- Location
- Melville, NY
Ok, perhaps it is just me and I have been doing it wrong for as long as I have been a member. But if not, I think its time that someone looked into this.
Many new people come on this board and ask questions, as I remember doing, only to have other members tell them to use the search function as there have been plenty of other threads concerning their inquiries.
However, it seems to me, whenever I try to search for something, that I come across many MANY threads that have nothing to do with the key words I entered. And I have a theory why. And please, correct me if I am wrong.
Lets say, for example, I am a newb to this forum and I have a new tank and my livestock contracts ich, and I want to know what treatments there are. If I search the term "Ich treatment", I will get how many answeres that have either the term ICH OR TREATMENT in the thread. That means I will get results including any thread in which anyone posted the word "Treatment" in it, regardless if it has anything to do with ich or not. Even the phrase ICH + TREATMENT has no effect on the outcome. And now I have to sit and sort through many posts to see if any have anything to do with my actual problem. So, mods, I ask you, does this forum have a rather simple generic search engine, or are you able to adjust how searching things work?
Again, I sincerely and totally apologize if there is a way to do such things, and perhaps I have simply overlooked it. But if not, I think that adjusting the search function will have a two fold effect... it will allow new users to find what they are looking for more easliy, and it will help older members from having to repeat themselves from older posts, or more importantly stop member from telling people "there are several threads on this topic, use the search functioon and figure it out"
Many new people come on this board and ask questions, as I remember doing, only to have other members tell them to use the search function as there have been plenty of other threads concerning their inquiries.
However, it seems to me, whenever I try to search for something, that I come across many MANY threads that have nothing to do with the key words I entered. And I have a theory why. And please, correct me if I am wrong.
Lets say, for example, I am a newb to this forum and I have a new tank and my livestock contracts ich, and I want to know what treatments there are. If I search the term "Ich treatment", I will get how many answeres that have either the term ICH OR TREATMENT in the thread. That means I will get results including any thread in which anyone posted the word "Treatment" in it, regardless if it has anything to do with ich or not. Even the phrase ICH + TREATMENT has no effect on the outcome. And now I have to sit and sort through many posts to see if any have anything to do with my actual problem. So, mods, I ask you, does this forum have a rather simple generic search engine, or are you able to adjust how searching things work?
Again, I sincerely and totally apologize if there is a way to do such things, and perhaps I have simply overlooked it. But if not, I think that adjusting the search function will have a two fold effect... it will allow new users to find what they are looking for more easliy, and it will help older members from having to repeat themselves from older posts, or more importantly stop member from telling people "there are several threads on this topic, use the search functioon and figure it out"
