questions about forum use

[old cool]

I have a couple of questions about using the forum wisely and more efficiently.
Hope this helps others as well.
1. On occasion, I am unknowingly logged out of the forum while posting or responding to a thread. I'm not sure if I've accidently hitting a key or if I've run out of response time.
2. I have never been able to search by topic. I always get the message:
"sorry, no matches"

[kcsa75]

Not sure on No. 1, but on No. 2 are you using the search box at the top of the screen, then clicking the button next to 67-72chevytrucks.com?

[sdailey]

When you log on everytime in the upper right hand corner, there is a little block that says "remember me". Click on that block and it won't time your session out once you're logged into the forums.

[66Submarine]

IMO, the search function on this site kind of sucks. I pay for membership, and I still have to wait 60 seconds between searches--even if the search comes back with nothing or it decides a vital word is "too short or too common". I don't have three days to try to search for something, so I rarely use the site's search function these days.

Any future plans to make it more usable/useful?

[sdailey]

Originally Posted by 66Submarine

IMO, the search function on this site kind of sucks. I pay for membership, and I still have to wait 60 seconds between searches--even if the search comes back with nothing or it decides a vital word is "too short or too common". I don't have three days to try to search for something, so I rarely use the site's search function these days.

Any future plans to make it more usable/useful?

Try using the 67-72chevytrucks.com search feature at the top of the page in the Google box.

[66Submarine]

Yeah, a lot of times I use google and just add "site:67-72chevytrucks.com" to search like that, but that doesn't let you search specific forums, etc. It would be really nice to have the advanced search features without that "one minute between searches" BS. Is that something that's made into the forum that can't be changed or something?

[McCoyAZ]

I do have to agree that I find it difficult to search this site and that is why I often just ask in the open forums.

[Liz]

If search is less than 60 seconds the site will crash. VB search has always sucked, and has always been an issue. When you have several thousand people searching, uploading etc at the same time, it will strain things. That is why the other alternative is at the top.

[66Submarine]

Yeah, that's what I figured. Any chance of future plans for improvements?

[old cool]

I followed kcsa and sdailey's recommendations. these alternatives worked for me.
1. I clicked on "remember me" and that seemed to keep me logged in
2. I filled in the white box with key words and/or thread titles; I then clicked on the 67-72 option; I then clicked on google and it took me straight to the titles I was seeking. I'm not sure, however, if it took me to 'all' forum entries.
great start to finding info more quickly. hope I'll find old forum threads when needed

[Woogeroo]

Another thing to keep in mind... the VB(vBulletin - the software of the forum) search feature only finds, what is actually on the forum.

Kinda like searching the various online auction & classifieds for parts... things are misspelled, acronyms & nicknames are used for parts(SBC for small block chevy, cat whiskers for those door guides for the door windows on 64-66 trucks) , etc..

When searching things about disc brakes, sometimes a great thread got started with : disk brakes... or... sometimes things get mistyped when threads get started : disk brakkes

If you go to the search/advanced search and really tweak/mess with the options, you can find a lot of stuff... but only if you use the right terms/words/phrases.

for example:

Wheels can be mentioned in topics or in the posts as : rims, steelies, mags, stock wheels, oem wheel, or for the low and slow crowd their diameter will be used : twenties/20s/20" . For the high and large crowd(4x4) they will use overall size like: 38s/38"/ 38 inch tires / wheels for 38s/ etc..

like that... so, just trying to search for something like wheels and tires in a given model year forum... you can try all sorts of terms trying to whittle it all down. It can make you a little crazy... but it can be fun, cuz usually you'll find all sorta of other cool threads along the way.



Anyway, that is a trick I've learned over the years... think about what you are really looking for. Then think about what else it could be called... or what other parts are connected to it... what area is it in, etc..

-W

[BR3W CITY]

If you know where to look, I have never had a problem using the "search this forum" function.
I skip the search bar at the top, since the results aren't organized, and a followup search defaults to the whole web, not just the forum (even if you select 67-72chevytrucks as the option)