Suggestion for Moderators - New Stickies

[Guest kingtone]

Here's a suggestion for the moderators to maybe create a couple of new stickies.

I keep seeing the same threads coming up over and over again.. and im only relatively new to this board but am a long time member of all sorts of other web forums etc...

how about;

* News on your HCP progress

So we dont have to see a new thread everytime someone makes 'the call' and is a mailbox 'buzzard' etc etc etc ... Kinda like the welcome to TGO thread at the opening page. People just post on one thread.

*Open Carry or Concealed

(need i say anymore?)

*a round in the chamber or not?

(again... enuf said)

any other ideas?

is this a dumb idea?

[nightrunner]

i too have been active in the past on other boards besides this one, and have visited many others. and sadly those stickies really only let you be able to say hey dumbazz we have a sticky for that! because the sticky doesnt get used as much as they should

[VERO1]

I know! How about a search feature? That way we could check and see if an 80 page thread on something already exists. What? Oh! Sorry never mind............

[Fallguy]

Believe it or not...it is already being discussed...

[Guest kingtone]

I know! How about a search feature? That way we could check and see if an 80 page thread on something already exists. What? Oh! Sorry never mind............

[Guest sermon8r]

Are you a Mason or not??

[Guest bkelm18]

I think the search function will solve most of those problems.

[Fallguy]

I think the search function will solve most of those problems.

....only if it is used.

[Guest bkelm18]

....only if it is used.

Then I propose a sticky on how to properly use the search function.

[Fallguy]

Then I propose a sticky on how to properly use the search function.

Not a bad idea....

[TripleDigitRide]

Then you'll have to sticky a sticky to inform members to read the sticky about utilizing the current stickies. Or something like that.

[PirateQui]

FYI - The search feature is really awful. I tried to search for a thread on "how many carry concealed" after I noticed people bashing the OP in that thread for the repost and *I* didn't see a similar thread. What I did see was a crap ton of other threads that didn't seem immediately relevant.

You have to recognize that in a search centric world suffering form information glut services like Google has rewired most of us to expect the top 10 search results to have exactly what we are looking for and do a good job of searching.

This built in search doesn't seem, to me, to be good enough to keep telling peopl 'oh look we have a searc feature'... What you have is not a search feature it's a fancy SELECT statement.

[Guest kingtone]

Are you a Mason or not??

i thought everyone here was.

yeah, more people should use the search... and i agree it is sometimes harder to find. BUt having these stickies could weed out a number of the useless double.. triple... etc posts...

[nightrunner]

we should institute this feature to help the search function get used more often

[bvarnell]

Or, you could just ignore/not respond to threads that are duplicates.

I do find the search feature difficult to use effectively.

[Guest HexHead]

The most annoying are the "got my fingerprints last week, should I make the call?" threads.

[Guest kingtone]

we should institute this feature to help the search function get used more often

:up::up::up::up:

[TGO David]

Wow.

Most of you seem to be forgetting that you were new to forums at one point also. And likewise you are forgetting that when you first applied for your HCP you were probably really anxious and excited about it too. Both of these very basic human traits mean that we will always have flurries of threads about the topics in question.

Frankly, if TGO ever gets to the point that a Tennessean cannot join and express their excitement and anxiety about getting their carry permit, I'll shut the place down. We're all in this thing together and we need to be willing to share in the little joys just like we share in the comisseration when things go bad.

And as for the search feature...

vBulletin's search engine uses real-text searching. You can improve your odds of getting good hits by using simple Boolean triggers in your search. By prefacing a word with a plus-sign (+) you make sure that your search results include hits on that word. By prefacing a word with a minus-sign (-) you make sure that the search results do not include the word.

If you enclose a search term in quotes "like this" then you make sure the phrase like this is searched. If you preface it with a +/- then you mandate that the search includes or excludes the phrase.

These things make a huge difference in returning valid hits when you search.

[Guest kingtone]

well it wasnt my intention to say that people SHOULDNT post about these things.. quite the opposite actually...

it would clean up the board a little.

it would also make it easier for people to see what (as you pointed out) are obvious important topics without getting lost in the search.

There is a welcome sticky... there could be one to 'welcome' people to having HCP... and continue on the thread.

By having long standing debates posted visibly rather than starting a new one actually helps everyone. Because after a while, the longer standing members get sick of posting the same VALUABLE information.. when it in fact would be very beneficial to have it readily available if people cannot find it on the search.

I am a relatively new member.. and i love the vibe of this forum as opposed to some other gun forums i checked out to start with. Everyone is very welcoming and open.. and that is a great thing.. and i for one do not want to change that. And i dont think i gave that impression in my first post.

[nightrunner]

TGO david, that bit of info about using the search function, has that been posted before, perhaps in a sticky that i missed? if not it probably should, because there are times that i remember a thread and want to go look at it for some info but i dont remember what section its in but when i search for it i cant find it but i know its there.

[TGO David]

I'll add a forum-wide announcement about how to really put the search feature to use. There are some other tricks that I can explain that might help some people.

[Guest kingtone]

that would be very helpful.

im a member of another forum (unrelated to firearms)... it started off about this size and has quickly grown to about 10,000 members. thats where i got the idea to sticky some of the topics that are always popping up. because sooner or later it will be a marsh of double posts...

and a forum like this will only grow because of the great feel it has