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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 4, 2010 17:30:58 GMT
A recent conversation with another AnyPorter got me thinking about how ways we access the forum, and how to search it when we’re looking for something in particular. Here’s an overview of how not only to get to what interests you, but to discover new things and get the most out of AnyPort. I’m listing these methods in descending order of desirability. ~~ Look at the Main Page of the forum.Wherever there is a blue dot showing, it indicates a new post in that board since you last viewed it. Click on a board's title to open that whole board. When the board is opened, every thread that's been posted in since you last visited that board will have a blue "new" button next to it. This method is the best way not to miss anything. Also, it lets you go directly to your areas of interest if you're in a hurry. Even if there are no blue dots showing, sometimes it’s fun and productive to open up a board and see what’s there, even going back to older pages. ~~ Scroll to the bottom of the main page. & click on "View the 80 most recent posts of this forum" under Forum Statistics. ~~ Open your Profile and where it says "Recent Posts"., set it to 20 or 90 or whatever suits. (default is 10) This will only show your most recent posts. ~~ This last method is the one I wish no one would use, ever! That is, looking only at the far right column on the Main Page and clicking on posts that appear to be new. That means you'll only see that particular thread. You won't see whatever else is new or interesting in that board, nor will you see the Announcements at the top of the board. =========================================================================== Let’s be blunt: the Search feature provided by our host forum is pretty deficient. Here are a couple of alternate ways of searching that I find much more likely to yield results: ~~ Use the Google search slot at the bottom of every AnyPort page. There are two buttons. Click on the anyportinastorm.proboards.com button. ~~ Use the Find feature if you’re looking for a particular thread or word in a thread title. Go to the board(s) where you think it might be found. Then, instead of scrolling through all the thread titles on each page, use the find feature (Cntrl + F) to quickly pinpoint which threads might hold what you seek. That second method is stymied if people get too creative with their thread titles. Keep that in mind when you name your own threads. Further, a thread with a straightforward name will attract hits from Google and other search engines. That means that your carefully crafted thread could pull in viewers from all over! These two search methods can be a big help to check for an extant thread before accidentally starting a duplicate one.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2010 18:10:10 GMT
I absolutely agree that people should be very clear when naming their posts. All of us have found ourselves searching for interesting items that have become completely lost due to an ambiguous or totally off-the-wall thread title.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 4, 2010 18:51:46 GMT
I hope I can find this thread later.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 4, 2010 19:24:34 GMT
You could demand that everyone use the title "Here it is, Mark!" for all threads.
(There's a flaw in that solution somewhere. I must find it.)
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Post by onlymark on Jun 4, 2010 19:29:27 GMT
Maybe we could have a facility to mark threads individually, like putting a star against them or something, so that we don't lose them. Then they can go into a special individual board, one for each of us.
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Post by cristina on Jun 4, 2010 20:25:07 GMT
This is great great, Bixa...I never connected the dots, so to speak, about the blue dots. And Mark's great suggestion is one that I miss from an old forum I used to participate in, where users could bookmark certain threads. Edited to add: I just went back and looked at the blue dots and the non-blue dots (which are gray). The contrast between the 2 colors is fairly slight, at least on my monitor, which must explain why my aging eyes never noticed them before.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 4, 2010 20:33:39 GMT
I've never used the Bookmark feature here, but there is a button for it at the top left of every thread. Look at the top of the OP here, right above the word "Author". It's right next to the button marked Search. That Search button can be used to search within a thread. You can test it by clicking on it in this thread and searching the word "button" for instance. It will highlight every place it appears in the thread.
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Post by cristina on Jun 4, 2010 20:36:40 GMT
Ha, I've never noticed that before. It must be because the font is so tiny and the color so faint...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2010 0:15:33 GMT
Really? Which skin are you using, please? I will check it. All of the skins should have matching buttons, but maybe one did not get its own set.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2010 15:35:37 GMT
Okay, I've gone through and found a couple of skins which were missing buttons and rectified that.
If you are a person whose skin is lacking some of the interior buttons, please let me know
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Post by Jazz on Jun 5, 2010 16:08:10 GMT
I've used the Bookmark function here, but gave up because I had such a long list and do not know how to organize it.
I find the Search Function itself to be totally useless. Don't be insulted, it seems to be rare for a forum to have an effective Search function. But, it would be great.
While I am on the subject of futile searches, there was a great thread about sandals about a year ago, OP'd by either Lagatta or Gyro (who included a photo of his favorite sandals). Does anyone know where it is?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2010 18:22:50 GMT
Um, Jazz ~~ did you read the OP? It tells you how to search without using the forum's built-in Search function. I instantly found the thread about sandals using the first method for searching suggested in the OP.
