I have a difficult time getting back to the community forum later to resume posting. In the past, I have given up but in 2025 I vowed to pursue the answer. Help, please…
Hey, Donna - First, thanks for posting as you can. I’ve been seeing your comments today & appreciating them very much.
I’m not a huge fan of the navigation options in the Forum and I agree, it’s hard to get back to where you want to be.
For me, the easiest thing to do is to use the bar at the left side of the screen (and if you don’t see a bar/folders along the left, click the three lines in the upper left corner to toggle them on). You can select “My Posts” near the top to navigate to posts you’ve made or have started. Mostly I use the folders under Categories. If you click Book Clubs you’ll see the various books we’re discussion, & then clicking one of those will show you all the questions. The other options you might be interested in are “General,” where we post the question of the week, and “Recent Reads,” where we post what we’re reading this week.
I think Nick said there was a tutorial somewhere that was helpful, but I’m not finding it right away. I’ll poke around and see what else I can find.
I hope that’s helpful! Please let me know if you’re running into specific roadblocks & I’ll do what I can to assist.
Hi again - To prove this is a learning experience…
I just discovered there’s a little keyboard icon in the lower left corner of the menu bar. Clicking on that you can see a bunch of navigation keys, which helped me tremendously. Just hitting the letter u takes you back a page (as long as you’re not in a comment, like I am here). I found that tremendously helpful, and urge you to take a look at that, too.
I just hate the discussion format as it is now–I have to hit the back arrow whenever I reply to a question on a book and want to continue to the next one. In the past, once you answered a question and posted it, the page returned to the discussion questions and you just needed to move on. I think I will only choose books to review in future, if I continue my membership at all.
Hi Katherine - I’m sorry you’re finding the new format frustrating. In some ways it’s definitely more challenging than the old one. What I enjoy about this new format, though, is the ability to interact with other readers beyond just answering the discussion question. After all, that’s what’s so great about book groups - the chance to talk about what y’all have read - the shared experience. So yeah, it’s a tradeoff.
Another navigational option is to click Book Clubs on the left side of the page and then the cover of the book to see all the discussion questions, but it’s certainly not a “one-click” option as it was in the old format.
I know you’re frustrated right now, but I hope it doesn’t discourage you from requesting books and chiming in in the future. Your comments are much appreciated and really add to the discussion.
I am finding it difficult to stay with a book discussion. I find that when I finish a comment, I am routed back to a different discussion/book and then must wend my way back to where I want to go. The navigation doesn’t seem very intuitive.
Hi @Becky_Haase I’m sorry you’re running into difficulty with the navigation. I agree that at first it’s a bit of a challenge. One thing that helped me tremendously was finding the little keyboard in the lower left corner of your screen. It’ll show you some navigational shortcuts, but the single most helpful one is the “u” key, which takes you back a screen.
I recorded this short (3-minute) video for someone recently who needed help with the forum, and I’m including the link to it here in case it helps you as well:
When you first access the forum, make note of the banner at the top of the page. You may want to take a look at the “Getting Started” info, which, among other things, has a link to a video tutorial that may also help.
Another trick is to use the Categories on the left side of the screen. It might make getting back to the discussion you’re interested in easier to find.
I hope that helps! Please let me know what additional questions you have, and if there’s any way I can make the process easier for you.
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Hi Becky, if you can share which page you’re on after you make a comment that will help figure out what’s going on.
What should be / is likely happening is you’re being routed to the bottom of the question you replied to (below the other responses). You can always reach the main discussion from any topic by clicking the category name below the topic title at the top of the screen, whether on mobile or desktop.
For example looking at your most recent discussion response, when you reply you’ll see a section of unrelated topics below the reply, but you can get back to the main discussion by clicking the name of the discussion in the top left about 1/3rd of the way in:
I agree with you, Becky. The navigation does seem a little clunky. I usually stare at the screen for quite a while before actually deciding what on-screen choice to make in order to accomplish what I would like to. I do wonder sometimes if it’s because I do everything on my phone and if I were on my iPad, perhaps the navigation would be more friendly. I suppose I’ll have to just give that a try!
I think it’s important to say that the screen view that appears on a phone is likely to be very different from the screen view on a computer or tablet. For example, none of the screen views for help with navigating that you mentioned or that were displayed in your response to Becky actually appear in the screen view on my iPhone. And I have yet to do a test run on my iPad to see if the screen view will indeed look different, but I’m guessing it will. My preference is to use my phone, so I just pack my patience and keep stabbing around until I find what I need to do in order to go where I need to go. 
It actually slows me down and forces me to look and think, and that’s never a bad thing. 
Hi Sunny,
I have an android phone but the category navigation I talked about in the upper top left is the same on every device I’ve tested. You can see the ‘help and feedback’ category underneath the post title in this screenshot.
If you’re looking for all the categories, there should be something called a ‘hamburger menu’ icon on the top bar when you’re not scrolled down:
I use the chrome browser.
Thanks, @Sunny, I never thought about accessing the forum from my phone. I’ll need to start doing that so I know what challenges that platform presents, and see if I can come up with some tips.
The video was great, Kim. Thank you so much for Including it in your reply to Becky. It was most instructive and made me think that using my iPad for BookBrowse may be a much better experience than using my phone. So, I’m gonna give it a whirl. 
Just a note that on my iPhone, the arrangement of topics on the screen in the demo video is understandably totally different on my phone. I believe by using the larger screen view, my experience will be more enjoyable.
Hi Nick. This is Becky, Yes, I am using my phone. Navigation is VERY different on phone than on computer.
Right now I need to use my phone so I will just stumble around.
Hi Becky,
I made this video, can you let me know what’s different between what I recorded and what you’re seeing on your device? The navigation should essentially be the same between devices but the side menu is hidden behind the hamburger icon I referenced above:
I’m responding to your reply to Becky about how things look on the screen to say that I’m good with the way things are. Just knowing the few additional tips from the video cleared some things up for me for going forward. I will continue to use my phone for the bulk of BookBrowse activity, but at least now I have some tricks up my sleeve in the event I get stuck. Thank you so much for your concern. That’s one of the many reasons I am a BookBrowse subscriber. 
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This helps as I was also finding it difficult to keep going back and forth to answer questions. Thank you for the tips!
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