Learn how to use the search feature here!

[Drew M]

Have you ever thought to yourself "Wow this is really cool! I hope it isn't gonna be a repost!"? Well when you are done reading this thread you will be able to say "yes it is" or "no it isn't" with confidence. Reposts are amazingly annoying - almost as annoying as the 27,000 people who insist on telling us that it is a repost (in case we didn't read the 18,000 before them). There is no excuse for making a repost other than sheer laziness and laziness doesn't earn free passes here. Many of you also like to say "Well I did a search". Well no you didn't - or you have no idea how to do one and did it wrong. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to perform a proper search. --------------------------------- Suppose you sign on to AIM one day at 11:00 in the AM after a long night of boulevard pimping and one of your boyeeZ IMs you a link. You check it out and see the tightest Honda Accord commercial ever. Your "HondaLuv" gene kicks into overdrive and you pop a little chub. You think "y0! I gotta post this on Honda-Tech" since Honda-Tech is ALWAYS your first thought in life. You click on "New Topic" and are all set to cut and paste the link but then you get a scary thought. "I wonder if this will be a repost?" Since you have heard of this thing called a search engine but have never used it you figure "I'll just say hope it ain't a repost and be done with it." You click "Post" and the rest is a story that is played out every day. You then sit back and wonder what you could have done differently. Well here is the answer: Step 1 - The realization: You need to know that there will always be someone who comes home earlier the night before, gets up earlier in the AM and has a faster internet connection than you. If you think something is hella kickin' then there is a very good chance someone else thought the same thing BUT got up earlier than you did and posted it. Your best bet is to come to the REALIZATION that a search should be performed. Step 2 - Begin The Search: Starting a search can be a scary thing. Diving into the world of the vast unknown can be terrifying. The fact that you will have to do it alone without Honda-Tech members holding your hand is enough to send you over the edge. Calm down little stunna - we are now holding your hand and will do this together. Take a deep breath and move your cursor to the upper right side of your screen and click on the word "Search" to START. The big daunting screen you will get looks like this: Don't worry - it isn't as bad as it looks. Let's continue. Step 3 - Selecting Your Keywords: A keyword is the term you want to search. Since you are about to post an Accord commercial the most logical starting point would be the keyword "accord". Amazing huh? Just type it into the box provided like so: Keywords can be any word that contains 3 or more letters. You can also use phrases. <FONT COLOR="blue">Helpful Hint #1: You should ALWAYS use keywords that have something to do with the topic you are searching for. Using the keyword "weed" will most likely NOT produce any results if you are searching for carbon fiber shift knobs.</FONT> Step 4 - Choosing Your Data Set: This is the first hard part because you have to make a decision and since the search window openned up in the same browser window as before it would be difficult to go back to the forums and create a poll as to which choice you should make. This is really very simple. You have 2 choices: - Recent content - Archived content The difference is "Recent content" is generally less than 3 months old. "Archived content" is everything that is older. You should always start with the most recent content so nothing needs to be done since the default is "Recent content" already: Step 5 - What Forum To Search: I know - another decision. It isn't too bad. A little common sense can make this easy. If you are searching for spark plug gap info for a 1992 Civic then the Civic forum would be a good place to start. Since we are looking for an Accord commercial we will start in the broadest location - the General Discussion forum. Simply click the down arrow and scroll to the forum you want: Once it is highlighted click it. <FONT COLOR="blue">Helpful Hint #2: You should ALWAYS search the forum that is most closely related to your topic. Searching the Motorcycle forum for info on light up windshield washer nozzles won't yield very good results. The Appearance forum would be a better choice.</FONT> Note also that you can search all of the forums but this is advised against in most cases because you might get too many results and have to spend more than 5 minutes sifting through them. Additionally, since we are using this to find reposts then the forum where we are posting our thread is the best place to look. Creator: This is an advanced feature and should not be used by search n00bs. Please leave it blank. Step 6 - Search In: Yes I know - another choice. This one is easy. You have 2 options: - Topic Titles - Post Bodies Keep it simple at first. Just search the topic titles. It is faster and since about 65% of the members here manage to name their threads with something close to what it is about the odds are in your favor with this one. The default is titles so once again you don't need to do anything: List Order: Another advanced feature. Leave this one alone as well. Step 7 - Performing The Search: This is a very important part of the process. Skipping this step makes the last 6 useless. You now need to click the button that says "Next" to tell the software to start your search: Oh Oh!!! Looks like it didn't find anything. There are a lot of reasons for this. The most likely is a keyword problem but let's start with the easiest thing first. Let's try searching the archive for the same keyword. Maybe your new topic idea is older than Christ and you need to go back more than 3 months to find it. Step 8 - Revising Your Data Set: As you remember from Step 4, the "Data Set" determines whether you search old topics or new topics. Since we didn't find anything in the new topics let's check in the old. In order to do this we need to get back to our main search screen. To do so click the words "Go Back" that are located just under the error message. You will be taken back to the main search window: Once back at the main window click the button for the "Archived content": If you properly clicked the "Go Back" button you will not need to change or re-enter any other info. Proceed to the "Next" button. If you remember from Step 7 this button needs to be clicked to start the search: And . . . . . nothing. Although a few topics are returned, they aren't what we are looking for. Now before you go patting yourself on the back for a search well done ask yourself this: "Could my topic be under a different name?" <FONT COLOR="blue">Helpful Hint #3: An effective search actually requires you to search more than 1 keyword. There are many factors that can alter your results so to be sure you aren't about to make a repost you need to look more than once.</FONT> Step 9 - Trying Another Keyword: Remember - only 65% of the members can name a thread appropriately so there IS a chance your topic might be found with a different keyword - but how do we do that? Unfortunately you will need to click your browser's back button. This is unfortunate because ALL the work you did in the first 8 steps will be lost. Not to worry however. Just go back over the first steps and do them the same with the exception of step 3. Here we will have to try something else. Since we are looking for topics on the Accord commercial, and "Accord" didn't turn up anything let's try "commercial". Type it into the keyword box: Select the General Discussion forum again from the dropdown list. Let's live on the edge and look at the Archived content since we are looking for reposts and the more results the better. Since the Archive is bigger than the Recent data set you will get more results from here. Once all this is complete click the very important "Next" button: Step 10 - Reviewing Results: We got some interesting stuff back this time. What do you do with it? You need to review it and see if it is what you are looking for. To do so you need to click on the links and read. After doing so for our search I see 3 topics that cover the same thing you were about to post. It is now safe to say that your hot new topic isn't so hot . . . . or new: <FONT COLOR="blue">Helpful Hint #4: Simply reading a title won't always tell you what the thread is about. Remember - only 65% of the members can properly name a thread so there is a good chance that what you are looking for may not be under a title you would expect.</FONT> "But it is only 3 threads and they were back in the summer - maybe people have forgotten since it wasn't posted too many times." Not so fast Tex. There are only 3 on the first page BUT that doesn't mean we are done. Let's see what is behind door number 2. Step 11 - Reviewing Page 2 Results: Since many times you get more than 1 page of search results back it could be important to look at page 2. To find out how many pages of results you got look in the lower right corner for page numbers. In our search we have 1-3. Lets click on 2: Uh Ohhhhh! After reviewing the results for page 2 it is clear that our 3 topics from page 1 were just the tip of the iceberg. We have found 15 more posts of the SAME Accord commercial all in the SAME forum. <FONT COLOR="blue">Helpful Hint #5: ALWAYS check the other pages. A repost is a repost, whether your topic is found on page 1 or page 21 of a search. It is good practice to check the other pages beyond the first one.</FONT> I know - it is sad that your blingin' topic is pretty shitty and old by now but cheer up. At least you have the confidence in knowing that you won't be guilty of a repost AND you know that because YOU did a SEARCH!

