Searching 101

[ToadMan]

Since I have said a number of times that people starting new threads when one already existed, is one of my personal annoyances. I though it pertinent to put up a searching 101.

 

A number of you report that the search function does not work for you. Although I cannot comment on your personal set up I am sure that it will work on any web-browser (php is a server side script, and only requires that your browser understand html).

 

Alright on to the tutorial.

 

1) know where search it:

Search is located at on the top menu (way up, very top) it is between Rules, and Gallery. 3rd from the left, 8th from the right.

 

2) know what your looking for:

All that is necessary is that you type a key word for your search. For instance, if you wanted a thread on "Alert Status Red" type "Alert Status Red" in as your keyword. There is a 4 character minimum on searches.

Note: the search seems to only like keywords that occur in sequence, i.e. searching "Status Alert Red" will turn up nothing.

 

3) define your search:

For the purpose of checking if a thread has already been done or not. You should define your search to be:

a) In all forums, or if you know that the search will be in a certain forum, that forum. For the ASR search, Music will suffice.

B) Search posts from: any date

c) Search where: entire post

 

For locating a specific thread, or a time dependent thread, then you may wish to specify the post to be new than, or older than a certain age. You also may wish to specify a user name to search for.

 

http://www.nearfantastica.com/bored/index....lert+status+red

 

above is the link to the trail search I did during this little 101...

 

for those of you with NF lounge privlages, this is a thread I wanted to look up of mine (which is long since dead):

http://www.nearfantastica.com/bored/index....hlite=asr+video

 

Hopefully this is helpful for you. If you still have problems, I would like to hear about them. If there is a real problem with the search, I'm sure Anton will do his best to fix it... but he has to know, so make sure your search problem reports are as detailed as possible.

 

Peace

[Mouko]

1. Very nice.

2. I get the feeling ToadMan wants to be a moderator.

[Lauren]

i think we all need to simmer down. it's no big deal.

[ToadMan]

No, I would prefer to stay a mere mortal.

 

Sorry if the post was fiascoes, I wrote it at 4am, and I'm a little annoyed that people cant figure out how to use searching.

[Akarik]

I can see you point, but sometimes making a thread that's already been done before is a good thing. Personnaly, if I had a topic idea, i'm not going to resurrect a thread that's been dead for 6 months and then start my topic from the fifth page. There are some exceptions where the topic should searched, but I generally don't see a problem with it.

[Lauren]

i hear that! if i haven't been reading a thread, i'm not going to start from the 3rd page.

[HoboFactory]

I figured a visual aid would be kind useful:

 

Edited October 28, 2004 by HoboFactory

[Crusader]

LMFAO. I'm saving that.

[Maverick]

lmao, wtg Hobo.

 

Anyways, I think that Toadman really did a service here and we all owe him our gratitude. He obviously has put some time into assuring that the boared is running smoothly and without problems/annoyances.

 

Ty a lot man, keep up the good work.

[ToadMan]

You know, if you want I have some dirty laundry that needs washing to.

 

I don't believe is just whining about a problem so I made an effort to fix it.

 

Reasons to search:

 

Some polls have been done a number of times. i.e. the how old are you poll / thread appears 4 times on this board. If any of those people had searched for the poll before posting theirs, then they would have there answer.

 

Why do you not want to start from the 5th page. Maybe you should read the whole thread and see where it went first. Maybe your idea has already been played out to it's fullest.

 

If your asking a question, has it been done before? Say you want to know about Matt's wife, would you start a new thread, when an existing thread spans 5 pages, and might already answer your question?

 

 

I believe that you should search, and then post because otherwise we will have the same pedantic polls and questions every time a new person joins the board.

 

And just as a matter of interest, if you have a filing cabinet, and you get a new bill say telephone, do you put it in with the other telephone bills, or do you start a new file for that bill. Of course you file it with the others, and that's all I would like to see, is people filing there posts on threads that already exist, that make sense with there post.

 

And that graphic rocks, it's going to be my avatar as soon as I photo shop it to fit.

 

Peace

[Boond]

what i find kind of amusing is the guy who actually is teaching crap isnt a mod yet (no offense guys) with the exception of dan you were all sort of chosen on random (your doing a great job thoug)

[ToadMan]

As I said, I would prefer to stay as a mere mortal.

 

Firstly the board already has a full staff.

 

Secondly, even if the board needed another mod, I just wouldn't have the time to be a good mod. I would have to read every post (or I would fell obliged to).

 

But that aside, this is about searching, and I was just exercising the extent of my abilities to attempt to invoke change.

 

Peace

[miss_fortune]

Nice work, Jon.

 

*nodnod*

[Mouko]

1. I love that gif.

2. Modding isn't as hard as you'd think, Toad. There's not much to mod here anyway.

[ToadMan]

Well to be honest I'm trying to steer the conversation away from that implication as to not anger the moderating staff.

 

Peace

[Dan #1]

I like this post... I'm going to Pin it ;)

Jon you are a scholar and gentleman

[ToadMan]

Thank you Dan, you are also a gentleman and scholar.

 

Peace

[cavalier_eternal]

i accidentally started two threads. oops. and there's no way to delete the one, i suppose.

 

my bad.

[ToadMan]

If Anton is on the ball, he'll fix it. (or any of the other mods)

 

Peace

[ToadMan]

I'm posting to re-highlight this thread. Read the first post!

[Kyle86]

i've read this over a few times.

 

I've (obviously) had trouble with the search options. It always comes up giving errors. Like recently i searched for "she's in it for the money"... no dice... so i tried "money" and a bazillion unrelated things came up.

 

If there was a way you could make the search more than three letters it'd help. Another example "gym"... doesn't work...

 

I'm trying! There's gotta be a better way. Oh-search guru, please assist.