first, searching all forums is incredibly slow, there should be a way to hit "stop" searcing, and display the results.

second, searching by user member number? Why not their UserID like everyother forum.

x2

YES, I agree!!

I warned people that the whole site search was slow (look how many topics and forums there are - duh)

That is why for the longest time I had it turned of, but people complained that you could not do a full site search so I turned it back on.

If you want a faster search I suggest just searching in the forum that the topic should be in.

As for the searching for topics from a particular person. You can do that by clicking on their profile and there is a feature that lets you look at all the posts they made.

Can't make all the people happy all the time...

actually it will only give you most recent.

right, so whats the point of feedback here if a simple change that is desired by your users cant be made?

Searching by memeber # makes zero sense to me. Btw, my profession is in interface design and usability evaluation, so take my feedback for what its worth. Just trying to make things better for this already good resource.

Is it an inability or lack of knowledge to change the search function on this board, or simply something no one wants to be bothered with?

The answer to the above would at least let all members know where the board administrators stand on this issue, then everyone can stop bothering others with these "pesky" little recommendations.

The Admin did answer - the board is pretty big and it takes awhile to search all the posts.

Personally - I liked it better when the "search all" option was turned off. It was more efficient to search within forums for any particular topic or keyword.

As for searching by Member ID or Member # - What's the big deal? If you know their ID - then it will only take a few clicks to also find their number - right?

Oh, you're right, he did....as soon as I saw him give a condesending "duh", I kind of just ignored the rest of the post
:rolleyes:

But he pretty much answered the question before he typed the word "duh"...

Being in the software business too, I understand very well how searching all can be slow and slow down the rest of the system. Nevertheless, sometimes it is useful. Likewise, like it was suggested, it would be nice to be able to stop the query half way and it would also be nice to see the results as they are found, this way one could stop it if either one found what he was looking for or sees that his queries returns nothing worthwhile.

I have seen on other boards where in addition to the option to search all, there is also the option to check only the forums of interest.

For example, when I search for stuff, it ends up in general, problems and annoyances, brakes, tires, backyard mechanic or 4x4. But since some users don't always post in the right forums, we are forced to search in the wrong forums.

Another feature I would find a nice addition is in addition to be able to see today's active topics, would be to see the last 24 hours. I am on the East Coast and a lot of stuff happens after I'm gone to bed and the next morning.

My 2 cents, maybe a bit more...

One of the problems is that the board has gotten so large and the software that runs the board is so old that unless we do a switch to better software then we are sort of stuck with what we have.

The current options that are given to me by the board for searching are slim. In fact it is damn basic.

So the question becomes, is it worth the expense, time and annoyance to change the board to a more up to date software so we could get a better search (that not to many people use)

Ian tried it once and could not get it to work right so I am leary in attempting it.