Forum Question 1,2 and 3:

1. Groups aren't really developed too well yet, although it's on our radar. Eventually, users will have their own groups in order to have subsets of A2K.
   
2. Ignore the thumbs or use them as you so desire. Thumbing down a thread removes it from your view, so you don't have to see it. Useful if, say, there are a bunch of crossword puzzle questions and that doesn't interest you. Thumbing up and down posts is often what people do to express agreement or disagreement, support or not, for what someone has said. They are intended to work somewhat like 'liking' on Facebook.
   
3. Use http://able2know.org/user/Candlelight8/following/ (and anyone reading along can just substitute their own userid in that URL) to see specifically which people you are following have recently written. Use http://able2know.org/user/Candlelight8/followers/ if you wish to see what the people who are following you have recently written. Or don't - but some people find those slices of the site useful.

Also - you didn't ask but I can help you with this anyway - you can ignore a user by going to their profile and clicking on Ignore User. You can un-ignore a user by going to their profile and clicking to reverse that action. You don't have to ignore anyone if you don't want to, but a lot of people find it helpful to sometimes take a break from other posters.

And I'm not drunk; it's still early-ish here and I gotta go podcast in two hours.

Thanks Jes, after some 17 years and I didn't even know this stuff. You might also explain to the fella about the Profile, which evidently nobody uses or understands

I greatly appreciate your reply to my inquiry. I wanted to respond to a post within a group but was not allowed without being registered. I don't know if I want to register more than once. I just don't know what that would be for?
I did not know that thumbing down a thread would remove it from view and knowing the function is what I was after. I did examine all the links concerning friends. So far, I have been following the posts and not the people. I can't imagine ignoring something I've seen. I lack the filters that many people seem to be born with. I think the website owners should have a how things function link. I think it would help a lot people. Thanks again, Candlelight8

Well, we do, except it's out of date or it gets out of date pretty quickly.

As for groups, right now we really just have nursing, philosophy, and COG. If you don't know what COG is, then you're not going to be interested in it.

There are philosophy discussions here, and this side seems to be livelier when it comes to that. Not sure about nursing.

Again, when it comes to ignoring, do it or not, it's certainly your choice.