RANT

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There is a cycling sticky in the newbie forum, there isn't one about the 1 dollar per gallon idea though.

You can ask a moderator to create a sticky


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platytudes said:
Please don't make me talk about the horrible search function. I absolutely hate the search engine, but when I say that out loud I feel so ungrateful for criticizing a forum that I don't pay a penny to support (I've actually never bought any Monster Aquaria stuff). However it is insane that this search engine, for some reason, does not seem to care that things are in quotes...you might as well not bother trying to search for a specific phrase or set of words, it's impossible.

Anyway I don't think it can improve - perhaps there is a way, but I don't think it would be free. All I can say is that you are soooo much better off using Google.com and searching for whatever you're looking for with site:aquariacentral.com after that.

http://www.google.com/advanced_search
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I don't love the search function here, but I don't hate it either ... I usually play around a bit with terms and then ask for posts that have all of the terms in the title specficially. Anything broader just nets everything in the sea, pardon the metaphor. But you're right, Platy: Googling for terms on "site:aquariacentral.com" is always more effective and easier.

As for supporting the site, I've never spent a penny on monsterfish mechandise, but it's not that I don't want to support AC. It's that I don't need/want any MF merchandise. I don't keep monster fish and have visited the MF forums maybe five times in over two years. If AC had its own merchandise, I'd be interested, but the powers that be appear not to be trying to attract buyers from the AC side. Or have I missed something somewhere in Marketplace or wherever??

Ptrick125 said:
There is a cycling sticky in the newbie forum, there isn't one about the 1 dollar per gallon idea though.

You can ask a moderator to create a sticky
Click to expand...
A very good idea, Patrick, and one that too few members consider. Unfortunately, too few members bother to read stickies ... but that's a rant for a different day, lol. ;)
 
fshfanatic said:
No forums that are pinned to stay at the top of the thread are called stickies.
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You mean threads pinned to stay at the top of a forum? XD
 
H2Ogal said:
I don't love the search function here, but I don't hate it either ... I usually play around a bit with terms and then ask for posts that have all of the terms in the title specficially. Anything broader just nets everything in the sea, pardon the metaphor.
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I've never seen a search engine that will highlight the word "the" as though it's a word you were looking for, especially if what you were looking for was "inside the tank"...it shouldn't bring up posts that have the word tank, inside and the within the body of the posts. It should only bring up posts that have that specific phrase in them. Basically, it is the keyword function that doesn't work well - looking for posts by exact username and by title only works ok.

This is getting way off topic though, sorry.
 
Google to help you search!

platytudes said:
Please don't make me talk about the horrible search function. I absolutely hate the search engine, but when I say that out loud I feel so ungrateful for criticizing a forum that I don't pay a penny to support (I've actually never bought any Monster Aquaria stuff). However it is insane that this search engine, for some reason, does not seem to care that things are in quotes...you might as well not bother trying to search for a specific phrase or set of words, it's impossible.
Click to expand...

It's nothing personal against AC; vBulletin's forum software works, but the search has always been lacking. It's tricky at best. Even Google-fu Masters have a tough time. I frequent at least a half-dozen forums throughout the week and each that uses vBulletin has the same problem... If I recall, some settings can be adjusted to make it a little easier but it's been a number of years since I've messed with vBulletin as a moderator.

There is hope however. Using Google to search a site can sometimes get you better results. I've bookmarked a "Google Site Search" button on my Bookmark bar that I hit anytime I want to search a site that I'm currently visiting.

In Google Chrome (which may or may not also work for IE and FF), I've created a bookmark and inserted this into the URL/location:

Google Chrome:
javascript:Qr=prompt('Search Site for','');if(Qr){window.open('http://www.google.com/search?&q=site:'+encodeURIComponent(window.location.hostname)+'+'+escape(Qr))}

or possibly this one:

javascript:(function(){var qr=prompt("Search site for", '');if(qr){window.open('http://www.google.com/search?&q=site:'+encodeURIComponent(window.location.hostname)+'+'+escape(qr));}})();

​
When you click the bookmark a little window will open for your search term. It will then open a new window like you've searched Google but it will have only searched the site you're currently visiting.

One can also "manually" search a site using Google by entering the address like this in the Google bar, followed by your search term (with a space): site:www.aquariacentral.com [enter search term here]

This should work. Any techies that can help/correct me, please do!
 
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platytudes said:
I've never seen a search engine that will highlight the word "the" as though it's a word you were looking for, especially if what you were looking for was "inside the tank"...it shouldn't bring up posts that have the word tank, inside and the within the body of the posts. It should only bring up posts that have that specific phrase in them. Basically, it is the keyword function that doesn't work well - looking for posts by exact username and by title only works ok.

This is getting way off topic though, sorry.
Click to expand...

It's not really off topic, we are ranting about the search engine...


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Another things that grinds my gears is when someone asks a fairly simple question, such as-how important is ph?-and the question is answered in the first or second reply. And then ten other people respond with basically the same answer. Why? Unless you are adding something to further the answer it better, why comment on it. It's as if some read the question then immediately reply without reading the other responses, which I think was ranted about earlier, lol.


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RNeiswander said:
Another things that grinds my gears is when someone asks a fairly simple question, such as-how important is ph?-and the question is answered in the first or second reply. And then ten other people respond with basically the same answer. Why? Unless you are adding something to further the answer it better, why comment on it. It's as if some read the question then immediately reply without reading the other responses, which I think was ranted about earlier, lol.


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Click to expand...

I have been administering ad few online forums for the last 10 yrs and I can answer that for you in two words "Post Count".
 
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