• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

 

Biggest PITA about Steelsoldiers...

808pants

New member
45
3
0
Location
Honolulu, HI
The forums would be immensely more useful if the "Search" function worked like most others do, i.e. if it were something that resembles a standard Boolean search. Unless I have overlooked a key "search" feature set, right now, users like me are going to get identical results from any of the following search queries:
"oil change"
oil+change
oil change​
In all of the above cases, the search engine makes the wrong decision and even shows what it's doing as follows:
"Search: Keyword(s): oil, change."
That is, any of these searches will bring up ALL posts that have EITHER the word "oil" or the word "change" in them - to the tune of "Showing results 1 to 25 of 1000," and "pages 1-40." Thus, the search for more than one term is essentially useless, other than for threads one recalls to have had certain unique words used in them. (The examples above were from within "5-ton" forums only.)

So my only apparent option, since I can't search for more than one term joined by an AND, then, is to post a new thread to ask a question about something I KNOW has been covered. Thus, I and others will tend to pollute the forum with "new" posts about oft-repeated topics. Those posts often send regular users off to find posts they remember and find using other specific memories ("I remember a post about this - let me look for it and get back to you..."), which is obviously not the best use of anyone's time, since the point of this or any forum isn't to use human brains to store/retrieve search information.

This need to fix this is so obvious that it seems I must have missed a search feature somewhere, and if I did, please tell me where...

--Dave
 

Josh

Active member
1,678
11
38
Location
Portland, Oregon
Also putting a title that describes the thread is also goo thing.


But I do agree with the search can be a PITA some times.
 

Recovry4x4

LLM/Member 785
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
34,014
1,813
113
Location
GA Mountains
Interesting. Some folks have horrible results, others can find the rusty needles in the haystacks.

I'm sorry, that would be something handled by the admins.
 

mktopside

Banned
467
6
0
Location
Gainesville, Va
I agree with this post. The search function sucks. I have basically resigned myself to just searching for thread titles to avoid the 50 pages of results.

Now, I don't really mind doing this, but on a site that has so many "dupe police" and "read the TM police" the search should be easier to use.
 

doghead

4 Star General /Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
26,247
1,166
113
Location
NY
I agree with this post. The search function sucks. I have basically resigned myself to just searching for thread titles to avoid the 50 pages of results.

Now, I don't really mind doing this, but on a site that has so many "dupe
police" and "read the TM police" the search should be easier to use.


Don't forget the "read the 50 threads, you might learn something" police....

And the "title your threads properly" police...

Your lucky you haven't met the "newbs bitch too much" police yet!
 
Last edited:

Recovry4x4

LLM/Member 785
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
34,014
1,813
113
Location
GA Mountains
The dupe police came along for the very reasons you posted, too many hits. Have you seen some of the ridiculous titles folks use on a thread. For those of who are computer literate, try searching through Google. Most of the well worded searches you use will prodeuce mostly Steel Soldiers hits. I'd also like to add that a person with decent knowledge of the TMs has better luck with the search engine as he knows the proper nomenclature
 
Last edited:

ODdave

New member
3,213
38
0
Location
lansing michigan
Don't forget the "read the 50 threads, you might learn something" police....

And the "title your threads properly" police...

Your lucky you haven't met the "newbs bitch too much" police yet!
:funny: That was funny, I must complain that the site is awfully adicting though.......lol
 

wbdodgeiv

Member
102
0
16
Location
Roanoke, VA
I think the syntax needs to be oil AND change. If it makes you feel any better when I searched for oil change and oil AND change, this thread was first :)
 

quarkz

Supreme Galactic Cleric
805
71
28
Location
Kennewick, WA
You can always Google search and be sure to add steel soldiers into the search field. :lol:
Google is proof that steel soldiers is the definitive MV site.
Most of the time the 1st or 2nd search result from my MV Google searches show up with a Steel Soldiers in the address.
Strange part is when they are my own posts.

I do like the box that pops up now when you are starting a new thread and asks if any of the threads in the box are going to be duplicated by my new thread.
 

808pants

New member
45
3
0
Location
Honolulu, HI
I think the syntax needs to be oil AND change. If it makes you feel any better when I searched for oil change and oil AND change, this thread was first :)
Eureka - you found it, wbdodgeiv! (who KNEW?) I just tested using this syntax, and indeed, got 120 results spanning 5 pages - a lot more manageable result than 1000 over 40 pages, which has to be a maxout and not even a real result anyway.

Could webmaster maybe place the required Boolean search syntax next to that search box, for the benefit of the apparent majority of users that don't/won't know them? I assume OR and NOT would also work in the same manner?
 
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks