Search function popularity

[BAC]

Well, it prompted me to finally create a signature for this site. I'm going to take Bumper up on his suggestion about a post to be linked to, but I've gotta think it over for a bit so I don't waste the mods' time with a quick-and-sloppy job.


-B

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[SelfDefense]

Well, it prompted me to finally create a signature for this site. I'm going to take Bumper up on his suggestion about a post to be linked to, but I've gotta think it over for a bit so I don't waste the mods' time with a quick-and-sloppy job.

I think we have discussed this before in previous threads.

Problems with Search?

finding old posts

Search function not working??

Searching not bringing up results as expected

Use better key words in thread titles to aid search

[Bumper]

I think we have discussed this before in previous threads.

Yup, about every 4 months or soooo....

[Herknav]

My least favorite is, "This may have already been posted, but..." Dude, would it kill you to take 30 seconds to search before you waste time and bandwidth?

Herk

[ccw9mm]

My least favorite is, "This may have already been posted, but..." Dude, would it kill you to take 30 seconds to search before you waste time and bandwidth?

I've occasionally posted such a thing when a <search> came up with no winners. Hard to say who's committed some effort prior to a posting and who hasn't. As several have suggested, a search doesn't reliably come up with the results someone else would find, when the search terms are different. Something to consider when bashing others for a presumed failure to search.

Here's a suggestion: When confronted by a nearly irresistible desire to bash someone for lack of search, why not simply do one quick search, present a suitable result in a link along with a statement such as "A quick search found this ..."? The target of your ire doesn't get flamed and dejected for being kicked by you (me, whomever), everyone gets another link to good info, and you (me, whomever) avoid(s) looking ham-handed in treatment of others. Win-win, one could say.

[Herknav]

Point taken. Note that I have never even mentioned this before, so it's not like this is a personal attack.

However, that verbiage comes across to me as "I could have searched for this, but didn't feel like it. It's so important that you just HAVE to read it." And it's usually something off-topic that's on its 85th lap around the Internet.

Another option would be to say something like, "I couldn't find where this had been posted before." That shows that you gave it the ol' college try, which is all I expect.

If somebody is asking a question, I will do what I can to help them find an answer if not "the" answer. I will NOT use the search function to belittle somebody else, as I've seen done before. I'll just grumble to myself and keep surfin'. If my attitude is ham-handed, then I guess I'll have to work on that.

[ccw9mm]

Point taken.

And I really wasn't flicking raspberries at you. We've all seen posts for which we know a dozen prior example threads exist out there. For those of us that have been doing the ol' bulletin board thang for some years, <search> is a matter of course. But then, so is the banter on the boards ... and that's half the fun. The beauty of a well-populated and -traveled board is that someone's got to know. It's often the fastest way to get an answer, all the while peppering the search engine in hopes of finding it first.