Suggestion:
1. Add a search form for the forums.
2. Remove old threads that have no pertinent information in them.
The forums are full of information, but it is very difficult to find. The wiki is often lacking of a lot of information, but at least you can find that out fast with a search.
There are a lot of good threads in the forums that will help new players, but without a search option it is hard to find. Which makes it even more difficult for new players when they first come to GLB. A forum search would be a huge help. I realize adding that can be complicated, but start simple. Create a form field only in the sub-forums, that queries just the title of each thread. If you couple that with the cleanup mentioned below, the overhead should be low. It would be somewhat easy to implement, and would give a way to help with searching. At the same time it would give Bort room to analyze the impact of the searches on the system. Then later you can go and add the ability to search the contents of threads, or multiple forums. Another way to minimize load on the system, would be to only offer the search form in certain forums like position talk, tactics, or FAQ's, Player Guides and Newbie Help. It would not be needed in General Discussion, team forums, etc.
The only way to search now is to click the next page button and scan or search with 'Find...' in the browser on each page. One of the things that makes that way of searching even slower is the number of threads in the forums that have a single question asked but no response. Those threads are locked after 60 days, so that leaves hundreds of threads in multiple forums that are pointless. Besides the fact that those threads make it slower to browse throu to find information, it also makes the game look bad because there are tons of threads of people asking for help with no response.
1. Add a search form for the forums.
2. Remove old threads that have no pertinent information in them.
The forums are full of information, but it is very difficult to find. The wiki is often lacking of a lot of information, but at least you can find that out fast with a search.
There are a lot of good threads in the forums that will help new players, but without a search option it is hard to find. Which makes it even more difficult for new players when they first come to GLB. A forum search would be a huge help. I realize adding that can be complicated, but start simple. Create a form field only in the sub-forums, that queries just the title of each thread. If you couple that with the cleanup mentioned below, the overhead should be low. It would be somewhat easy to implement, and would give a way to help with searching. At the same time it would give Bort room to analyze the impact of the searches on the system. Then later you can go and add the ability to search the contents of threads, or multiple forums. Another way to minimize load on the system, would be to only offer the search form in certain forums like position talk, tactics, or FAQ's, Player Guides and Newbie Help. It would not be needed in General Discussion, team forums, etc.
The only way to search now is to click the next page button and scan or search with 'Find...' in the browser on each page. One of the things that makes that way of searching even slower is the number of threads in the forums that have a single question asked but no response. Those threads are locked after 60 days, so that leaves hundreds of threads in multiple forums that are pointless. Besides the fact that those threads make it slower to browse throu to find information, it also makes the game look bad because there are tons of threads of people asking for help with no response.
