Suggestion....

[Tazzin]

I just have a suggestion for the mods/developers of TechIMO:

I haven't been around as long as most of you.. and I try and answer as many ?'s as I can.. or know how to. It seems that we, all the members of TechIMO, usually answer the same questions.. over and over.

ie (DESPERATE NEED OF HELP IN REFORMATTING HARD DRIVE )

Would it be possible to have the New Thread button do a search automatically using the words that the user has put into the subject of their post before they actually type the message and post it? Say the top 5 or 10 posts are displayed matching posts that we have already answered?

Just a suggestion. Maybe have a trial period of sorts?
What does everyone think?

[DanGrease]

Its a clever idea. I like it, but wouldnt that be kind of odd? Not to mention its probably hard to make that happen. Also, sometimes the title of the thread has nothing to do with the content of it. I like the idea though. You will have to ask the developers if its possible. If you ask me, I dont think it is. Maybe just stay with stickies (or whatever they are called)?

dan

[Tazzin]

True.. true.. I am not sure how hard it would be. How I think it would work.. is that you would type your New Thread Subject like you do now.. and click a button .. either post or search.. it would search thru the DB.. and respond with matching posts .. as well as the normal New Thread page. If you didn't find the answer to your question in the existing posts.. then you would still be able to post.

I realize that most people want the answer to their question as quick as possible.. and reading thru posts isn't necessarily that quick.

[AtHomeLegalConsu]

Hi Dan and Tazz .. I am brand new to ths site, so i didnt know much about it really at all ... sorry that my question seemed quite redundant through it all .... I guess the "screening database" or making sort of a menu about what the question is, like a drop-down menu, couldhelp alleviate a lot of the questions being so repetitive. But also each case at times is quite different, and when people encounter different circumstances through it, like I did, where I tried some things, but they didnt sem to work, it also makes it a little more cumbersome doesn't it?

[Mickwish]

Unfortunatley the version of vBulletin this site uses has a borked search engine.

So, whilst the idea has merit, I doubt it would be very functional with the present version. There may even be a vBulletin hack for this idea already, you never know.

The whole idea is based on useful thread titles or at least keywords in the first post. In my experience, this is often lacking. Just do a search for "Help" as a thread title and you'll see what I mean.

Welcome to the site, athomelegalconsu. Hope to see ya round the forums.

Cheers
Mick

[The Real Bingo]

If it were not for these redundant posts, people like Mick would only have about 200 posts or so.

[RedFury]

Stickies are a good idea, but then you'd always have to click on the 8th page to find any new information that wasn't stickied