Best Practices For Starting A New Topic & Getting Help

[annaraven]

I want to take issue with "powerful search". I find search to be the most incredibly frustrating on this site. I love the site! Just hate the "search" functionality - or lack thereof. It would be really helpful to be able to search within a particular forum or sort by date. If that is available, it's well hidden.

I want to reiterate - I love BYC and recommend it regularly. I just don't think search is anywhere near what it would need to be to be useful.

 

[debilorrah]

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Sometimes old timers can't find what they are looking for either!

 

[HHandbasket]

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X2. I have seen too many new people have their feelings hurt after long-timers verbally bash them about for asking questions (myself included when I was new). Sadly, some of them do not come back and let the handful of know-it-alls scare them off.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Yes, we have "search within topics" on our todo list, but it would require an entire rewrite of our search system, which is just something we don't have the resources for right now.

With that said, I don't know of any time I've not found something that I know exists with either the built in search feature or the Google search feature. Searching is definitely an art, but I honestly believe it is pretty easy to find stuff if you learn how to search. Using all the options in search, including wildcards and boolean search operators can make a huge difference.

One of the more powerful features of the search is how to use wildcards. These wildcards make search VERY powerful on a forum, especially one with as many posts as we have here.

"Using an asterisk at the end of your search term will find many variations of the term you seek.

Example: If you enter the Search: child* you'll be returned with information on children, child, childs, etc.

You can also use other "Boolean search operators” like AND, OR, NOT.

Learning how to use the asterix and the AND OR NOT and you'll be able to find pretty much anything you are looking for.

Oh, here are some geek links if you really want to be a search master:
Cool video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vube-ZcJFk4
Reading:
http://www.le.ac.uk/li/sources/subject3/physics/ist/boolean.html
http://photoswest.org/wild-bool.html
Really geeky: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_logic

 

[FireTigeris]

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Oh... well I'd have never known that. Thanks

 

[annaraven]

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I have very strong Google Fu. That said, I generally find too many results and filtering them (ETA: on BYC) to find what I want is a pain.

Have you considered open sourcing the project instead of trying to do it all in-house?

ETA: I have ALWAYS used the Google Search Box on the upper right and never ever even clicked on the "SEARCH" on the navigation bar. Turns out what I want is there but there's no link to that from the search results gained by using the obvious search field! Just put a link to that please in the search results to "advanced" or "filter" or something and people like me might stop whining.

I repeat my comment that there is so much great stuff on here that just isn't easily findable: including ways of doing things that aren't obvious.

 

[annaraven]

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Actually, the best way I have found to search BYC is to *leave* BYC and go straight to Google.com and do an advanced search. That allows me to sort by date, etc. Still doesn't handle "within a particular forum" but better than the BYC search.

 

[annaraven]

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Oh... well I'd have never known that. Thanks

There are so many hidden features and tricks here. Is there a FAQ with "tips and tricks" for all this "geeky" stuff? If not, you might want to either make one or put up a thread where people can collect them. I never knew about that one either.

ETA: There apparently is a primer, but I had to search to find it. Why is all this stuff hidden away? The primer or FAQ should be on the navigation bar where EVERYONE sees it and can easily just click to find it.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

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Oh... well I'd have never known that. Thanks

x2 learn something new everyday! Cool thanks!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

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Nothing is hidden... in fact we promote all this stuff like crazy! Huge links to the FAQ's all over the place, a required reading section (which is linked to from the welcome email), and tons of more places. People just need to take the time to read through stuff.

Honestly, if every single member spend 10 mins skimming the 4 items in the "Required Reading " they would know about 90% of what they need, or at least where to find the info on where to find what they need.

Imagine if every new member spend just 30 minutes reading through all the links in this post. .. in the grand scheme of things... 30 minutes isn't that much time, but could end up saving you hours and hours in the future.