RE: TIP: whos_online.MYI

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http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=204780#204780
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However, having 50 threads that come up in the search before the answer does (particularly one that tells you to do a search in the middle of your search)... is not a good thing.  At least now, this thread is no longer blocking searches from succeeding (there is a link to a resolution at the end).  It's not like anyone was going to read this thread through anything but a search prior to this set of posts.  Thus, the suggestion to search was only being read by ... people who were already searching.  Not exactly helpful anymore.

Search in these forums is very hit and miss.  One has to make several tries at the correct words even after finding out tricks like putting *s at the ends and picking out key words (MYI is good here because it is likely to be rare; however, it is more intuitive to look for who online which will have more false positives).  

My most successful searches?  Looking for my own posts.  Even there, knowing for what I'm looking, it usually takes me several tries.  Plus, half the time what I find is a post where I linked to another post (with solution).  Without those posts, I might have to go through 20 threads to find the actual solution.

In short, I think RavenFae is helping people learn to search, by making searches (at least on this term) more productive.  People who "Search and Learn" (to steal a tag line) are more likely to search again than someone whose search leads them to pages of searches that are either irrelevant or without resolution.

There are a lot of things that can be done to promote searching.  Sticky posts for every forum with forum guidelines that included a suggestion to search first would help.  They could have a link to a page or post with useful search tips, or even better, they could include the search tips in the stickies.  Unfortunately, littering the forum with threads that recommend searching does not encourage search.  Just the opposite, it encourages people to give up and post, because searching isn't helping them.

Cheers,
Matt