Consistently Repeated Lazy Requests

[RuralWeb]

please don't get disillusioned. As a newbie I need your generosity!

Hi Ginny, Glad you have found everything that you need on the forum etc Im not getting disillusioned and as you say through your own hard work you have been able to build your site without ever needing to ask for help. Others have problems and post which again I am plaesed to help but others recently have obviously not bothered to do the leg work and just post everytime they get stuck.

I hope that you and all the other "readers" on the forum continue to find the help you need and if you ever really need help then feel free to post - I will gladly help so dont be put off by this thread.

[pinbrook]

actinic wiki

actinic wiki sounds like a good idea, with additionally having the AUG as an online searchable tool too.

Maybe the AUG could be incorporated into the Knowledge base.

I know having a wiki gives another place to search for stuff, but if it were user driven ie us and not actinic we could have extra extras from developers and newbie experiences too.

The wiki might score over the forum in the search would be better. The BIG down side of this forum is the inability to use plus/minus in searches (we can only key in key words and get an AND search which sometimes means it is nigh on impossible to find something)

The inadequacies of the search means it is sometimes too difficult for newbies to find stuff - hence some of us do the search as we know we've seen something before and have got a better chance of tracking it down.

[cdicken]

Perhaps you guys can help me draft something....

Getting The Most Out Of The Actinic Community

Before you ask a question, make sure you have looked at the available sources of help that there are already.

• Searching the Community (see below)
• The Advanced User Guide - a useful collection of tips and tricks - especially for version 8
• The Knowledge Base
• The main help file that comes with Actinic - available via 'Help | Help Topics'
• The Getting Started Guide that comes with Actinic - available via 'Help | Starter Guide'.

Searching the Community

When searching the Community, don't forget that you can use the 'Search in Forums' section to only search threads within the version of Actinic you are using. This can help by giving you a much more useful set of results.

Try also searching for a variety of search terms - for example, if you have a question about search engine optimisation, don't just search for 'Google' - try searching for 'search engines' or 'SEO'.

Asking a Question

To ask a new question, click the 'New Thread' button at the top of the list of questions.

When you ask a question, please make sure you give your question a descriptive title e.g. rather than 'Help Me Please' - use something like 'My products stretch too far across the page'. That way, you have a much better chance of catching the eye of one of the regular forum contributors.

Also, when asking a question, please ensure you include the following:

• If it's a layout or design issue, or odd behaviour on your site, please include a URL that shows the problem.
• If it's a problem with Actinic not uploading, please include your settings from the 'Network Setup' screen. You can get these easily by clicking the 'Export' button. Please make sure you remove your FTP username and password from the post though!
• If something strange is happening within your copy of Actinic then please include a screenshot that shows the problem. You can take a screenshot by pressing the 'PrtScn' button on your keyboard and then pasting it into a graphics program, or Microsoft Word. Then use the 'Manage Attachments' button to add it to your thread.

If you don't want to leave your URL/Network Settings on the thread forever, then you can click the 'Edit' button to remove them once the problem is solved.

[leehack]

Nice one Chris, excellent.

I don't think there is much to change really on what you have written, i do think that the title needs to be more directive and pretty much tell them to read it. I understand that you might not want to appear forceful, however something like "NEW MEMBERS, PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING". That is a more than acceptable title and nobody will be offenced by that and it is a clear but polite instruction. That approach can be seen on many forums.

I also it would be nice to mention that majority of us are not Actinic staff and are here on a voluntary basis. I think this point is misunderstood and leads to some quite demanding posts.

I'm impressed that you guys are listening, especially you.

Cooooollllllll

PS - The following line needs amending:

Before you ask a question, make sure you have looked at the available sources of help that there are already.

[pinbrook]

Chris - Is there any progress in opening up the search feature within the forum to do and/or searches

[fleetwood]

I think if the search could be improved, it would answer a lot more questions.
One of the biggest failings (that also affects the search on Actinic commerce sites), is that search only works on single words, and not phrases (sorry - can't remember the correct terminology - but I mean that 'thing' where you can enter a phrase, or a word plus or minus other words).

As an example, an oft repeated question relates to 1&1 email settings, yet you can't serach for "1&1 email settings" as a phrase, so you end up with every occurence of 1&1, email, and settings.

Is there any way of allowing more compex searches, or replacing the current site search with a google search "search this site using google"?

I don't know if this sort of thing is available as a free add-on, or if it needs to be liscenced from Google.

edit : ooops - is that what Jo just asked above?

[completerookie]

if you want to remove words you can use keywords such as AND - OR - NOT

so emails and settings returns 144 threads
where as emails and settings not mine returns 138 threads

the forum is using a product called vBulletin and searching for text inside quotes is possible, but Actinic need to check if they have "set the forums for Fulltext searching?" - probably not.

After that you need to set the Boolean search option in the Usergroup settings.

there may?? be a performance issue, but again, if the searches took a shade longer but returned a smaller more usable subset, then ???

this may require a rebuild of the indicies, but I'm sure having the forum offline for a rebuild would be a small price to pay for the ability to search by phrases

[cdicken]

Good stuff - I'll do some fiddling around in the guts of the Community tomorrow morning.

[fleetwood]

thanks Kevin and Chris.
I didn't think the 'AND' and 'NOT' functions worked with the search as it currently stands.

[jont]

I think that when you are very active on the forum you tend to remember previous posts and thus know the correct keywords to use to find the answer you want - newcomers don't.

This is how I tend to find most of the previous threads to then post a link accordingly - the search is so poor you really do need to have read the posts on a daily basis to keep on top of what has gone on previously.

That said, newbies may not know the correct terminology for the problem so they would never find the solution no matter how complex and sexy the search function is. If you don't know the question you will never find the answer (probably one of grasshoppers sayings).

If new threads are posted which have been answered before a simple link to the exisiting by one of the mods or regulars is all that is needed.

As with anything in life you are polite and courteous you are much more likely to receive an answer (even if just a link to an older thread) than if you go shouting the odds demanding it be sorted within 5 mins

[jont]

it would be nice to mention that majority of us are not Actinic staff and are here on a voluntary basis.

Seconded - this would be very useful to include in the "welcome" sticky

[Stereo Steve]

As a relative newbie to Actinic use I must say this forum has been a godsend to me. Worth it's weight in gold and I very much appreciate the kind help that I have been given. Hopefully I may return that in future, as I do on other forums where I am in possesion of knowledge.

I'm sure that I am guilty of re-asking questions that have been asked before but I always try to search first. Not only because it's the decent thing to do but also you can get your answers much quicker on occasion.

My only point would be to echo #25. I was recently trying to re-instate breadcrumbs on our old v7 site. I didn't know they were called breadcrumbs and searched in vain for an answer. A quick question resulted in somebody replying with a quick 'Try searching for breadcrumbs' which set me off in the right direction straight away.

I'm not sure what you can do about the above as an example. How could this have worked better? I mean, what search might a novice do to find this info?

Overall, I agree with the sentiment of the OP though. Many people are lazy and can be extemely rude to those who help out of the kindness of their hearts which ruins it for those of us who very much appreciate them.

[cdicken]

OK chaps - I've added http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=25620 to the v8 forum, and also put some instructions on the search page to help people out.

I couldn't find any references to 'full text searching' on the vBulletin setup options though.

[leehack]

nice one Chris

[PaulGrimshaw]

OK chaps - I've added http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=25620 to the v8 forum, and also put some instructions on the search page to help people out.

I couldn't find any references to 'full text searching' on the vBulletin setup options though.

Its under vBulletin Options >> Search Type (on the left, not the actual option bit). Should be ON.

Paul.