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Daniel

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In a recent discussion with @Brandy we both noticed that the 'Search' sometimes doesn't return a result. Brandy said:

17 hours ago, Brandy said:

If I search "fish in the news", which I know is a topic, I get nothing. If enclose it in quotes in the search bar " "fish in the news" " I still get nothing. If I search "news" it pops right up. "Fish in the News !" is the actual topic title. Several times recently I can't find a thing using multiple search terms in the search bar. If I can find it with just one, it is there, or if I scroll thru acres

Maybe this there is room for improvement with the 'Search' feature, maybe not, but you never know until you ask.

If there are other suggestions for making the forum more useful please reply to this thread with your suggestions.

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Is that because the only tag it has is "news"? I know that I hardly ever put tags on my topics, but somehow they get tags. I'm guessing it's from moderators along with a picture sometimes. I only see five people listed as moderators and there are over 6,000 topics with over 3,000 members currently. So how do you train members to be more effective when posting topics? It seems to me most new members will go directly to posting their issue without searching for it first because I see multiple instances of the same ailment with the same replies. Is that just human nature to ask before searching or is it the faulty search system? 

I tried to see if I could add a tag to a topic that I didn't create and couldn't figure out how or if I could. Apparently a members rank will help in deciding if a post should be removed, but not allow them to contribute in other ways. Also stated in that post "please don't "chase" these ranks by spamming comments. We have an active community with meaningful content" which I feel like the leaderboard and having ranks displayed inadvertently encourages members to make posts or leave comments without much consideration to them being "meaningful." I feel like maybe you feel this in some way too with your recent topic :

I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm not sure what all actions a moderator has access to, but maybe a rank that would lead to giving otherwise normal members access to light moderator functions that would also be like a sort of tiered system with points that lead to more moderator actions would let those who want to help be more helpful and show that they can be. I don't what the criteria would be to become a light moderator, but surely delegating out some lesser functions to a broader number of devoted members would only serve to improve the whole forum. I mean I might not be able to help with a certain disease issue or have any input on what you should put in your 29g, but I do spend a lot of time looking through posts and if they weren't tagged then at least I could contribute in that way while reading through the forum. Even with the initial tags on posts, the conversation sometimes changes with information that might not have been tagged otherwise.

-Edit- Not everything has to be meaningful to be posted. I'm not condemning anyone for posting before searching. I feel like this forum is a community and the small back and forth conversations make it a great place to be. Even if someone else had the same issue as you in a previous post feel free to post it and receive the help and comforting comments from this community.

 

Edited by Aubrey
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24 minutes ago, Aubrey said:

Not everything has to be meaningful to be posted. I'm not condemning anyone for posting before searching. I feel like this forum is a community and the small back and forth conversations make it a great place to be. Even if someone else had the same issue as you in a previous post feel free to post it and receive the help and comforting comments from this community.

Totally agree with @Aubrey. New posts bring out new ideas. Even if we talked about the topic in July, if it was interesting then, it is interesting now. Plus the mix of people and personalities changes day to day and month to month. For me I use search for the same reason I used to use a card catalog to find books in a library, it gets me to the information I am looking for more quickly.

Anyway, if there weren't new post all the time whatever would we do for a social life?🙂

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3 hours ago, Aubrey said:

It seems to me most new members will go directly to posting their issue without searching for it first because I see multiple instances of the same ailment with the same replies. Is that just human nature to ask before searching or is it the faulty search system? 

 

 

-Edit- Not everything has to be meaningful to be posted. I'm not condemning anyone for posting before searching. I feel like this forum is a community and the small back and forth conversations make it a great place to be. Even if someone else had the same issue as you in a previous post feel free to post it and receive the help and comforting comments from this community.

 

As a newbie, I have been guilty of posing a question and then realizing I should've done a bit more research first. I think it's about both panic and comfort, just as you said. Panic because we have an issue we've never experienced and may think the world is ending and comfort because those of you who are seasoned offer a kind of virtual hug we need.

I've also used the search option and waded through content to try to find what I need, but again, as new people, I think we feel like everything we're experiencing comes with a bit of panic and we need an urgent response. So I think it's both human nature and the fact that there is so much content to wade through when we search -- which is not a bad thing in any way -- that creates repeat discussions. 

I think encouragement to search and encouragement to use appropriate/specific tags, as well as better search functionality/sensitivity would be beneficial.

