Develop Bugs

Fundamental Search Issues?

Is there any reason why neither a keyword or tag search for "[ROM]" (without quotes) yields zero results?
If I want to find a list of all [ROM] titled/tagged threads to look at the range of ROM's available; what is the best way to go about it?
Am I being a noob or is there a fundamental search flaw?

Well...
I can think in 3 search criteria:
1. Go to the upgrading section of your device
2. use Wiki to find all cooked and shiped ROM´s
3. Use the XDA fttp

Windza said:
Is there any reason why neither a keyword or tag search for "[ROM]" (without quotes) yields zero results?
If I want to find a list of all [ROM] titled/tagged threads to look at the range of ROM's available; what is the best way to go about it?
Am I being a noob or is there a fundamental search flaw?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A few months back I actually dug through the advanced search code in vBulletin (trust me, it's terrible code). I may be mistaken, but I believe that it doesn't allow keywords of 3 or less letters unless there's extra parameters (like boolean operators and more keywords). Don't hold me on that, I'd have to look again to be sure.
One of these days if I remember, I'll go hunting through the code again to confirm that and update the wiki page I wrote (link is in my signature) with the answer to this.

mikechannon said:
Indeed words of less than 4 letters will not search. BUT if you click on advanced searh then choose search using Google at the top, it will search for 3 letter words.
Or you could use this:
Search XDA-Devs Forums or Wiki
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with using google in this case is that it's not context aware of the forum threads. I think he's looking to see a large list of the different roms. With google, he's going to get search results including several different pages per rom and no way to sort the results. It would be faster to just click next through each page of the rom dev forum for the selected phone...which is almost as good as getting the intended search results from searching for [ROM]....
It makes me wonder how hard it would be to patch the issue in vBulletin and get better search results than Google can produce.

speed_pour said:
It makes me wonder how hard it would be to patch the issue in vBulletin and get better search results than Google can produce.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If everybody can do the same thing as google did, google will not be google, I mean, the #1 internet company in the world.
I am just wondering that can anybody produce a code like the search link on this page.[Edit: I want to add several more sites as searching range to that one, can you figure it out?]

wg5566 said:
If everybody can do the same thing as google did, google will not be google, I mean, the #1 internet company in the world.
I am just wondering that can anybody produce a code like the search link on this page.[Edit: I want to add several more sites as searching range to that one, can you figure it out?]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasn't talking about producing a better search engine, only fixing the known bugs. Things like the incorrect handling of sorting by relevancy (as detailed in the wiki page I wrote), the 4+ letter requirement on search terms, and maybe even giving it grouping capability. The first two aren't even hard to change, though the 4+ letter requirement is performance based, so it might be good to re-engineer some stuff. The grouping is trickier, but not even remotely an expert-level task (though it too has some performance implications).
Google doesn't have the know-how to separate or understand the context of searching only a certain group (or set of groups). It doesn't know how to search ONLY the topic and not the text body (or vice versa), etc. All of that data is separate and stuck in the database in different fields, which makes it WAY easier to search. We can have better search results than google because we have better access to the data, we just have to work through vBulletin's very simple code.

Yes agree. It is a shame that I found sometimes (or many times?) using the integrated search engine is not as good as just using 'search site by google'.
In my opinion, the 4letter+ issue is not as important as others. It is only reasonable to set such a reqirement and in most cases we don't need to search a word with less than 4 letters.
But I feel like lucky that I asked my question to the right person. Would you please spend a little time on help some clue for the question in my last post? Thanks in advance.
It will be wonderful if we can set google to search on limited range only like: xda-devs, ppcgeeks, msdn, pda4x, ppcfreeware, etc.

wg5566 said:
Yes agree. It is a shame that I found sometimes (or many times?) using the integrated search engine is not as good as just using 'search site by google'.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it depends on what is being searched for. Most RL friends know me for instantly hitting google to search on almost anything, but for this site I actually do use the integrated search most of the time. A well formed search here is still better than most results on google unless you need to use some pretty advanced searches that only Google can understand.
wg5566 said:
In my opinion, the 4letter+ issue is not as important as others. It is only reasonable to set such a reqirement and in most cases we don't need to search a word with less than 4 letters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS, WM6, SIM, GSM, SD, ROM, CAB
Just to name a few....
wg5566 said:
But I feel like lucky that I asked my question to the right person. Would you please spend a little time on help some clue for the question in my last post? Thanks in advance.
It will be wonderful if we can set google to search on limited range only like: xda-devs, ppcgeeks, msdn, pda4x, ppcfreeware, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm about to pick on you just a bit...
Did you consider searching Google for 'Google Custom Search'? Fourth result down there's a step-by-step guide that explains it easily and also pushes the value of it when combined with AdSense. This is a search thread after all
I admit, I'm glad to have stumbled onto setting up that feature with adsense because I would actually like to use it just for my own site I'm setting up shortly.

