Why cant I search?!?!?
 

I am unable to use the Search option under Forums - Search. Getting the following screen:
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maxima01, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
This forum may require additional account pre-requisites that you don't current have. Check the Announcements for this forum to see if you're required to have a minimum number of posts already, etc.
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
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I aasume it is the account prerequisite criteria I have not met. Do I need a minimum # of posts before I can use Search?

I emailed Support a few days ago but have not heard back.

BTW, I'm sure there are threads on this topic already, but I cant Search to find out! Go figure!! :D

try looking at the announcements at the top of every forum ;) :)

Presumably you can scroll down on this forum and count the number of exisiting topics on the subject, however. @:-) Not to give a newbie a rough welcome, but...

Nor does it seem to occur to people to use the "Edit, Find (on This Page)" (or Ctrl-F) function and enter the word "Search" (or whatever) in the dialog box.... @:-)

Search isn't
 

Thank heavens! I thought I was going crazy, but now I know that I am not the only one that this is happening to!

Oh, duhhh - I just read the Announcement at the top of the forum. "Search is down for now, please use Google to perform search". Like I look at the top of the forum every time I access it...

That announcement has been there for OVER A MONTH.... since March 1.

I just spent about 30 minutes trying to find out why I can't search. Instead of the 'Announcement' (which isn't that obvious, to be honest) it would've been more useful if the error page which you get when you try to search told people that the search facility was down instead of the generic one that appears, which only confuses the situation.

BTW just because I'm a 'newbie' to this board doesn't mean I'm of below average intelligence or a message board virgin. So don't flame me for having an opinion :-:

bad mistake for flyertalk
 

I love flyertalk. great board and great people. But it's a mistake for the folks that run this thing not to make an OBVIOUS announcement on the searching problem (like when you get to the FT site). Yes, I realize it's in the announcements, but I too have been trying to search for a while and I figured, based on the silly error message, that I don't have "authorization".

I'm usually very busy...and it just didn't occur to me to check the announcements.

Hopefully FT will take this advice as I'm intending it to be constructive criticism for a (normally) well-run site.

Thank you FT.

(and does anyone know WHEN searching will work again) ?
Never mind - I foud the announcement and it said whenever a new php release is announced or a solution found.

STILL, isn't it possible to replace the message people get with an "authorization error" with the REAL announcement of the problem?

Where else would people suggest it be put? It is at the top of each forum... not everyone enters through FT's main page...

Would people prefer to see it in the middle of threads...? OH WAIT... no, then it is an obtrusive advertisement....

Randy and his team just cannot win at times... :(

Randy and his team, and you, are all doing a fantastic job. Like I said in my post, I love this site. All I meant was a suggestion, and I did not intend for it to be a rant. My "suggestion" was not to plaster a "search not available" all over the screen, but PERHAPS (if it made sense i.e. was cost effective) to have an announcement when you enter the site, and the cookie can be used to track that you don't want to see the message anymore.

Just a thought. Anyway, thanks for the work you do keeping this site a good one.

I can't figure out why so many people were apparently unable to see the announcements at the top of every forum, which have been there for well over a month now, unless perhaps a lot of people only access FT via their BlackBerry (or other "tiny screen" device). Then maybe I could understand.

:p

Agreed. ^