I, too would like to know the ‘Ping’ process. Perhaps its called something else. I hesitated in using ‘All’ but had concerns about offending anyone.
“Pinging” is simply what we say on FR when we send a reply to one person or multiple people. So for example, while I’m replying to Trad Bishop’s post #71 in this reply, I’m “pinging” you, Little Blue Nun, to this reply since I believe it may interest you as well. We also “ping” someone to a reply if we mention them by FR screenname (as a courtesy, it’s an unwritten rule), even if we don’t necessarily believe they would be interested in the reply. If you use someone’s screen name in your post it’s common FR courtesy to add their name to the “To” field (or to “ping” them).
I believe the term “ping” is a Navy term, when you are in a sub for example a “ping” of sound waves is sent out in the SONAR system to locate other ships/objects so that’s where the term comes from on FR. Since when you send a reply to a specific name or names those people get the reply. So kind of like a SONAR ping.
Some maintain “ping lists” kind of like subscription lists so that if the topic or topics they usually post about interest you you can usually ask to be added to their ping list then when they post an article you will get notified and see it in your “New Posts to You” section at the top of the page. When you have a new ping that turns red. When you don’t, when you’ve seen all the replies addressed to you it isn’t red any more and just says “Pings” at the top of the page.
Hope this helps!