Unity Forum Request

I would like to formally request that search options be added to the Unity forums that have been standard in site search engines throughout the web for a decade or more - most importantly search by date.

Since these forums are our only form of technical support, it would be )(E*&$#)(*$& amazing to be able to sort my searches by date so that I could see the most recent answers. The most recent answers most likely to be for the latest version. The way it works now, I have to wade through dozens of v6 answers that relate to files that don't even exist any more. It's bad enough that the idea of a user's manual for Dolphin is considered a ridiculous idea by most people (still baffled on that one, but I'm working on getting more zen about it), but the fact that this forum has no advanced search options to sift through the thousands of random posts is infuriating - it means that to find an answer on any topic is likely to take hours of weeding through past posts that only illuminate that yes, other people have been sharing your issue for 10 years and yes, a solution is in the next release... no the next one.... no the next one after that... no the next one.

And then, to add insult to injury when not finding the answer in the first 5 pages of out-of-order search results and finally posting a new post - some helpful soul will come along and say "this is answered, search for it." Yes. However, the more frequent the issue, the harder it is to find the answer in the sea of chaos.

The simplest answer is to simply add basic, industry standard advanced search options.

My birthday's coming up, this would be the best present ever!!

Hello ggsinc!

Thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it

We will consider this feature to be implemented to the next Unity update.

Regards, Lyubov

I agree.

The forum system is rubish to say the least A bunch of developers like the boonex team could create a much better system than this, they could even create somthing as good as if not better than SMF.

What with the browser back button in Internet Explorer doing nothing on the forum and having to open every forum thread in a new window just so one can get back to the index they are on in the first place.

They have been saying we are going to improve orca since dolphin was at about version 1.6 I know, what have they done to it absolutly naff all.

Come on boonex team we all want to see a better system than SMF incorperated both into dolphin and this site.

If you cant do that then at least use SMF and code a bridge so we can use a decent forum

Search results are already sorted by the newest ones. 

It maybe a problem when new answer is posted in old topic, then, of cause, the topic will bump up. 

It's not just the date issue, although the old posts pulled up b/c of new responses raises a fix that having an advanced search option would help - have a 'search by date of original post' option and a 'search by date of last response' option! TADA!

I'm attaching a few examples of what I mean. The first is google's advance search page. The second is one from my vBulletin site. You can see, I hope, how the options that are available would make the Unity forum a more useful tool for problem solving and research. Which I maintain is crucial since it really is the only tool available to us!

Ok, we will consider adding "Order by" option in search form.

Actually, no.

I did a site search for "cron job" just now to test it.

• The first result is the Installation guide wiki. Last modified 7 weeks ago
• Next is a Notes page from 291 days ago, last comment 255 days ago
• Next we have the how to wiki. Last modified 9 months ago
• Next is another Notes page from 1283 days ago, last comment 278 days ago
• Then a Forum post from 12-14-2009, last comment 5-20-2011
• Next a Forum post from 5-20-2011, no comments
  
• Next a Forum post from 5-16-2010, last comment 5-17-2010
• Next a Forum post from 8-19-2011, no comments
• Next a Forum post from 4-3-11, last comment 4-21-2011

As you can see, not in chronological order either by post date or by last comment date or by anything at all!

I thought you mean forums search - "...request that search options be added to the Unity forums that...":

http://www.boonex.com/forums/?action=goto&search=1

Forum search sorts result by last topic update.

The site search is powered by google, google sorts it using some algorithm - nobody exactly knows how it works. However google added more handy way to use advanced search tools recently, particularly search by date, to use it go to:

http://www.google.com/

and type the following in search box:

site:boonex.com search term here

It will search for the search term within boonex website, for example: 

site:boonex.com cron job

Then click "More search tools" link in left column and select desired time period. 

 why not consider adding pagination (having 100+replies on one post really sucks)
 like this one if you aren't sure what im talking about have a look
http://www.boonex.com/forums/topic/IBDW-SpyWall.htm

i have to agree, the search functionality is poor at best. and you do end up with thousands of returns, because there is no ability to even specify which forum you want to search. 

Search by:

Date

Forum

Keyword1, Keyword2, Keyword3.....

WildCard

Author Search

I think the forums should be somewhat more catgorized, the current setup is way to vague, and needs to have categories. 

yes a pain in the ass to setup, but consider those who are using it, and as is with most modern day forums, categories and subcategories are standard. 

so the search feature is relative. searching the unity forum now, is a crap shoot, and if the returns are supposed to be on latest posts, its not working. 

you have 35 modules, these modules need a category, there is the flash apps, with 9 or so flash apps and then RMS and ffmpeg windows vs linux.

these posts get buried from developers posting in their support forums, which would be a separate category.

there is no structure here on the forum, and what is being asked, should never have even become an inquiry, this should have been something that was done as standard protocol on this forum. 

yes the forums need to be restructured

categories, and search functions. 

I didn't realize that these weren't called the Unity forums any more. Or that there was a separate search function for different parts of the site. I'm just referring to the search box at the top of the page here that returns a mass jumble of chaos. ^

That search box at the top of the page is the site search, which uses Google. You'll find each section has its own search feature, which only displays results from its section.

For example: http://www.boonex.com/forums/?action=goto&search=1

The forums search feature allows you to specify which forum to search under.