Two weeks ago, I made a post called Some thoughts on what's worked for me in my first ten days here (#454547)

Not surprisingly, I've learned some stuff since then.

People put a lot of good info in their bios, not just about who they are, but things like links to good posts they've made, into about projects they've worked on, etc. When someone posts something interesting, I go take a look at them and often discover a bunch of new things I want to read and learn more about.

There are a lot of territories and there are a lot of posts. Subscribing to territories makes sense for the ones that only get a few updates a day. But if there are stackers you want to hear from whenever they say anything, subscribe to their posts! And I mentioned in my first post that I didn't subscribe to most territories, but I've realized that it's too easy to miss posts in the main feed (and )

I'd been here for nearly three weeks, and while I'd read plenty of posts from ~privacy via the firehose, I'd never actually just gone to the territory directly. Which means I'd totally missed the fantastic Stacker News Privacy Directory V1 - Q4 2023 (#342249). Since then, I've spent days working my way through the fantastic directory of posts there.

Also, read the actual territory info boxes! They're minimized by default (and are actually hidden if you're viewing Recent or Top), so they're really easy to miss, but it's the way to get a sense of the territory's purpose (some are more obvious than others).

This kind of goes hand in hand with the previous items. I come across a lot of great content here, but it's not always actionable content. Bookmarking is great (I'm talking about SN's bookmarks, though I guess browser ones work, too).

Also, if it's good enough to bookmark, it's good enough to zap, even if it's an old post.

I don't do either of these a lot; downzapping having a cost means it's not just like the thumbs-down button on YT. If I'm downzapping, it's not just "I disagree" or even "I don't like this." My downzapping is for content that I actively want to be disengaged from or that feels trolly. So it's rare, but I do use it.

As for muting, if I end up downzapping the same person multiple times, that's a sign to mute. But I also mute territories that I know I'll never interact with, since I tend to mostly consume content from the front page feed. There aren't many of those, either, but I know I'll never read posts in ~brasil, for instance (my language skills are awful), and there are a few territories that are specific enough that they're just not for me.

I didn't really pay attention to the Saloon at first. But now I hit it every day, multiple times. It's a great way to actually get some sense of your fellow Stackers, it's a fun place to hang out and post, and it's led me on multiple occasions to other cool posts (see point 1 above). And many territories also have daily or weekly gatherings -- ~sports and ~music have one that's worth checking multiple times a day, and ~books has a "Weekend Book Recommendations" post that's always fun.

I turned on the feature to show free posts pretty quickly, and I try to catch new bios in the feed. It's a good way to make other folks feel welcome. It's also a good way to spot folks who looks like they're maybe not here to contribute any content.

I read @undisciplined's "Million Sat Madness is a Keynesian Beauty Contest" post (#473181) yesterday and found it fascinating and one of the best reads of the day. Since MSM has pretty much been the norm for most of my time here, I'd never really thought about how it changed things, or how to really game it (beyond being active on the site). The notion that people might choose to not zap something because it might not be a big post hadn't occured to me. And I still don't have the handle on predicting what posts will blow up, so zapping things because I think others will also seems weird.

Instead, I've been zapping posts and comments I like (and, as I noted in my previous post, ones I interact with). I don't really have the patiences to comb through my stats, but looking at what's in the "spent" column for yesterday, I think I zapped four posts that broke 1000 sats overall (one of which was @undisciplined's post, of course), and a bunch where they barely hit three digits.

(I guess this is an extension of my "Strategy is overrated. Have fun" point from the first post)

And I'm doing fine. I'm not going to win MSM or come close, but if my current pace continues, I'll walk way with a lot of sats. And I'm not wasting any decision time/brainpower worrying about what to zap. I'm having fun and discovering good content.

(That's not to dismiss anyone else's way of interacting with SN; it's what's working for me.)