Re: Searching the forum - why I haven't set this up

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: : Is there a way to search for keywords in the forum? It would stop : a lot of questions from being asked over and over, and it would be : nice to be able to search for ingredients like "walnut hulls" and : get all the messages that have people putting walnut hull powder in : there mix. : Hmmm, second time in as many weeks. I've been pondering whether to : offer a search facility for some time now. However, there are cons as : well as pros. The repeated questions are, to some extent what makes : the forum what it is. Granted much of the information is back there : in the archives, but by asking the question afresh, different people : respond in different ways, often with new information, and everyone : learns a bit more. The archived information may have been : superceded, and it would be a shame if people worked with out-dated : knowledge when they could have got the latest information by posting. : Not everyone is that comfortable about posting, and if offered a : search engine, they might chicken out altogether and just accept what : the search tells them. : If people turned to the search engine first, I predict there'd be : much less activity here. It's a bit like the motorbike magazine I : subscribe to. Every year, the articles are essentially the same, and : appear at the same time of year. There is, after all, only so much : you can say about riding motorbikes. You get your advice to take it : easy in spring, advice about fast riding in summer and advice about : how to store your bike in autumn. But every year, they do the : articles just a little bit differently and add something new, and you : still read them and they're still interesting. Imagine if the : magazine just said "see last year's copy for details". : The henna page would be dead without the forum, and without new : questions, the forum would die too. Every time someone new posts : their first question, they find themselves invited into a community. : They gain encouragement from the fact that others respond so : enthusiastically. : Most of the discussion boards of this virtual world have no archive : facility, and so the past information is truely lost. I have fought : hard to maintain this archive - I could easily have hosted the site : for free if it hadn't been for the size of the archive. By keeping it : on-line, it is possible to trawl back into this rich resource, but by : avoiding making it too easy, the forum stays fresh, alive and active, : rather than becoming a more static resource.

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