Also, I just recently realized you can follow people and see what they comment on. That has saved me from asking the same question again. If there is a suggestion to do that, I haven't seen it, but I think new people would benefit from knowing they can follow those of you who are more active@Daniel @Daniel

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6 hours ago, Aubrey said:

Is that because the only tag it has is "news"? I know that I hardly ever put tags on my topics, but somehow they get tags. I'm guessing it's from moderators along with a picture sometimes. 

 

I honestly didn't know the point for tags until now, which is why I never spent the time including these in my posts. Now that I know, I will be adding tags to my posts. You learn something new every day!

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I've searched for the fish in the news thread a few times and it's never shown up for me. I've almost given up and started a new one multiple times. It also happened with the what did you get done today thread the other day. Had to got through another members activity feed that I knew posted there recently to find it. 

Also adding the ability to enable push notifications thru a phones browser. Several retail websites I use can give me push notifications thru Chrome about sales and restock so I'd imagine it's possible for the forum. I'll admit I have no idea the kind of work that feature would require though so just a suggestion. 

 

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I believe the "fish in the news thread" was corrupt in the search index. I ran tests and found it was the only thread I had a problem pulling up. I am currently waiting for the index to rebuilt to see if that fixes the problem. While I was at it. I installed a quick search feature.

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I think some of the lack of tags is the fault of the app. I've never been able to add them there.  I've included screenshots here, so you can see what happens when I try to add tags to a new post:

This is what I see when I click "create a new topic":

Screenshot_20210125-094102_Communities.jpg.55da3ba86b1b765b3d412552362a02e6.jpg

Then I clicked the pencil:

Screenshot_20210125-094110_Communities.jpg.eebcf0e9565dd4fdc518fd4bac409f34.jpg

I enter my new tag:

Screenshot_20210125-094132_Communities.jpg.313a31cace0f78c8c23c30c750a01159.jpg

I clicked the "add" button"

Screenshot_20210125-094136_Communities.jpg.244ce3ef955dbd6b2e07707991f5e18e.jpg

You can see it kicks me all the way out of the forum:

Screenshot_20210125-094139_Communities.jpg.e35ee74d7cd93becdef2c4bfd180eee7.jpg

So the ability to add tags on the app has a glitch.

Also, I realized that I can't "create new topic" on this thread labeled "Forum Announcements". The option is there for every other thread, though:

Screenshot_20210125-093741_Communities.jpg.f79aeb1b820972f72e22763145cca8a6.jpg

 

Screenshot_20210125-093729_Communities.jpg.54c525b67cbae757e2c6247d127e0004.jpg

 

Now, I'm wondering if that's been locked on purpose? Anyway...just thought I'd mention it.

So...the app has some issues. I know that is to be expected. But it may be the answer to some things that are not working well on the forum. I hope this information helps. 🙂

Alesha

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I am sure they are working out some issues with the new layout but is anyone else having issues when you go to the bottom of a topic it does not show the button or arrow to move to the next page. 

Screenshot_20210128-194514_Chrome.jpg

Edited by Garren B
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1 hour ago, Garren B said:

is anyone else having issues when you go to the bottom of a topic it does not show the button or arrow to move to the next page. 

Yes, I have the same issue. With the list of the topics too.  Only the first page is displayed and there is no way to access the other pages.

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12 hours ago, Fonske said:

Yes, I have the same issue. With the list of the topics too.  Only the first page is displayed and there is no way to access the other pages.

@Cory I am having the same problem. I need to access the previous pages and so far this is impossible in Chrome, Firefox and Edge.

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@James Black I'm having the same issue.

I've also noticed that if you screw up typing someone's name while tagging them in a post you now have to delete the entire tag including the @ instead of just fixing the spelling error for the suggestions to come back up.

The other thing I've noticed is that on mobile the top menu buttons are no longer on the right they're a little left of center and it just looks odd. 

Screenshot_20210129-125224.png.e0991078b70285e085566910e67b44dc.png

The only thing really bothering me is the notifications not coming up though.

Edited by ChefConfit
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Very minor piece of feedback re: the updated website design. The Notification bell icon no longer provides a number / numbers indicating unchecked message replies. Is this something that can be recovered in settings? Or is it a discontinued feature altogether? Love the Forum. Just trying to make most effective use of it. 

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