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Post by Jazz on Jun 5, 2010 21:29:53 GMT
Thank you dear, you are an infallible searcher.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2010 21:42:16 GMT
Did you try it?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2010 1:32:08 GMT
I wish there was some way of not duplicating threads on the board.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 6, 2010 4:34:39 GMT
I wish there was some way of not duplicating threads on the board. Amen to that! That's why I've been looking for better ways to search. Also, and I know I'm pounding this point home, people who are in the habit of checking out a board in full will be more likely to remember that there's an existing thread on a particular subject. And really, even though it may be an accident, I think everyone is taken aback to see one of their topics dismissed, in effect, by the making of a duplicate thread. I just went back and looked at the blue dots and the non-blue dots (which are gray). The contrast between the 2 colors is fairly slight, at least on my monitor I have an older monitor which has wonderful, true color reproduction. I've used several newer, flat screen monitors which do horrible things to colors, most commonly fading them and turning things a sickly gray. So, it's more likely your monitor than your eyesight that is keeping you from seeing the two dots as very distinct colors. Have you tried resetting the color on your monitor?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 18, 2010 15:27:12 GMT
Our host forum has given us a new feature that can serve to help in searching. Hover your mouse over the title of a thread and you can see the first few lines of the Opening Post. And here is another new feature:
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 20, 2010 19:48:13 GMT
FINALLY ~~
AnyPort has a Search feature that really works and is simple to use.
Either click on the Search button in the main menu or use the little search slot at the bottom of every page.
When you click the menu Search button, you get the advanced search feature. However, usually you can fill in just the first slot to get the results you want.
The search slot at the bottom of the pages gives you the option to go to advanced search.
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Post by Jazz on Sept 21, 2010 10:36:55 GMT
The new Search function is great! I just spent some time looking for the most obscure threads I could rememember and found them all, with excellent linking threads.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 4, 2010 19:05:11 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Oct 4, 2010 20:22:42 GMT
Kimby, I must admit I've never searched for anything on here so I realise I'm not talking from a position of strength, however - If I want to find a post by a particular poster I would open their profile, alter the number 10 to 100 on view recent posts, then use Ctrl+F to search in the results for the relevant word/phrase. If I thought it'd be a post from a long time ago then I might extend to 200 posts or so. But, on the top right of my page, under 'Home' is 'Search'. I've just clicked on there to find where you referred to 'granite' and it came back straight away with what you said on Sept 19, 2010, 9:48pm.
Is this worse than before or.....?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2010 6:44:29 GMT
My own experience with 'search' on any site is either I find immediately what I am looking for.... or I never find it. There is no middle ground in my searches!
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Post by Kimby on Oct 5, 2010 13:12:14 GMT
This will sound self-centered, but bear with me. I often used the Search function in the past to search for the word Kimby, to see if there were any posts by others that mentioned me. Besides the "where's Kimby?" type posts, this search was also helpful when I was in a hurry to quickly find threads where my posts had been quoted by others and might require a response from me.
If I do that now, the posts that come up are all out of order with no way to sort chronologically... And there are gazillions of them. Not helpful at all.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2010 13:40:24 GMT
Gazillions? Damn, we have got to stop talking about you behind your back!
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Post by onlymark on Oct 5, 2010 14:53:16 GMT
If you open a board, at the top of the board is a 'search' icon. This produces chronological results. But it would need each board to be checked individually. The normal general search does mix them up for some reason.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2010 16:41:05 GMT
The new search feature over-rides the old one, so I don't know if there is a way to have both. The old search feature sucked big time. The current one and the old one were checked against each other repeatedly, with the new one winning every time. As Mark says, each board has its own search feature. Yes, it does mean you have to visit each board to use it. But the old search feature made you check or uncheck boards first, remember how far back you needed to go, bogged down if you asked for too many results, and frequently didn't find what you wanted anyway. I had pretty much gotten to the point that I used the google search that was at the bottom of the page, since the regular forum search was more often than not a waste of time. Even though I like the new search feature, I often use Board Search because it will quickly find the exact result I need. Also, I usually know where stuff will not be. when I was in a hurry to quickly find threads where my posts had been quoted by others and might require a response from me. A way that might even be quicker than than doing any search is to open the boards in which you've participated and scan the left side for blue dots. You'll quickly see if any threads in which you've been active have new posts. Even if the new posts don't quote you, they may well be something to which you'd want to respond.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 5, 2010 19:24:59 GMT
Gazillions? Damn, we have got to stop talking about you behind your back! OK, I exaggerated a bit. When I entered "kimby" as the only search criteria, I got 743 hits, in no logical order. I used to be able to search for any thread that had quoted my own post within a specified time frame. Sorry, but I hate the new search feature. If google search is available to use on Any Port, why not use that for general searches and keep the old search available as an option? Or at least make it possible to limit the time period that is being searched?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2010 19:31:52 GMT
Frankly, I always used the Google search, which seemed good enough to me.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2010 23:03:29 GMT
Well, out of four people who've expressed opinions, two like it a bunch, one hates it, and one seems indifferent.
Kimby, try this ~~ in the top slot, type in your name & a word or two from a pertinent thread. On long threads, you'll probably still get too many hits, i.e. kimby otis, but it's worth a try. I do think using the board search will give you the best results compared to your previous method.
Quite honestly, on a day-to-day basis, simply opening all the boards will give lots of information about what's going on in the forum, without having to resort to any kind of search.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 6, 2010 21:50:39 GMT
Yes, I know, I SHOULD be visiting and posting in more places. But IRL I don't have time... ;-(
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