Hello to everyone here who has joined lately, and/or has not quite worked out the site functions. You can learn a lot by reading ek hornbeck's diaries (and if you want a tip on where his username comes from; google "Inherit the Wind."
ek's done a great job here, but what I keep seeing, or guessing maybe, is that people take awhile to figure out the hotlist button. I didn't even notice it for months after I joined last September. True, I am one of those people who doesn't reliably notice things visually, and in my next life I want to be one of you folks who track, track, track.
But I am not, and perhaps others are not. Here's what the Hotlist button is about.
It's on the sidebar to the right, under tools. It's called "Your Hotlist." It's yours, it's not some advertising promo thing. It is, indeed, your tool.
Click on it. Be brave.
There will be three bolded categories on the left: "Hotlist," "Diary Watchlist," and "New Replies."
"Hotlist" is a place you can bookmark individual diaries. When you click on the "there's more" dealie below the intro to a diary, you get the full diary and the diary title will have a plus sign after it. If you click on it, you've hotlisted the diary. The title will then have a minus sign after it, and if you click on that, you've un-hotlisted it.
While you've got the diary hotlisted, it will show up whenever you click "Hotlist" inside this part of your user account.
"Diary Watchlist" is about subscribing to individual diarists. You can't do it until they post their first diaries, but then you can click on the "subscribe" button after the diarist's name, at the top of the diary. Then every time that person posts a diary here, that diary will show up, under their name, on your diary watchlist. Note: stories (the stuff on the left side of the page, usually by editors/site administrators, won't show up here on your diary watchlist. (I think that should be changed.) If there's a FP'er (front-pager, site editor, site administrator) who posts over there, you will miss them if you only look for their diaries bumping up on your subscribed list. You can, however, always click on someone's name and see their latest diary.
"New Replies." This part will show you new replies to your comments, unless you read and replied to them really quickly, or waited for several days before looking back at your hotlist. It's handy for people who are commenting a lot here on multiple diaries in one day, and don't want to keep going back to the diary they commented on to see if there are any replies.
Hope that helps!
best,
Miep