How to use Search and Forum Software

Ben

A question and a comment

1) is there a way to use the search feature of this forum to find specific topics. Looking for "timing table" comments. If I search for "timing", it finds 82 pages. If I search for "timing" and "table", it finds 162 pages. If I try a Boolean (+timing +table), takes the "+" sign literally and does find a couple threads that actually have +timing in the thread. Tried "timing table" in quotes but it doesn't find anything. It seems the search feature uses the literal translation of whatever is typed into the box.

Any ideas on how to do a more advanced search? Tried Google search, limited to your domain, but it won't get into the forum posts, only the stuff you have on the website.

2) have you looked into using a regular forum type software for this part of the website? vBulletin, Simple Machines, Xenforo all make good software for forums and it is much easier to manage and use. I run three different forums with vBulletin and SMF so see all the short comings the software you have presents. Tried to look in the background just briefly to see what you used for the forum software and didn't see the brand pop out at me. From what I see, it looks to be more of a blog type system, not a forum.

? ? ?

You guys have a great resource starting here and it could grow to be very big.

Paul

Hi Paul,

1, Yes the search on this forum is just rubbish. It's something we would like to improve. In the meantime you can use this search: http://bit.ly/1U7TeFq It's a Google custom search that should be much more helpful.

2, We did look at a lot of forums while building our website. Including vBulletin. We made the decision to go with this as it was simple and easy to integrate. However now it looks like it's missing some key features. We are hoping to get these features added over time to improve the experience.

Thanks for your feedback, it's much appreciated. Keep it coming :)

Thanks, Ben. The search link works great

I agree with Paul here. I've ran my own discussion forum for 14 years now and the data in it is constantly accessed. You guys are growing something that will retain a wealth of knowledge and it would be a shame for people not to be able to find it easily, or at all.

Although the site is super clean, I think this is something you guys should look a little closer at. What will eventually happen is you will back yourself into a corner before too long and it will be very cumbersome to switch. Also, you will begin to see folks asking the same questions over and over again because they can't find the answer. I myself am new here and I've already spent the last 10 mins trying to search for certain items and either came up with 150 pages, or none at all. Clearly not ideal.

For example I searched to see if there was any discussion of having an exam at the end of courses, well searching for the word exam simply brought up hundreds of pages with the word examPLE. lol

Just food for thought.

We totally agree with the points made, and we will be making changes to the forum as soon as our development team have the man power. At the moment we have a list of issues that are prioritised and we will deal with them in this order. Don't think the forum problems asre lost on us though and thanks for bringing them to our attention.