I have noticed that some people repeat c/nc polls without using a search engine, and get away with it. Others do the same thing and are ridiculed on the board. I call bullshit on both counts. CRAP

I agree with it in this forum. I disagree with it in the general discussion forum though.

If you wanna discuss, say, sonic youth in this forum then by all means search out and bump the old thread with your own thoughts.

But if you wanna ask people about their favourite snack in general discussion then I think it warrants a new thread as one from 2003 will be outdated.

the only thing i have against the search engine
is that there is no option for a Title search only,
or maybe i'm dumb?

but searching for a similar thread before you post is
not crap by any means

here's a copy of my hopefully-helpful search advice, from the Iron Maiden thread..... and MissA, it basically describes a process that will execute a title-only search.

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first of all, using quotes does nothing. the search function ignores them completely.

second of all, the key is, after typing in your carefully chosen search text (in this case "iron maiden" but no quotes necessary), make sure to click the little button that says "search for all terms".

okay! now in our case, iron maiden, it only returns 36 results. still a bitch to look through, but not as bad as 15 pages.

to avoid looking through all these results, the super-streamlined way to do it is this... after the 36 results come up, hit "ctrl-F" on your keyboard, which brings up a "find" window. type in "iron maiden" *with* quotes, and click "find".

it only finds two instances. the two iron maiden polls!

success!

if the search function used normal conventions, like allowing the use of + or - in front of words, or quotation marks to denote multiple-word phrases, this would solve a lot of these issues.

but clicking that "find all terms" button and then using the "find" function built in to explorer will make the mess a lot easier to navigate through.


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so MissA, using the ctrl-F "find" function built in to explorer, you are, in essence, doing a title-only search!

I would add to tmh's advice, that you can also select the option that gives you only one forum, which is fine, because if a topic's already been done in one forum, it's still OK to do in another.

In my opinion, it's better, in C/NC and in GD, to find the old thread and drudge it back up. It lets us start a fresh discussion, but at the same time we're able to look at what's been said previously. It's nice.

On some message boards, bringing back old threads ("gravedigging" or "necroing") is strongly frowned upon. If you do it too much, you could be banned. I think it's good that this board doesn't have that policy.

Rotten Tanx wrote:I agree with it in this forum. I disagree with it in the general discussion forum though.

If you wanna discuss, say, sonic youth in this forum then by all means search out and bump the old thread with your own thoughts.

But if you wanna ask people about their favourite snack in general discussion then I think it warrants a new thread as one from 2003 will be outdated.

I agree with this.

I agree with this search engine! I think it is not crap! In fact I start every day with a search engine, I open browsers and they go right to it and I just search for something, the first thing off the top of my head that morning, and try to learn stuff about it. Yesterday I read all about the history of the hooded sweatshirt and its role in rock merchandising, and it was an informative piece I assure you.

I think TooManyHelicopterers' trick about ctrl-effing to find the thread title, she is good too, but I think it is to be a bit of the tediousness when even a "find all terms" search returns more than a page of results. So a title search specifically would be nice, and I will personally submit it as a request to the phpBB authorers. Everyone else should too!

I really liked the Gravediggaz. Fin.