Great idea! Add an asking price range box (including "any") to click on in conjunction with the search. It may be tough to do the retail price since it is not always listed and may complicate the search (need to search on two price ranges with an "and" / "or" function).
Auctions would be excluded, but all the dealer demos and classifieds would make the cut. It would eliminate the open ended prices from the search (you've seen the dealers who are selling a product line at discount but are forced to use a single price in the description). Overall, it would be great! |
Sounds ok to me, can't see any real harm from a buyer's perspective. One other feature I always thought might be kind of nice on the forums (and I know diyaudio.com has this) is a section before you submit a new thread that asks "did you search the previous threads for an answer to your question?" and then you must answer yes or no before it will take the new thread. Its no biggie, but I notice sometimes the same topic will come up often, sometimes within days of each other-like should I get a "passive or a pre." It might cut down on some of the threads?
To be even more picky, and its just me, a spell checker that forces the worst of mispelling to be corrected and lone I to be capitalized. |
The forum search engine is woefully underused - same questions come up repeatedly ad nauseum. I guess people are just too lazy to even try it? I use it nearly every day, but then again the engine window could be more prominently displayed - I wonder if people even know that it's there available?
Regarding the "did you search the previous threads for an answer to your question?" yes we should require that too. |
I think having a price search is a good idea. As far as previous threads are concerned, lets not be to harsh as some subjects need to be updated from time to time. |
after time after time after time?
just how many threads do we need:
"how do I install a dedicated line?" |
I thought of this post when I saw a post on what's available on a $5000 budget. This should help narrow things down I think.
Spellchecker, why not. I for one could use someone with good english and typing skills. |
Oops! I may have misunderstood. My response targeted the home page search function for equipment purchases. Jewel, the search option for discussions may not lend itself very often to a price range. There are only a few threads (out of the thousands) that address that explicitly. It would simplify searches if the searcher could choose to pull up "topics" rather than each word within a topic. For example, show all threads (topics) with "best preamp" -- only the thread titles would appear. The searcher could then click on those.
Bob, you are right about searches not being used. I did a ton of research on dedicated lines so didn't have to ask the question -- but each separate thread did seem to add value. Not everyone contributes to the first, second ... Well, maybe after the sixth it got to be about the same.
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Ozfly - sorry I did NOT mean searches at this "Discussion Forum". I was talking more about "search functions" associated with the "for sale" pages, the main bread and butter pages. |
Its ok, I didn't misread it and realized it was for purchasing, but figured why not go a little off on a tangent (which happens alot around here) since it is still forum related. |
A search or even a "sort" by price for classifieds would be outstanding!
As for requiring a search in the forums, I think the better solution would be for AudiogoN to come up with an FAQ section for each category. This would be much more user-friendly. Then, rather than telling people to "do a search", we can point them at the appropriate FAQ topic. |
What about searching the forum threads by username? But maybe that could be too intrusive. I ask because there are some members who's input I am very interested in and would like to read further. |
I think I had suggested awhile back they do a library. However, I don't think it'll get much mileage since there's somethings that are more opinion than fact, like the cables and tubes. It could work and would be nice (I can think of alot of good article around that could just be linked). But since there is a permanent archives, I figure the whole point of something like that existing was so that people could back reference it (even if the search function don't always turn back what you want). Not to mention, back referencing can give answers that may not come up even if one starts the new thread. As far as searching by members name's-it only scares me because I dread people looking at what I write/wrote. You could get into personality profiles and watch them go through there latest obsessions. I guess I should just laugh it off. |
Ezmeralda - I think you're right. Searching by members's names could get a little creepy and I kind of dread it myself - now that you mention it. |
If you want to access a memebrs threads just click on his name and it will bring up all of their threads that they have posted on. |
well yes we have gone off on a tangent or two here (sorry Jewel) but this is what normally happens in these threads so that's OK.
Yes you can search by membername, but only within the sales listings. As Perfect notes, you can click on the poster's name to bring up their other forum posts (30 days history only, & only once you've found a thread in which the poster has previously participated) so as Neubilder says, it would be useful to search forums by membername.
Also useful would be a capability to include searching within forum TOPIC title content, not just text body. I've tried this before; I was looking for threads of which I already knew the titles, but they're not found with the existing limited "text body only" search engine.
Regarding an FAQ, we started up a small focus group last fall & I actually began that effort. However I soon realized that if members can't even bother to use the search engine, would they really take the time to read the FAQ? Or likely they'd simply take the usual approach of posting yet-again-redunant questions? There is definite merit to back-referencing (as Ez noted above) but sometimes new info is gleaned from a new query as well, so both approaches do have merit on occasion. That is what I'd like to see - that the option be at least available. There are many enhancements possible & I really do hope that Arnie & his gang are watching this thread? Comments guys? |
