How to use a sticky pin.

[Jon]

Another trick is to browse this page: https://www.homemadetools.net/best

We setup that page so that it ONLY features tool builds from the Must Read subforum. Nobody can start a new discussion in the Must Read subforum; discussions are manually moved in there monthly, once they accrue 5+ Thanks votes (and weekly if the thread starter wins a Homemade Tool of the Week award). On the Best page, each tool card links directly to the exact featured forum post. Almost all of the "Moved: " threads you see have been moved into Must Read because of their high quality.

We did this after a months-long retention test. Turns out that viewing our Must Read subforum was strongly correlated with long-term forum retention. I've been recommending to all forum admins that they implement some sort of permanent system to filter out and constantly promote their forum's best threads, beyond just sticky'ing good threads to the top of a subforum.

Another trick is to roll your own search url, like this:

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/search.php?do=process&contenttype=vBForum_Post&exclude=12,24,26,29,30,31,35,37,41,42,43,44,45,46&searchdate=2&beforeafter=after&sortby=lastpost&showposts=0

The above url searches for new posts from the past 2 days (searchdate=2), sorted by newest first (sortby=lastpost), and displays results as threads, rather than posts (showposts=0), and excludes new posts from various forums identified by forumid (exclude=12,24,26,29,30,31,35,37,41,42,43,44,45,46).

Beyond that, you can use an RSS reader to pull new posts per your specifications, even combined with a desktop RSS feed notifier, so you'll get a little notification every time there's something new that you want to see. This trick is best for rapidly skimming new stuff from multiple websites at once.

The new homepage is also not terrible: HomemadeTools.net Homepage . But it will be a bit light for more frequent site users.

And if there is a builder whose work you like, view all his tools here: Homemade Tools Builders - HomemadeTools.net . We're still working on adding a "View all my tools" link to everyone's forum postbit (under their avatar). There is an entity resolution challenge here, in sorting out "Toolguy123" on HomemadeTools.net, from the same-named user on some other website whose tools we've indexed.