Feedback Forum - Failure To Search Before Posting

[theGinsue]

Over the last 2 days I've cleaned up (translated: merged) almost a dozen various feedback threads in the Buyer & Seller Feedback Forum. These stray threads have been posted over the last 2 months which means that over the last 2 months several of you have been too lazy to perform a search in that forum for existing feedback threads. This creates extra work for the staff and leaves us less than happy about it.

So, before I start issuing site Infractions I'll offer a couple of search suggestions.

First: If the member you're leaving feedback for has been a member of the site for more than a year, there is a better-than-not chance that member has an existing feedback thread, look for it! The Search tool is finicky; some members with 4 characters or less in their username may not be found. See my third tip for a better alternative to the Search tool.

Second: KNOW how the member you're leaving feedback for spells his username. This includes capitalization as the search function gets picky and if you search for "mazin" versus "Mazin", it likely won't find his existing feedback thread (Note: I used Dave's name as an example only - his was not one of those with multiple threads).

Third: Click on "Title" in the black bar column header at the top of the feedback forum. This will display all of the threads in alphabetical order. From there you can just skip through the pages of threads until you get to where the members feedback thread should be if it already exists. Very easy to find this way versus using the Search tool. If you can't find a thread for a member this way then it really does not yet exist.

Bottom line here folks is that we're happy you all want to leave feedback for other members but the staff gets pissy when you don't do your due diligence and you create more (easily avoidable) work for us.

[Irving]

Probably a better idea would be to educate on how to use the search tool. I've been on web forums for years and didn't really know how to use the search tool properly, and probably still do not. A while ago, J gave a hint that has really helped my ability to use the function.
Go into Advanced Search, select "Search Single Content Type," and conduct your search from there. I don't know exactly what pushing that button does, but it certainly helps searches. From there, you narrow your search to make the results even more specific. Using the above example, you'd next want to select "Search Titles Only" in the Keyword(s) line, type their user name (spelled correctly, when you get close, it should guess for you), and finally, under the Additional Options section, you'd want to narrow down the forum search to the "Buyer and Seller Feedback Forum." This last step is helpful when searching for a member with a commonly used screen name (Bailey Guns) because it will filter out all other mentions of that member that are not within that particular forum.

[Great-Kazoo]

Be even easier IF members linked their feed back in their signature. HINT..................

[Irving]

I meant to mention that as well.

[brutal]

Be even easier IF members linked their feed back in their signature. HINT..................

Ditto. But of course, first time seller isn't going to have any feedback thread. Be nice to just have the forum software manage it and just put it in the member info area.

[theGinsue]

Be even easier IF members linked their feed back in their signature. HINT..................

Yep. I've got mine there, even with so little feedback or need for it.

Ditto. But of course, first time seller isn't going to have any feedback thread. Be nice to just have the forum software manage it and just put it in the member info area.

Fairly familiar with the software but don't know how to do that. If someone gave me instructions for doing that & J &/or Foxtrot approved (Since they'd be the ones to have to fix anything I break), I'd give it a shot.

[hurley842002]

Done, feedback in sig, now if only I was computer savvy enough to change the URL to say "My feedback" or something special, instead of just being the URL lol.

[MOD: You mean like that?.......You're welcome]

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[crays]

Ginsue,
On your third option, I beg to differ. Within the last year, and within about a week of each other, I inadvertently started 2 duplicate threads for 2 different members.
In both instances, I searched via sorting by title, with no success. I was fairly sure I had previously left feedback for at least one of them, so I was perplexed..

Doesn't always work, and in fact, I have run into the same situation a couple times recently, and had to get creative to locate their threads.

[crays]

Be aware: though I have mine linked in my sig line and advocate the practice, sig lines don't always show up in tapatalk.

[crays]

Done, feedback in sig, now if only I was computer savvy enough to change the URL to say "My feedback" or something special, instead of just being the URL lol.

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