a problem for the webmaster

[Ken S]

This forum contains a wealth of useful information about using the Tormek. However, it is becoming increasingly and needlessly difficult to access this information. Let me give an example:

If someone wanted to learn about the development of Herman's clever and useful small knife jig, it would be quite difficult now. Herman now has eighty seven pages of posts. Even if one had noted the post number of his first post on the subject at the time, that number is now quite different.

The problem is that the posts are numbered with the most recent as number one. This could be easily remedied by changing the numbering such that the earliest post would be (and remain constantly) number one.

In this particular case, with a long forum memory, I remember the original problem was posted by Mguitars. He only had eighteen posts, and has not been active since 2011. Doing a member search by Guitars and show posts would quickly bring up the information. However, if one did not remember Guitars, searching through the posts of the other three principal posters on the subject (Herman, Ionut and me) would be clumsy.

When I joined the forum in 2009, no one except the moderator had even fifty posts. Now we have several members pushing 1300 posts. Just switching the numbering system to begin with the earliest post will simplify things.

I hope the webmaster will respond. I also hope those who are more computer savvy than I am (which wouldn't require much knowledge) will also post.

Ken

[grepper]

I don't know if changing the post ID numbers is an available admin option in the SMF forum software, so it may not be possible to do that.

There does however seem to be an advanced search option that might be helpful:
http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Search#Advanced_Search

http://connection.clcdeveloper.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=miitvrq34nkcend8m6dpik53m3&action=help;page=searching#advanced

I don't currently see any link to it on this site, so it may not be enabled or its availability may be dependent on what version of the forum software Tormek is using or both.

I agree that there is a wealth of information and user experience here that is sadly difficult to find.

[Ken S]

Thanks for the reply, grepper. I hope the webmaster will also post. If the numbering is set in stone, so be it (too bad, but we will keep slogging along). It would be nice if it was possible to make the change.

Ken

[Herman Trivilino]

The search engine used by this forum software is quite primitive compared to many of the others. That is the problem.

If you want to refer to a post you've found using the search engine you can refer to it by the Reply Number in the thread. Those are numbered with the oldest being first. For example this post is and always will be Reply #3 in the "a problem for the webmaster" thread.

[SharpenADullWitt]

I notice in the address line, that this is topic 2352 or 2352.0 and message number 11531.  The sharpening scissor thread, which started in 2004 is topic 31.

If there isn't a way for the message number to be associated with the poster, then maybe there is a way to have the topic number appear so it could be indexed by the search bar.  (then we just need to save a topic number with keywords on our systems to make it work)

[admin]

Admin here.

I have not found a way to change the numbering system. I am by no means an expert on this forum software but I think Herman is right, that this is relatively primitive compared to others. This is free software after all.

You do however have access to advanced search. Simple search is enabled by default but there is a link "Advanced search" under the search field. Maybe that can be of help.

[Ken S]

Thanks, Admin, for your reply. I do appreciate the fact that this forum is free to us and, especially that it is free of inane ad pollution.

We will work with what we have. Fortunately we have some members who have more advanced computer skills than mine. I will investigate the use of the advanced search function.

Thanks to all who responded.

Ken

[grepper]

I do not see a link to advanced search.  Here is what I see:

[Stickan]

Hi,
Log in to the forum, then you have categories Home  Help  Search and so on , and you go in to search and then you will find Advanced search under the search field.

Stig

[grepper]

Got it Stig.  Thanks!  I never went to search from the menu.  Duh.

[grepper]

Not only is it free for us to use, (thanks Tormek!), but the SMF Forum software itself is open source and free.  So, anyone so inclined could install it and learn all about what it can/cannot do.   The manual is on-line too, as well as forums, community and developer support.  If you are interested in the capabilities of the forums, and/or if you just have a low fun threshold, it's mildly entertaining to mosey around the SMF website and ferret around in the manual and on-line help resources.

While it's not exactly trivial to install on your Windows, Linux or Unix machine, and you also need to install MySQL database, PHP and some other stuff, but it's all free.
http://download.simplemachines.org/

There are all sorts of hacks, mods and customizations available and silly stuff too, like you can download thousands of animated emoticons for smiley facing up posts, and even nifty avatars.
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/
http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Add_a_smiley_set
http://www.clipartof.com/gallery/clipart/smileys.html