Originally Posted by
nerd
I agree with Kathy on both counts.
First, good work.
Second, I think people will either post a newbie/repeat question or take it on themselves to figure out the search engine.
Someone who can't figure out how to learn the search engine is not going to a) click an announcement link, then b) click on the link to this thread, then c) sort through another dozen links to find the info they need.
I think we are missing the point here. If the search feature requires an entire thread of explanation of syntax and strategy methods, I would say that's a pretty good indication of a very flawed search feature.
I realize you are using a packaged forum solution, but that does not mean the search feature cannot be modified easily. One feature would go a long way to make the search useful and would take very little effort: append a + before each keyword not preceded by " +" or " OR " beyond the first keyword. This would effectively make it an AND search by default, which is what the user expects. If you take this translation approach, the effort is extremely minimal.
The approach of the FT mods should be: fix the search. Documentation DOES NOT FIX ANYTHING, as pointed out by the message quoted above. You have a good % of people here who are IT consultants (including myself). I am sure many of us would be willing to lend a hand, as the FT search feature is even more annoying to people who design software for a living...