Please do a search

I have noticed that lately there seems to be an abundance of duplicate threads popping up, due to the fact that people dont bother to do a search or dont refine the search enough to find the threads.

There was a thread that was started the other day that had 5 duplicate threads. I mean thats really a waste of time and resources on the board.

Please guys take the time to do a search, its incredibly frusterating for the people who have been here for a while to see the same threads pop up all the time, and very confronting for a newbie to be told to do a search.

Thanks!! Youse rock

there should be a window that pops up when they press the 'New Thread' button

Have you done a search?
|Yes|.........|No|

If they click no then they are Not Allowed and taken to the search page.

Of course then that'd be interfering with the silliness and game threads if people are honest and after a while people would get used to the reminder and just click yes automaticly. Something would be good though. An extra search button beside the new thread typing box perhaps (I know there's one right at the top of the page but people get used to thier homey web architecture. Even an arrow to it might help.)

This post makes me want to start a new thread telling people to do searches. Just to annoy you, Valura. *giggles*

Nah I'm kidding. Well said

Yo.

If there was some clever script writer, instead of having a "have you done a search yes/no" frame - a quick auto-search on your proposed thread title would be cool. Say you wrote a title called "How do I get green fire?" then it could automatically run a search and point out the top 3 relevant results saying "do these answer your question?"

But yes - do a search kids. It keeps us old-skoolers happy

*giggles* well done flid, well done *pats flid on the back*

What would help a lot more for people doing searches for topics is if the people posting the threads put titles on the threads that were actually about what is in them rather than cryptic titles.

i do agree in general do a search, and it can be a little anoying seeing the same threads pop up over an over again, but this community has been around for years and their are sooo many new people joining every week, so an old topic to us may be a nu one to someone else, in short if your asking for advice on sonthing do a search, if it is a topic of intrest ehy not bring it up.
This hole militant do a search thing can be precieved as unfriendly and unwelcoming.
Well thats what i think anyway

I agree with Skully, cryptic titles sometimes suck. I've done so many, many searches on this site into glow poi and glow toys to find reviews and info, but I'm sure there must be more on this site about it I haven't seen because the threads don't always fit into the search criteria. Grumble grumble.

I've been tempted a few times to start a new, definitive thread for glow toys to pull all the info into one place, but don't want to annoy anyone so I haven't.

I feel like this is one of those things that those who'd be guilty of it wouldn't pay attention.

Like those signs in front of open doors that say "Please go around and enter the building though the security checkpoint."

Hey, what kind of music do you all listen to?

*ducks and runs*

It's acutally even more annoying because now, when someone DOES do a search, they'll get this AND every other redundant thread.

If some poor soul does a search on C*lored Flames, they'll get 3000 redundant threads.

I personally think excessively redundant threads should be deleted so they don't end up in the search engine.

We've all made that mistake at some point, including myself. I wouldn't have a problem if one of my mistakenly redundant threads was deleted.

But I'm wacky that way...

everyone that makes a thread about searching uses the colored flames example. I think you should be original and use a different example, that way you will always find a thread about searching when your searching.

I've found that the search function is really bad at resurrecting the thread I want, though...

some kind of site policy on 'good threads' would be nice, even if there was no duplicate check installed on new posts.

simian's tangles thread was an excellent example of what could be done but for it to be of any use to those searching for information, i think it needs to be supported more.

like having sticky threads for searches, or even better a 'common searches' thread made sticky at the top of each section.

if i knew that my work would be preserved, i would happily construct some threads collecting together the useful links about a particular subject but as it stands, effort like that is quickly lost to the boards and finding even threads that just contain good links requires a good search with correct use of accurate search terms (i.e. they are just as hard to find as the others if you don't already know that it is there).

but i realise these ideas require changes to the site or at the very least, a definite change in the organisation of the threads in the forums and that is for the site admin to decide, not us.


cole. x

I was thinking that would be effective as well.

Back in the day we started doing articles but haven't seen many of those lately.

You can lead a horse to water but apparently, you can't make him do a search before posting.

Put them in the staff moves section, no-one ever posts in there anyway so they'll stay at the top

Could we have posts like that added as replies to Dom's Welcome and FAQ stickied thread?
I'm not keen on the idea of having them all sticked because we'd end up with loads of them, but having them all in an obvious and easily found place would be great.

I think having the huge [image]http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_25blk.gif[/imge] logo and the word SEARCH on a button at the top of the page is easily enough found.

Friendlier responses to questions would be nicer, and mostly they aren't aggressive, but we're only human after all and eventually get irritated at aswering the same thing for the umpteenth time.

But looking at the views on Dom's FAQ, there are around 20,000 members and far less views

True, I don't think many people read that post, but I think it'd be better to be able to say 'go look at the welcome post' rather than 'do a search'. Quite often I think new people are a bit daunted by the search engine, possibly not knowing the terms they need to find what they want.
Obviously trying to find music or coloured flames info is an exception to that.

