1 Topic by Norm d'Plume (edited by Norm d'Plume 2016-01-05 04:53:09)

Topic: forum search enhancement request

Sol, do you have any plans to make either the user-defined search or the advanced search more accessible? Currently we have to go to a forum, click Show Your Posts, click User-Defined Search, then click Advanced Search. That requires clicking through and waiting for three to four pages to load before being able to perform a search. If these two features were more accessible (say, from the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen), it might go a long way toward alleviating the frequent requests you get for an old-style forum.

In addition, a couple of enhancements to the advanced search I would suggest would be to sort the list of groups alphabetically, and add a checkbox to select all groups to which a person belongs with one click.

Thanks.
Dirk

Quote Post 1

2 Reply by Norm d'Plume (edited by Norm d'Plume 2016-01-05 04:55:45)

Re: forum search enhancement request

In addition to the above potential forum enhancements, a useful addition would be a keyword field to go along with new threads. Since there are any number of possible keywords of interest to a large site, it should be a text field that accepts comma-separated keywords. I think most people would quickly adapt to a core group of most commonly used keywords on the site and use them as well. And if they are commonly used, in time, it would be possible to add a popup screen to quickly select them, while still allowing everyone to enter custom keywords of their choice. The originator of the thread should be able to edit the keywords at any time, since a thread that generates a lot of interest would probably benefit from adding more keywords for archival purposes. For example, I would use the keyword 4017 on all threads related to my books, regardless of what group I post them in. I could then find them with a quick keyword search.

The keyword feature and quick access to the forum search might help alleviate the pain many of us are still feeling about the lack of a single best place to put our threads and find others.

Thanks.
Dirk

Quote Post 2

Re: forum search enhancement request

I agree to all of these suggestions. I wish we could work on them but they are not in the budget right now.

If you are wiling to sponsor these upgrades though we could look into doing them more quickly.

Quote Post 3

Re: forum search enhancement request

Unfortunately, I'm on a fixed income. I'll be on Windows 7/Office 2007 until I drop dead.

It's good to know, though, that there simply isn't capacity for the time being. Reigns in expectations big time.

Thanks for the update.
Dirk

Quote Post 4

Re: forum search enhancement request

WHat about asking for sponsorship from all members? I imagine that's too complicated.

I'd gladly kick in $20 toward these. One less vitamin supplement for a month isn't going to kill me.

Quote Post 5