Best germination techniques....anyone?

I'd like to hear peoples germination techniques for hydro.

Ideally I would like to just place seed into a moistened starter plug in a tray atop a warming mat, cover, and wait. They will stay in the plug anyway and be transferred to a flood/drain tray with Hydroton when ready.

How can I achieve the best results this way? Soak or no soak? Wet the plug, moisten, or leave alone?

seed in the plug.....pointy side down? or the divot round bump side down?
Loosely place seed in the hole of the plug or secure snuggly into it?

Fill in hole with a small piece of plug after seed planted? or leave open?

Here is the quickest and most efficient way to germ IMO:

Moist paper towel inside a plastic bag. Place seeds in towel and blow some air into the bag to act as a humidome. I set the bag on top of the cable box(heat pad would be better) and let set overnight. Most seeds pop over night. If the seeds dont pop overnight I scrape the edge of the seed(scuffing) and let those set overnight. I like to move them once I have 1/2 tap root coming out of the seed,
From there it goes tap root side down snuggly into the plug. Once they break the surface i throw some CFLs on them until they show leaves. Then into the system they go.

anyone else?

Snoop does what i do...

I let them soak in a bowl that sits on my hotwater heater in the dark. Some come up in a day some take up to 3 days. As soon as the white tail pups out I place the in the plug in a mini grean house under fl and as soon as the grow leafs they go into the hydroton

I place my seeds in rapid rooters...then in small container to hold them upright...I spritz 2-4 times a day as needed, and I also put them right under a cfl. they may not need the light, but the warmth seems to do the trick. the last 4 seed plantings I did; My seeds germed in 2-4 days. I started using rapid rooters so that I could transplants seedlings into soil or hydro.

welcome back Stormy. peace