and dark humor.

Maybe I'm a bit of an oddball amongst the regulars but I really have no problem weeding out with the noise. That being said my usage pattern is a bit unique.

I've been lurking since 2009 but only became a member in the last year or so. When I first started perusing the forum, it was when I was getting serious about coffee and was researching about espresso machines, grinders, workflow, and technique. Then once I got myself sorted over the course of 1-2 years, I drifted away happily enjoying my coffee. It wasn't until the last year that I got interested again in upping my game and see how things have changed over the last 6-9 years and, to be honest, things felt pretty stagnant with the exception of the titan grinders. However, it was the EG-1, Kafateks, and Titus grinders that got me interested into exploring more of the science behind coffee. From this, I became more interested again and actually started becoming a more active participant.

With the background aside, like I said, my usage pattern is unique and haven't been discussed. For the most part, I don't even login to read the posts here because I don't use any of the read/unread features. The only time I login on the forum is to actually make a post. My default landing page for this forum which I bookmark is actually the most recent topics page. I'll scan for any interesting topics that got updated since I last skim through and if there are interesting things, I'll read it. As a result, I skip about 95% of the posts but it also keeps me abreast on any new and interesting topics that pop up across all sub-forums.

This is style of reading is also similar to what I do for tracking 200+ websites, some mainstream like your typical news outlets and tech blogs and some more niche and specific blogs that I follow. I use Feedly to track all these sites and I'll get them in the form of an unread list and I'll skim through the topics of interest. On any given day, I'll get about 1500-2000 new posts of which I'll read 50-100. It's pretty quick to go through them all with an app like Reeder on iOS. So it's not all that terribly onerous as long as the posts have descriptive titles. And since I see all the titles of all the posts from the websites that I track, I get a pretty good sense of big news and trends that happen on any given day.

I doubt many people take this approach to reading but for me, I think the most important element for a reader like me is that the titles be properly descriptive so that I can decide whether I want to participate or learn more simply by reading from the sidelines.

Regardless as to how this is handled, or not, whether by admins or through participants' choices, we can all be assured that HB will not go down the road that led alt.coffee over the edge and into the abyss. Maybe just having an "IGNORE" button next to/near the subject of each thread would suffice. The user settings could have a selection of time periods like 1 week, one month, and permanently which would apply universally for that user.

I like the idea of the ignore button if it can easily be used to add to a filter for say recent topics. Great you have this much and want to buy, go surf for a while people. As for bdb, I skate pass the noise, I do the filter in my head, but would not mind having that functionality. Just filtering for subjects/topics would work for me as I surf recent topics.

I have not tried the unread as I honestly rarely read threads with ten pages of responses and found unread has all those .

Trying to get people to search and read forums is next to impossible here with some people, then there are others who want to learn and dive right in. Its a difficult position to be in for the admins.