Jezabel said:...
To improve the search feature would also help to cut down repetitive threads and information.
I also have valued the "problem-solving and show the evidence" stance of this forum. Whenever some topics become qualitative and subjective then there is a tendency to be "opinionated" and sometimes "alienating". Perhaps the mods can continue to encourage folks supplying the data/facts associated with their question as opposed to their opinion or their own interpretation so that others can contribute their expertise in problem solving. It also is not helpful to just send a person to the manual for the answer because it may be that they misinterpreted the language in the manual in the first place and need a real-world application of their issue (and I believe the manuals are very poorly done for someone new to this hobby). Checking their understanding of what they are doing is very helpful in case some step has been missed,etc.
+1
The Search function could certainly be better, however, with a bit of effort, the Advanced Search function can improve results (perhaps a help to those looking into improving the Basic Search function). By way of example, here are the numbers of results based on what a new pilot might search for ...
Two observations
* Using Advanced Search can significantly narrow the results one gets. Perhaps defaulting the Basic Search to Topic Title only with an obvious check box for searching all text would be an improvement.
* Both Basic and Advanced searches are overly aggressive at categorizing some words as too common. Is this an algorithm or word list? Can it be modified?