Choosing Poker Rooms

[IGMorton]

Fist post in this forum... i apologize up front if this topic has been covered. I couldn't find anything from search engine. What factors matter most in choosing a poker room as you move up to middle limits?

a. softer than average games - Party, Pacific, where else?

b. table statistics - some sites like Party give you little information about the tables. others give you avg. pot, plrs/flop, hands/hr, stack sizes, connection quality, etc.

c. ease of note taking - one site i can think of allows you to mark players with a colored icon in addition to taking detailed notes. when viewing any table from the loby, you can instantly spot the players you want to avoid or players you want to play with.

d. ability to datamine - Party and Prima let you datamine 4 tables at once. can this be done at any other sites?

e. rakeback - i understand that as you move up in limits the rake becomes much less of a factor. but, if you get 50% at a site with average-fair tables or 25% at a site with better than average tables, is it worth considering?

f. seat selection - i play mostly short handed. some sites with SH tables let you sit at any of ten seats allowing you to pick a good seat. others only have 6 seats.