Newbies (and others) --- how to search for a thread topic before creating a new one

Trollheart · 10-20-2013, 05:16 AM

Seems a lot of people don't realise the SEARCH function here is about as useful as a barber shop on the steps of the guillotine, so may I suggest this could be stickied somewhere (don't be rude!)?

To properly search for a thread topic please go to Google and type in your subject followed by Music Banter. So if you're looking for a thread on (to just pick an example out of the air) Motorhead, you'd type this: "Motorhead Music Banter" (without quotes of course) and it will show you if one exists. Of course you can do that for anything: "Best rock solo Music Banter", "Your eating habits Music Banter", "Sexual preferences Music Banter", "Why Slipknot suck Music Banter" and so on.

Newbies, please make a point of doing this before creating a new thread. If not, then you only then make work for the mods who have to delete or merge the thread. It doesn't take a moment and you'll make a much better impression if you show you have a bit of consideration about you.

Also, use common sense. Do you really think that in the years this forum has been around you're the first one who thought of making a thread on Pink Floyd, or Nirvana, or Dave Mustaine?

Bit of thought, bit of care: helps make the forum work better and spreads the love!

Thanks
TH

Burning Down · 10-20-2013, 09:21 AM

I actually prefer to use the site:search method, it's a whole lot more concise in terms of results. For example, you want to look up all threads and posts that pertain to The Beatles:

https://www.google.ca/search?site=&s...79.Owdy89icbmU

You will notice that the format for searching is thus: the beatles site:www.musicbanter.com

This method can actually be used for every website, and it will only turn up results from that particular site. It's very important that the search term appears before the URL, and that there is no space between site:www. Also you always have to include the triple W, otherwise it won't work.

We keep telling newbies to use a search function first, but yes we still get new threads being made on topics that already exist. Since we seem to have lost the ability to merge posts (all I get is a white screen after I log in again to confirm), we need to link to the existing thread and close the new one, in hopes that further posts will be in the old thread.

10-20-2013, 05:16 AM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Newbies (and others) --- how to search for a thread topic before creating a new one Seems a lot of people don't realise the SEARCH function here is about as useful as a barber shop on the steps of the guillotine, so may I suggest this could be stickied somewhere (don't be rude!)? To properly search for a thread topic please go to Google and type in your subject followed by Music Banter. So if you're looking for a thread on (to just pick an example out of the air) Motorhead, you'd type this: "Motorhead Music Banter" (without quotes of course) and it will show you if one exists. Of course you can do that for anything: "Best rock solo Music Banter", "Your eating habits Music Banter", "Sexual preferences Music Banter", "Why Slipknot suck Music Banter" and so on. Newbies, please make a point of doing this before creating a new thread. If not, then you only then make work for the mods who have to delete or merge the thread. It doesn't take a moment and you'll make a much better impression if you show you have a bit of consideration about you. Also, use common sense. Do you really think that in the years this forum has been around you're the first one who thought of making a thread on Pink Floyd, or Nirvana, or Dave Mustaine? Bit of thought, bit of care: helps make the forum work better and spreads the love! Thanks TH __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

10-20-2013, 09:21 AM	#2 (permalink)
Burning Down The Music Guru. Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Beyond the Wall Posts: 4,858	I actually prefer to use the site:search method, it's a whole lot more concise in terms of results. For example, you want to look up all threads and posts that pertain to The Beatles: https://www.google.ca/search?site=&s...79.Owdy89icbmU You will notice that the format for searching is thus: the beatles site:www.musicbanter.com This method can actually be used for every website, and it will only turn up results from that particular site. It's very important that the search term appears before the URL, and that there is no space between site:www. Also you always have to include the triple W, otherwise it won't work. We keep telling newbies to use a search function first, but yes we still get new threads being made on topics that already exist. Since we seem to have lost the ability to merge posts (all I get is a white screen after I log in again to confirm), we need to link to the existing thread and close the new one, in hopes that further posts will be in the old thread.