.:does a little seach dance:.

Yup, I completely agree that there are too many duplicate threads and people really do need to check this out before they start a new one.
However, I've had trouble with searches on here...could just be cos I'm being silly, but I've searched for something and ended up with pages of results to leaf through (which takes ages because my computer is very slow and takes aaaages to load each page). Also, if, for example, you're searching for a move which you don't know the name of, then you can't do a search really, you can only describe it so that you can then be pointed in the right direction. Maybe there could be a sticky search thread, where people can describe what they're looking for (if they're having genuine problems with the search), and friendly Hoppers could help them. Or would this just cultivate more laziness, and work for the dedicated searchers of the site?

Few ideas/points,

Get a wiki going alongside the forums, so that a faq can be made from stuff in threads, and make the wiki the first place to goto for answers to questions.

Get more moderators to keep things tidy, and a few more posting rules (accurate thread titles being an obvious one). Then someone can ask a direct question, be redirected to the original thread / wiki page, and have the new thread deleted. There's plenty of people here who can be trusted to be mods.

Searches are not accurate enough to be relied upon, even with a complex search engine like google can't find simple things, and the search functions in forums are pi$$ poor by comparison, so finding combinations of words and phrases is difficult.

I've never seen this particular BB software used anywhere else, and it appears to have some annoying things missing that are in the better known ones (phpbb and vbb), like the ability to lock or redirect threads to stop further posting.


I'm not getting at the moderators, they've put together an incedible place to meet people. It's just that this forum is so popular it may need some extra help running it. 6 mods for ~20,000 users is kind of crazy.

I guess you use what you're familiar with / can modify to your needs easily / what the server owners provide though.

Whatever... I don't know anything. I'm just a Unix geek who wants to admin webservers for a living.

Still needs more moderators, preferably people who are on a lot, and in different time zones.

I guess the best idea would be to nominate different groups of moderators for each forum. There's loads of people who could do a good job, and having more people to keep the place tidy would make it easier to keep the duplicate subjects down.

We've tried the more moderator things. It hasn't work. Too many cooks spoil the stew type deal.

I do lock and redirect threads...several in the past week in fact (most of them dealing with SW: Ep 3 ). So do the other mods.

If there is a duplicate, let us know and we will take care of it. Easy as pie. That's what the whistle is. We don't need more mods. We need more people willing to push that whistle to help us so we can help to make this a better place.

Accurate thread titles *is* a rule. We have requested it for *years* and even the oldest skool members don't follow it all the time.

BTW, there are only 20,000 members listed because everyone who registers to purchase from the shop has an account automatically set up. That does not mean there are 20,000 people using the bb. AND, there are *alot* of people listed under multiple names, from before we ended that game , and many who are no longer here at all and haven't been for awhile. That number is not an active member number, it is simply a registered member number.

We are from all different time zones. We tend to each monitor different threads and sections (for example: I stay out of Poi Moves quite a bit because I get frustrated and aggrivated in there). It's what that whole "Alert the mod" thing is for, to help us.
Please don't be afraid to use it.
It does not make more work for us. Not using it makes more work for us.

And I agree the search function is imperfect. Yup. Sometimes it sucks and hurts to go through. Kinks and growing pains.

However, and I hate to say this because it is a good idea, if people are going to look at a list of thread topics, see that there are already 3 in exsistence about a topic and still proceed to post another thread on it do you really think they are going to check a sticky thread about common searches?
I don't.
Not when we have it in the rules when you sign up to search, and the first post is a repeat that someone puts up.
Not when people are still not putting accurate titles up.
Not when people are still posting things in the completely wrong forum and they know it! (then saying.."Oh, a mod will fix it so I don't care")
Not when there actually are FAQ's and articles available and people will still not read them, or worse, read them and not learn a darn thing so they will ask a question clearly answered in the aforementioned.

Sorry to be the pessimist here, because it is a great idea, but I simply don't see it working.
However, if someone wants to take the time, to go through all the threads, delete the old ones and compile the information to prove me wrong...I wouldn't stop him/her!

Love n Peace

im fairly new and i get quickly frustrated when i search (mainly for moves) and end up with 90% of the results being from the "i just learnt a new move" thread rather than more obsucre threads that deal with doing the actual move

perhaps a regular purging of the "ive learnt a new move" thread? i dont think many people read that far back on it

In a similar way maybe have a "what im learning" thread so that people can post what they're working on at the moment and get replies from people willing to help?
not sure if it would work as well due to repeats and such but is an idea...

Out of interest could a sticky thread with search tips be made available for those of us who do search? the search tips would be really good to have as a list of all the little bits of code that can be used to make google more powerful for those of us who dont know how to.

edit ok having said that i have found the advanced search woot - instead of just lobbing in the search box at the top there the search button in the menu bar that takes you to an advanced search panal - why was this not mentioned? or have i missed that? :P