How To: Use "What's New" / Easily Browse The New P&P
Discussion
Stolen from Mr Will 

Mr Will said:
PistonHeads is becoming a very big place, but we do have a function which makes it quick and easy to browse just the topics that interest you.
If you click 'My Preferences' at the top of the page then you will see the following tools:

By moving topics to the left hand column you can mark them as "Favourite Forums". I've picked the following:
General Gassing
Website Feedback (because it's my job!)
Classic Cars
All the new P&P forums except Business and Jobs
French Bred (I have a Citroen)
Triumph (I'm restoring one)
Caterham (I wish had one!)
Kent and Essex (My Local group)
This changes two pages, firstly the gassing station homepage now looks like this:

showing only the forums I have selected.
More importantly though, it also affects how the "What's New" function works.
By clicking on "What's New" (in the top right of most pages) I can now see the following page, which shows all the topics since my last visit. I can also show the topics for either the last 3, 12, 24 or 72 hours, simply by clicking on the corresponding link:

As you can see, it has all the car related and non-motoring topics from the forums I'm interested in, in one place, without any of the topics I don't want to see.
It can also be sorted by forum (or back to by last post) just by clicking the relevant heading. The forum view looks like this:

If I want to go back to a broader view I can just click the "Show all forums" button to see everything, both on the Gassing Station homepage and in "What's New"
Any problems or comments then just let me know below!
If you click 'My Preferences' at the top of the page then you will see the following tools:

By moving topics to the left hand column you can mark them as "Favourite Forums". I've picked the following:
General Gassing
Website Feedback (because it's my job!)
Classic Cars
All the new P&P forums except Business and Jobs
French Bred (I have a Citroen)
Triumph (I'm restoring one)
Caterham (I wish had one!)
Kent and Essex (My Local group)
This changes two pages, firstly the gassing station homepage now looks like this:

showing only the forums I have selected.
More importantly though, it also affects how the "What's New" function works.
By clicking on "What's New" (in the top right of most pages) I can now see the following page, which shows all the topics since my last visit. I can also show the topics for either the last 3, 12, 24 or 72 hours, simply by clicking on the corresponding link:

As you can see, it has all the car related and non-motoring topics from the forums I'm interested in, in one place, without any of the topics I don't want to see.
It can also be sorted by forum (or back to by last post) just by clicking the relevant heading. The forum view looks like this:

If I want to go back to a broader view I can just click the "Show all forums" button to see everything, both on the Gassing Station homepage and in "What's New"
Any problems or comments then just let me know below!

Garlick said:
Stolen from Mr Will 
But that is the main argument - the great thing about P&P, as the name suggests, was that it's a pub-type atmosphere where you can be involved in any topics you wish to be, ignore the ones you aren't interested in but occassionally stumble into incredible mind-broadening posts on any number of subjects that wouldn't necessarily be your 'chosen subjects'.
Mr Will said:
makes it quick and easy to browse just the topics that interest you.
I operate 'change' for a living although I'm struggling to see how this is an improvement

Garlick said:
If I want to go back to a broader view I can just click the "Show all forums" button to see everything, both on the Gassing Station homepage and in "What's New"
but thats the 
then when i want to go view the pie n piston complex again i have to go to a different menu... whats new - then click 'show only fave forums'
frankly its a pain
andy_s said:
It's easy, easier if you've been using preferences and whats new for a while - I've found it to be the best way to view pistonheads - the way you access material may have to change slightly but the content is all there still. I don't get what people don't get about it?

As I've used favourites & What's New for ages I actually didn't notice that the site had changed for a while; the team that whips the hamsters clearly ensured that the new categories were added to people's existing favourites in a sensible manner

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