How to best encourage doing searches? (and no, I have no suggestions!)

[Explorer]

We've all seen subjects get posted where it's clear that someone didn't search, and sometimes that they didn't even read the topic titles for the day before repeating that same topic. Does anyone have a creative solution to encourage people to actually look and search before hitting that "New Topic!" button?

I know that the owner/mods could come up with a rule, to which anyone joining would to agree, that they'll do at least a cursory search under threat of the Ban Hammer... but is there a way to lead people to do the right thing to begin with?

Generally, I'll post the SearchFirst animated gif, and then some links to where a subject has already been raised and discussed thoroughly, but I'm hoping someone has something better by which the more experienced users could encourage excellence from the newer members.

Thoughts?

[elq]

one off the cuff idea - change the forum software to conduct a search for the thread title before starting a new thread - show the submitter the list of found posts but allow them to post anyway.

Or, if a there is a url present in the body of the first post, search for that too.

[Fiction]

Or even just at the top of the 'New Thread' page, just a simple header or something saying make sure you've searched prior to posting a new thread, it won't guarantee a stop, but it could cut down numbers. also the default text for the thread header could be set to "make a search first".

Edit: For Example.. (Paint FTW!)

[Sephael]

I have a feeling the header would lead to a rash of posts titled "Have you searched yet" in every section.

Maybe we just ignore the threads asking the same question as another post on the first page of that section.

[Kurkkuviipale]

They have a pretty damn good function in Gearslutz.com. Every time you try make a thread, the site searches automatically for similar threads and shows them to you. This must be pretty hard to code however.

[Chris]

That's just a vB plugin. It's dodgy at times, so a lot of us (admins) don't use it. This is really just always going to be an issue on any forum you go to. The best "advice" that I can give is as a forum poster, always try to be articulate with your wording, and if you have a problem, post about it, and then solve it on your own - do the right thing and come back and post up the solution.

It will save someone else a headache down the road.

[in-pursuit]

why not just make it so that you have to have a minimum post count before you can post new threads, similar to the classifieds subforum?

[TRENCHLORD]

This is obvoius to many, but trying to summerize the search subject in one word narrows the field considerably.
Sure you'll still have to weed through all the threads that pop up, but it's often way better than you'll get with a search of a short phrase.

For example, if I search "good metal overdrive", every thread that posseses the word metal, overdrive, and good will pop up.
If I search for "overdrive" and just weed through the greatly reduced number of related threads, it saves time and works better.

I constantly read guys saying they pre-searched before starting thread, only to conduct my own one-word search and find immediate success.

[Explorer]

I really like using Google when I have to find things with more than one search term. Using the example of "good metal overdrive" or "best metal overdrive" combined with "site:sevenstring.org" gets only one or two main topics.

I joyfully welcome our new search engine overlords.

[Spaceman_Spiff]

Originally Posted by Explorer

I really like using Google when I have to find things with more than one search term. Using the example of "good metal overdrive" or "best metal overdrive" combined with "site:sevenstring.org" gets only one or two main topics.

I joyfully welcome our new search engine overlords.

Google and quotation marks is how I always conduct searches for stuff on this site. It's definitely the best way in my opinion.

[Alberto7]

Originally Posted by Explorer

I really like using Google when I have to find things with more than one search term. Using the example of "good metal overdrive" or "best metal overdrive" combined with "site:sevenstring.org" gets only one or two main topics.

I joyfully welcome our new search engine overlords.

That Google functionality is possibly the sole reason why I very rarely post any new threads

[Velixo]

Originally Posted by in-pursuit

why not just make it so that you have to have a minimum post count before you can post new threads, similar to the classifieds subforum?

That could get annoying and render the forum non-user-friendly for new members.


Also, wouldn't searching for a similar thread when you try to create a new thread make creating a new thread really slow with the load times? (I'm sorry if I'm completely wrong, I don't know alot about the mechanics of creating/managing websites)