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I Found Everything That I Needed to Know From My *FIRST* SEARCH.

I Found Everything That I Needed to Know, But It Took a *FEW* SEARCHes.

I Found Everything That I Needed to Know, But It Took *MANY* SEARCHes.

I EVENTUALLY Found Everything That I Needed to Know, But It Returned Sooo Much Out-Dated Information.

I NEVER Found What I Needed to Know; It Returned Soo Much Out-Dated Information.

What is the SEARCH Function?

[steven r]

I mostly end up using search to find something I remember seeing but not where. Generally in that case I'm looking with minimum information and typically get a long list of "hits" that I have to manually look through.

Not sure about the archiving idea. If post information was truly outdated, then yes. The problem is that I've seen updates that didn't fix a problem. Also while I can't think of a case right now, what about if a problem were to reappear in a future software release. It would be nice to go back and be able to find the original posting of the problem.

Bottom line if it speeds up the search for accurate information it has merit but their should still be a way to search the achieves. If it is felt that the archives could be a source of incorrect information, then post a "Search At Your Own Risk This Information Is Dated Possibly Not Relevant To The Current Release" warning.

[steven r]

...I was right. X10 is more fun than eating SPAM

I enjoy my X10 stuff also but just about anything is better than eating spam so that's not saying much. 
Perhaps it would be more correct to say "X10 is fun in spite of the spam and popups."

[TakeTheActive]

I mostly end up using search to find something I remember seeing but not where. Generally in that case I'm looking with minimum information and typically get a long list of "hits" that I have to manually look through.

But, you see, you're giving your impression of your CURRENT Seaches and not your *FIRST* Search. You've been a Member for quite some time and you've "learned your way around ", giving you a big advantage over a first-time visitor. My question came about from watching GUESTS throughout the day via the Who's Online screen and then randomly viewing what THEY were viewing. IMO, there are some VERY GOOD Subject Titles that lead to some VERY BAD (i.e. out-dated, etc...) threads and I'm trying to come with a solution to improve that situation.

Not sure about the archiving idea. If post information was truly outdated, then yes. The problem is that I've seen updates that didn't fix a problem. Also while I can't think of a case right now, what about if a problem were to reappear in a future software release. It would be nice to go back and be able to find the original posting of the problem.

Bottom line if it speeds up the search for accurate information it has merit but their should still be a way to search the achieves. If it is felt that the archives could be a source of incorrect information, then post a "Search At Your Own Risk This Information Is Dated Possibly Not Relevant To The Current Release" warning.

The AVS Forum that I visit has two "Archived Messages" forums in addition to the current "Active Messages" forum:

• AVS Forums Active - ReplayTV & Showstopper PVRs
  .
• AVS Forums Archive 1 - ReplayTV & Showstopper PVRs
  .
• AVS Forums Archive 2 - ReplayTV & Showstopper PVRs
  

Using AVS's technique, each "Site" is independent of the other, thus the SEARCHes are also independent. In addition, the ARCHIVE sites are [READ ONLY], which IMO, is a GREAT IDEA!

[Charles Sullivan]

TTA,
I'm afraid I disagree. 

Sure, first time searchers may get old information, but there's no guarantee that new posts are more accurate than old posts.

Using the Advanced search allows confining the search to recent posts, and I for one would find it annoying to have to search multiple archives instead of one big forum.  PLUS, if the archives are read-only, a very inaccurate post which happens to have a "good" subject line (as you've described) could mislead a lot of people time after time with no chance of it ever being corrected.

[KDR]

I agree with Charles, we need to keep the database as a whole. Maybe you could lock old outdated posts so you couldn't add to them, even move them to a new location (Outdated Posts) but still searchable within this database. A warning label telling people the information is or may not be current should do the trick.

Another thought if the software would allow it would be to add a marker of some sort to all the old posts that are outdated and then add a search option in advanced search that would search just for the marker, search everything without the marker or search both. It then becomes the job of the CO's to add the marker to post that are outdated.

[Brian H]

My choice of never used it isn't in the choices. So I picked the closest "What Search Function"

[steven r]

...you're giving your impression of your CURRENT Seaches and not your *FIRST* Search. You've been a Member for quite some time and you've "learned your way around ", giving you a big advantage over a first-time visitor....

Ok I so I didn't read the question right... 
I can't remember my 1st search. I've been a member for almost 2 years now. There wasn't a search feature on the old board. I guess I really have to disqualify myself as I had clearly "learned my way around" by the time we got the search feature.

PS. Is it just me or is anyone else noticing that it's taking an extra 5 sec or more for their posts to be posted?

[Tuicemen]

I'm like steven r my first search  was for an old post/info I knew was there but didn't know were it was. I was a member of the old board also with no search.
I also have to Agree with Charles Sullivan on his whole post!

[Charles Sullivan]

Isn't or wouldn't it be possible for or to allow CO's to edit the posts ?

That way the CO's could apply their expertise in correcting or deleting past & present information.

I'm afraid you're attributing more expertise to the COs than may be warranted.  And because software and hardware changes are often made by manufacturers without notice, or due to bugs therein, there can be legitimate differences of opinion or of experience.  Plus, there are a lot of posts on the forum and the COs don't have unlimited time to spend on them.

[Duck69]

My post was simply a question.
OK 2 questions.
The second question did indeed seem to be a statement rather than a question.
I have corrected it.

Quote: I'm afraid you're attributing more expertise to the COs than may be warranted.

What I said was "their expertise". Meaning what ever expertise they may possess.

Quote: And because software and hardware changes are often made by manufacturers without notice, or due to bugs therein, there can be legitimate differences of opinion or of experience.

That is why it's a good idea to be specific about model and version numbers.

Quote: Plus, there are a lot of posts on the forum and the COs don't have unlimited time to spend on them.

I was not suggesting that the CO's had any time at all to spend on them.
For all I know, if they had any time at all, that they would even want to spend any of it in such a fashion.

At any rate, we all want the same thing and that is to see the forum improved.
Maybe there are other suggestions that we could bounce around.