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[falcongsr]

TTT bump good sheit

[IT'S ME DAVID]

U MAY WANT TO UPDAte this.

[patronbike]

Funny how your ***got ass post this in ZERO FORUM STYLE!!!

[It Wasn't Me]

Originally Posted by patronbike

Funny how your [**] ass post this in ZERO FORUM STYLE!!!

Reading > You

It was posted on 9-03-2004

[GoodEyeSniper]

Originally Posted by patronbike

Funny how your ***got ass post this in ZERO FORUM STYLE!!!

Please bring back the whole Trial User deal so we get less retarded dickbags like patronbike here posting in GDD.

Thanks.

[THE GUY]

Originally Posted by goodeyesniper

please bring back the whole trial user deal so we get less retarded dickbags like patronbike here posting in gdd.

Thanks.

x2

[KOREAN]

you should make a thread on how to read posts for users like patronbike

[YeuEmMaiMai]

search does not work when you get invalid security token messages.....lawl........now it works thank goodness, now exactly how long did it take ya'll to fix that one

[quicksilver1689]

que es el searcho

[CARMA_626]

vBulletin Message

Your submission could not be processed because a security token was invalid.

If this occurred unexpectedly, please inform the administrator and describe the action you performed before you received this error.

[It Wasn't Me]

Go to the forum you think the thread is in, enter the info, enjoy.

.. back to bed.

*wanders off, mumbling something about insomnia*

[92civicx]

since we are talking about searches, idk if its my computer but when i try to change from revelance to thread title it doesn't do anything it just sais its doing something but doesn't go anywhere just has the same screen.

[George Knighton]

I'm going to lock this because Drew's comments refer to another system of software that we were using in 2004.

It's not really relevant to the problems we're having in 2008, but I appreciate the fact that the user has tried to search for his answer.

At the top of this forum is a sticky thread where people are talking about the search issues and other troubles.

I've asked for moderators and IB personnel to enter the thread to help us understand what's going wrong with all the search issues.