Re: Super Searching before you post

[archon]

i think this is an example of bad site design. a newcomer to perlmonks on their first visit most likely wants some help. what are the first things they see?

yes, there is a giant search mechanism at the top, but where is the incentive or instruction to use it? so they're looking through the sections and find _Seekers of Perl Wisdom_. "Ah ha! That's just what I need!" One click and they see a list of questions and ready replies. They scroll to the bottom and see 'Add your question.' "Why, that's just what I'm going to do!"

then come the flames... "how on earth could you miss Super Search? it's right there buried on the bottom right side of your screen in the 7th node down in a section called 'leftovers'!!!"

can you understand why that's not the first place people check? granted, in a perfect world everyone would read every instruction before using the site. but let's face it, many people that come here haven't researched their question properly before they ask it. why do you expect that as soon as they get here they will suddenly realize the error of their ways?

some solutions to the problem have been posted in this thread already, e.g. adding "search before you post" comments anywhere questions can be entered. a node in _New Meditations_ with this advice that's going to disappear from the front page really doesn't do any good. not that it's bad advice, but who is going to search for a node that tells them to do a search?