That question that has been asked a X times before..

[Ouchboy]

This is not a complaint or request for support per se, But i thas been on my mind for a while so I thought I just say it out loud:

We all know the questions:
where can I find brown sugar..
is a quazillion chf enough... blablablabla

and they all start like:

"Sorry if this has been asked before...."

Now, my problem is this:
you didn't randomly type a set of combinations that magically ended being englishforum.ch... ther eis no train of thought that says: " well i need to know this question about CH.. I know! I'll just put englishforum.ch on the address bar and see what happens"

You must have used google, bing, yahoo or whatever the search engine you favored to ask your question. Hence, you must have found a similiar question on the forum (or possible that damn sticky) about it.

Shouldn't there be a FAQ on the MAIN page with the stickies?

Other forums seem to have a COWARDLY LURKER: PLEASE README BEFORE YOU POST!

or ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS OR THAT.

[Rangatiranui]

?
What are you trying to say
?

[grumpygit]

But then we wouldnt get the chance to say" thats been asked loads of times before , use the search button numbnuts"

[Ouchboy]

	Quote:	Rangatiranui
	? What are you trying to say ?

-I'm bored
- i which there was faq page
- that the stickies be more visible.
- That my random thoughts did not suddenly pop up in the middle of a conference call.

	Quote:	grumpygit
	But then we wouldnt get the chance to say" thats been asked loads of times before , use the search button numbnuts"

I can live with that.

[summerrain]

[mirfield]

This has been discussed before.

[Rangatiranui]

	Quote:	Ouchboy
	-I'm bored .

hobviusly!

are you also a fag? as that is a tag you've put on this thread.

Off to eat lunch.

[Ouchboy]

	Quote:	Rangatiranui
	hobviusly! are you also a fag? as that is a tag you've put on this thread. Off to eat lunch.

lol it says FAQ

	Quote:	Ouchboy
	Shouldn't there be a FAQ on the MAIN page with the stickies?

There used to be a link to the FAQ but it's gone astray since we got the new look. I've mentioned it in the Mod Zone once already but it's seem to gone astray as well. I'll see if we can't get it back.
As far as the stickies, they're located at the top of each subforum.

[Ouchboy]

	Quote:	summerrain
	summerrain's failcat

[summerrain]

[Ouchboy]

	Quote:	summerrain

[Helm]

I still don't get the whole brown sugar thing, but I have to mention sometimes what you get on the search results is so overwhelming, specially when you are in a stressful situation (like about to loose job or about to host a dinner to the Queen of England and are not sure where to find Brown Sugar) that people post before reading through the whole results.

Sometimes a useful thread, with tons of tips, only gets really good after 3 or 4 pages, which most people in stressful situations avoid reading (they just skim the first one). Maybe it’s because I’m a newbie, but the “I’m sure this has been asked before” threads don’t really bother me so much

You really need to calm down a bit! Go install Counter Strike on your work computer or so :P

P.S.: And you all had to post adorable lolcats while I tried to make a serious answer... xD

[Ouchboy]

	Quote:	vwild1
	As far as the stickies, they're located at the top of each subforum.

they just aren't visible enough (in my opinon). So I thought there could be something done about it

	Quote:	Ouchboy
	they just aren't visible enough (in my opinion). So I thought there could be something done about it

I agree in some ways because a newbie manages to find his/her way around Google, etc., to finally land at EF, register, set up an avatar, find the thread on which he/she can post a question then seems to have an attack of computer illiteracy and cannot fathom the search function.

[AbFab]

There have been various attempts over the years to consolidate all the useful info on EF into some sort of Wiki. I think about 4 years ago member 'Heather' spent some months on this, but gave up as it is a massive job with no reward.

But if you are bored...

[mirfield]

	Quote:
	I agree in some ways because a newbie manages to find his/her way around Google, etc., to finally land at EF, register, set up an avatar, find the thread on which he/she can post a question then seems to have an attack of computer illiteracy and cannot fathom the search function.

At the risk of bringing up a Frequently Mentioned Point, the search function is not intuative.

If you enter a search in the search box at the top of the page, then only the thread titles and tags are searched. There is no obvious way for a new user to know this.

Even if the current message, "No results. Try broadening your search words or checking your spelling," could be expanded to say this, it would be a help.

[MusicChick]

I'd say loads of people do get informed before they post, some don't. You will always get certain percentage of folks who rather talk to people. Just like you have folks who can't read manuals or get lost in simple instructions. Plus, not every one is an anglophone, too.

So, the few who actually stick out, coz they have no idea what a sticky is, bear with them...I think people who pop in and just directly ask for things before making any contribution nor saying hello irk me more than folks who happen to slip up at the last step before making a post.

Hightlighting stickies, or adding links to them upon registering would be good, but there are quite a few stickies around here and not everybody will ever use all the subforums.

[Ouchboy]

	Quote:	mirfield
	At the risk of bringing up a Frequently Mentioned Point, the search function is not intuative. If you enter a search in the search box at the top of the page, then only the thread titles are searched. There is no obvious way for a new user to know this. Even if the current message, "No results. Try broadening your search words or checking your spelling," could be expanded to say this it wouuld be a help.

the point is that a search was already done, the one that landed them in EF. Hence, they are already finding the correct response somewhere and being directed here. So tuning the search function (although much needed) is secondary. What the functio could do is prioritize stickies over other threads. any other ideas?

[terryhall]

	Quote:
	I agree in some ways because a newbie manages to find his/her way around Google, etc., to finally land at EF, register, set up an avatar, find the thread on which he/she can post a question then seems to have an attack of computer illiteracy and cannot fathom the search function.

Is it not possible that, given the above probably course of action, rather than the computer literate newbie failing to make the search function work, that instead the search function itself isn't very good?

I for one hate the search function, I generally only use it these days when I know the exact name of the thread I'm looking for and even then it often takes me 2 or 3 searches to find the one I want. For a newbie it must be even more daunting.

Surely it's possible to make the search more user-friendly and intuitive (e.g. drop down menus for which sub forum you want to look in, boolean searching, opt out keywords as well as opt in keywords, etc etc). With all the vB modifications out there, I'd be amazed if there wasn't something around the search.

Not that everyone would have the free time in their day to patch and de-bug such a modification, but surely Editor Bob is kind of responsible for this kind of thing...?