Posted: 4/17/2006 12:42:42 AM EDT
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I know the obvious answer to this question (resources/bandwidth), but I still must ask why the search feature is restricted to topic titles? I honestly feel this is the single most detrimental feature of the forum interface. I have literally spent hours searching for information that was resting in a thread called "Look at this", or "Is this normal for my AR?", when the specific information could have popped up in seconds. And, worse, sometimes being MORE specific nets less results. I've searched for a topic whose title I knew, and even tho I had all the words right, I got no results. I actually had to make my search criteria more vague (and bring up way too many threads) to get to the one I wanted. Something's wrong there. In all cases of searching for something specific, I browsed and opened hundreds of messages looking when I could have just opened the RIGHT thread, the first time. Which is the bigger waste of bandwidth? Not to mention the often-abused "DUPE" horsecrap. I'd wager that 50% of dupes couldn't have been found via search because of vague titles. I know on the few occasions I've posted a dupe the original thread didn't appear in a search. No surprise. Seeing as every other forum I belong to (over 25 at last count) searches topics instead of thread titles, isn't it a tad 1995 to restrict such a valuable tool on bandwidth issues? |