Discussion Threads - Starting a New Thread - "Has this question been already asked"

[chaosweary]

Marc,
The "Has this question already been asked" in my opinion is a much better way to search through posts instead of the Search engine. Is there a function to use "Has this question already been asked?" outside of starting a new thread?

Has this question already been asked?

[Wes Bucey]

Originally Posted by chaosweary

Marc,
The "Has this question already been asked" in my opinion is a much better way to search through posts instead of the Search engine. Is there a function to use "Has this question already been asked?" outside of starting a new thread?


Has this question already been asked?

The situation is difficult because we get so many variations and shades of questions on similar topics.

Compare:
How do I find if a question about steel has been asked?
with
How do I find if a question about alloys has been asked?

A natural language search engine would seize on the key words "steel" and "alloy" if the verbatim queries were entered.

I'm not sure if the results for one would be the same if you entered just plain "steel" or "alloy" - do you?

[Marc]

I'm assuming that you mean the "Has this question been already asked" in New Thread Title boxes. That is a 'mod' I put in some time back which uses the vBulletin search engine. I'll have to look more closely, but I *think* it searches thread titles. The hack is there to help people keep from asking the same question(s) that have been asked many times.

You can use the forum Search form and do the same thing. If you look closely at the Search page it gives you the option of searching through thread titles only (a drop-down just under the space where you put in the search terms you want). This limits the search a bit, but generally gives 'better' results. It is the way I typically do searches the first time rather than searching through entire threads. Then, if I don't get what I'm looking for, I ask it to search the thread bodies as well.

Does that help?