"Search" Happy

[Oceanborn]

I'll be quite honest, I'm getting kind of tired of people on PZ always just telling someone to "search for it". I'm pretty sure anyone who has tried has realized, our search feature kinda sucks.

I'll even give an example, say the question is "How to change oil"
http://preludezone.com/search.php?searchid=166187

Well, theres the search, there isn't even anything about oil on that page.

Regardless, I know most people will look at this thread and immediatly say, "Well, I'm sick of answering the same questions over and over." and to those people, I simply suggest that you just leave the thread and forget you ever ran across it.

In many cases, in the amount of time people take to tell someone to "Search for it" they could have just answered the question.

Personally, I love PZ for the fact that it's always been so friendly. But say a new member comes and asks a simple question, and a little while later, a mod comes along and says "Search for it" then locks the thread, what kind of impression are we giving off?

Just my view.

[LudeLove99]

Yeah I feel u man I was just trying to search for that SAME thread on how to change oil, just to make sure I was doing it right, but forgot that carbibles.com has all the info. See thats what I do when I wanna find something. I just look into preludepower.com, preludeonline.com, sfpoa.net, honda-tech.com, and the good ol google.

[Prelude13]

The search feature isn't great, but it does work.

The moderator staff tries hard to at least send a few links before closing the "noob" thread. We at least direct them to other threads were the information is present, for the "noob" to read and understand. You have to look at it from many points of view. Sure, replying, "SEARCH" and closing the thread is mean-spirited, offensive to a point, but the point of it is for the new person to utilize the search button and attempt to search for the question. It should register immediately to the new person that, "Oh, this question has been covered, let me at least search and perhaps add to that thread"

{That's the new member/member point of view}

From the moderator point of view, we are trying to save space, bandwidth and make the forum a lot less cluttered with same-type-of-threads. All, again, actions for your benefit, for a better forum experience...


Guys, I hear your gripes. I too had the same type of gripes when i was new to things, how things ran. I got pissed too when mods came in, said "search" and closed the thread. Made me feel unwanted, diss'd etc. It's a part of how forums run, most forums that are information orientated.


The said noobs are our future. Treat them right and we'll be okay. :smile:

[Brash22]

Back on search, it struggles a great deal with three charactor words, such as "oil". Though it is a lot better than on some forums I'm on.

Now one of the things I've noticed, especially when talking about interior parts, we all seem to have different names for the same parts. Like that surround that sits around the radio in the fifth gen, I know for a fact that we have covered removing that 10 times or more, but even if I search for it I can never find it.

I have no issues with helping people, but I don't really want to do all the work myself. If somebody demonstrates that they've tried and not found what they want, then I'll do all I can. In the cases where they've just came up and asked a question (offsets come to mind, especially where the answers are stickied) without looking, then why should I tell them anything more than the time of day?