Please do a search

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

tips for better google searches:

1. egg
   will find egg, eggs, egging and other variations
   
2. +eggs
   will find eggs but not egg or other variations
   
3. eggs ham
   will find pages containing just eggs, just ham, or both eggs and ham
   
4. +eggs +ham
   will only find pages containing both eggs and ham
   
5. +"eggs and ham"
   will only find pages containing the phrase "eggs and ham"
   
6. "eggs and ham"
   will find pages containing the phrase "eggs and ham" and variations of those word in the same order
   
7. +eggs +ham -bacon
   will find the same as 4. above, but excluding those pages with the word bacon in them
   
8. +eggs +ham site:.uk
   will find the same as 4. above, but only on websites that end .uk (useful for finding companies in the UK). You can also use something like site:.eggsandham.co.uk to search just the eggsandham.co.uk website.
   

edit Doh! email version doesn't include edits. Anyway, a lot of people don't notice the Advanced search button, so it might help to put these somewhere obvious.

polarity you rock... those are great tips...

i can't remember the last time i saw a mod reply to a duplicate post or give directions to help a newbie search for what they required - very possibly there is loads of this going on behind the scenes but as far as i can tell, most of that kind of moderation is left up to the members.

if there is loads of mod intervention that we can't see, on top of all of us lot saying 'do a durbs' and providing links to old threads, that means this is a even bigger problem than it looks - that only adds to the argument for the need for a 'common thread' article

it would mean that instead of waiting for kind members to reply to a duplicate post with directions to threads that already exist and leaving that duplicate thread to further clog up the board with useless search results (as happens at the moment), instead we could just click the report post button and a mod could then delete the thread and privately direct the person to the appropriate links in the 'common thread' article.

need a volunteer?

i'd be more than happy to build on what simian has done in poi moves and write a common thread article for each forum.

but like i said, i'm not going to do a load of work if the attitude of the site admin is "nice idea but it'll never work - just keep pressing the button."

but for now, that is what i shall start doing


cole. x

You the man. As I have previously stated.

Thanks polarity

maybe instead of moving the advanced search button just label it advanced search? maybe with a link below the search bar as well?

perhaps it would be helpful if we try and bump the more common threads (maybe using the key words of the thread rather than bump) so that when searches are run they turn up quicker? just a thought :P

It seems like we're asking for a lot.

Maybe, rather than lumping it all on the Mods, we could have some "Submoderator/Librarian" type person with no actual Mod power but who could post links and stear newbies in the right direction.

I always feel a bit awkward posting things like that because I feel that it's not my place. But if someone decided to step up and be dubbed a 'newbie wrangler' then they could do it with out feeling guilty.

As a side note, I think it's really strange that the sentiment of this thread is "We need more moderation" yet more often than not, when the mods do step in they get called 'facist' and... wait... what was that good one that Flash got called. "Blood sucking" something or other.

I'd be sad to see the mods take on a more active role and then be shouted at for being 'Nazis' by people simultaneously insulting the mods and the plight of the Jews killed in the holocaust.

But then again, that's pretty much 99% of the internet anyway.

The most ironic thing is that I've already pointed out that this is a duplicate thread, and no one seems to care........

hihihi... proves the point, doesn't it