You’ve all seen this happen: you just get an answer to one problem and are looking at some other ones, when lo and behold, someone else posts a brand-new thread asking the same thing. Sometimes, there are half a dozen active threads discussing the same topic! Usually, at least one of them has a link to the rest and a request to search first.
Why not just answer each question individually when it comes up? We kind of don’t like repeat topics. We’d also prefer if you searched around a bit to try to find the answer. It’s not that we don’t want to help you, it’s that we already did, and we kind of don’t like repeating ourselves if we don’t have to. Not only that, it’s faster to find another thread on the topic than it is to start a thread, have someone who knows the answer find the thread, read it and get the info, post a response, and then have you read it. (Not to mention that you may get 3 responses doing the same thing.)
How do you do a search? Up in the orange bar at the top of the page, there is an item labeled “search”. Click this and enter your search terms in the dropdown box that appears. If you get a lot of results, you may want to do an advanced search; just click where it says “Advanced Search” on the bottom of that dropdown and fill in the various terms.
Now, there is a related issue that will get you if you aren’t careful: thread revival. In the course of a search, you may come upon threads that are several years old and still open. Responding to those may get you the “Holy ancient thread revival!” response. My personal rule of thumb is that anything under about a year is fair game; over that, you should probably link to the old thread (to show that yes, you did search) and start a new one.
I can’t imagine this is the first time this concept came up; I’m sure a simple search would yield similar advice.
In the future, please create a new thread that simply links back to the older ones.
I’m looking forward to the day when CD is nothing but a series of links to posts past. It would make the “Team A vs. Team B” game more complex.
There are a number of other threads that include, among a number of other forum do’s and don’ts, an admonition to search. Very, very few say why you should search, which is what I was after. (Or at least, very few that responded to the search term “search forums”.)
One way to think of it is as a resource kind of like a library. Chief Delphi has been in existence long enough now to have accumulated valuable information, knowledge, and wisdom on a variety of topics. It is a gathering place where knowledge is shared and stored in the threads that are created, and it has been for many years. For the veteran members who have been around when the threads were created or who have taken the time to search for topics that they found interesting or pertinent, Chief Delphi is a resource that they are accustomed to and navigate with relative ease. To newcomers, the ease is not there nor is the trust. A new member of a team may be given the link to CD and told to ask a question or - a new member on a team may be trained in how to use CD as resource - much like a library. There are also new team members or team members new to CD who just want to start a conversation about a topic of interest to them at that particular moment, and who have not been mentored or trained in the most effective ways to navigate the fora or who may not really care (for the time being) about learning those ways. Each season brings growth and development for members of Chief Delphi and for Chief Delphi, itself. New members have to develop trust and wisdom in using the search options and listening to fellow members.
It can be frustrating at the beginning of build season to see new threads created that may be redundant for some, but are fresh new territory for others. Finding the balance for both groups means bringing tolerance and flexibility to the table, met by a willingness to listen and to learn. It’s rather like being on a team and using similar skill sets in training and welcoming new members to the team. This team is made up of members of the Chief Delphi forums.
I’m more a fan of tagging threads (or more specifically, posts) and/or giving “rep” to a thread/post. Even better, we could add Q/A duet tags/reps to specific posts, much like Yahoo’s Answer does with “best voted” answers. It would require a large undertaking of the CD forum crew, yet would potentially reduce this extra noise.
The problem with “search” is that it is sometimes very difficult to find the right combination of words that will net you a valid contextual answer without giving you the noise you do not want. This is why Google is often times the worst search engine to use for anything technical. Also, sometimes you just have a brain fart and can’t remember what something is called, so the next best option is to ask.