Thanks a lot, I got it.
One more noob question(web design is apparently not my area), can I set it in a local page like this, bcz I don't own a website myself? [Edit: Never Mind, Got It!]
Later on after setup your site, pls pm me a link.
Tx.
Edit: Just tried to create my own search engine, take a look here
Edit: Wonderful! Yeah! So happy today.

Windza said:
Is there any reason why neither a keyword or tag search for "[ROM]" (without quotes) yields zero results?
If I want to find a list of all [ROM] titled/tagged threads to look at the range of ROM's available; what is the best way to go about it?
Am I being a noob or is there a fundamental search flaw?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It yields zero results because the word is too short.

Searching for ROM version #s
I just ran into a search problem myself. I was searching for radio version 1.14.25.05. The google search took me to a long thread, so I thought I'd just search for "1.14.25.05". It didn't return any results, so I assumed this version wasn't there. It wasn't until I asked for help on a new thread that I was embarrassed by someone who told me it was on post #2. I had incorrectly trusted search. With version #s being so important to what xda-developers is all about, having a robust thread search is critical. Any thoughts on possible improvements? Are there settings in this software that could be changed?
John

Searching for a 3-letter result... "YES" we can
So basically, everyone says to use "search" on XDA devs to look for answers for your questions, but nobody says "you should use google search if any word you're looking for is three letters or less"..... like SMS.
It's frustrating, following the rules, being told to follow the rules, then finding out following the rules didn't work anyways.
Fixing this nonsense would be great. Even removing the 'built-in forum search' entirely....? just a thought.
Apart from that, thanks for hosting an amazing site, full of talented, hard-working people and their efforts... if you can find them hehe

pimpmydragon said:
So basically, everyone says to use "search" on XDA devs to look for answers for your questions, but nobody says "you should use google search if any word you're looking for is three letters or less"..... like SMS.
It's frustrating, following the rules, being told to follow the rules, then finding out following the rules didn't work anyways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The rule is there to prevent people from asking questions that can be answered by either search engine we use. For a rule to work it needs to be short and to the point, no one will even try to read the rules if every rule is explained in detail.
pimpmydragon said:
Fixing this nonsense would be great. Even removing the 'built-in forum search' entirely....? just a thought.
Apart from that, thanks for hosting an amazing site, full of talented, hard-working people and their efforts... if you can find them hehe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're well aware that the vB search engine isn't perfect but neither is the one from google. That is why we give you the option to use both.
I'm well aware that this can be confusing at times but simply searching for "how to search xda-developers.com?" would have given you this thread wich explains in the first post that you can use google and that we implemented it because the vB search doesn't allow words with less than 4 characters.
Best regards,
Flar
Site admin
p.s. I always use the search in the navbar first I noticed later that my example search string gives really crappy results in the vb search.

Originally Posted by pimpmydragon
Apart from that, thanks for hosting an amazing site, full of talented, hard-working people and their efforts... if you can find them hehe
we are only a PM away.

Flar said:
The rule is there to prevent people from asking questions that can be answered by either search engine we use. For a rule to work it needs to be short and to the point, no one will even try to read the rules if every rule is explained in detail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe many users never read site rules. Once we register on any web-site, there always be a rule or a terms-of-use, and people's habit would be just click on 'Agree' without a glance at the content, since they are all similiar.
But we have a way to force new users to learn how to search and view the site. Simply change the rule to: New users can not post within say first 50 online hours after registered. Then they have to view and search first, especially if they came with some question or urgent problem to be solved.I think Vbulletin has the function of online-time statistics.
Just an idea for consideration, I don't know it will be practical or not.

wg5566 said:
I believe many users never read site rules.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Forum Rules announcement has >51,000 views since march... not bad
Dave

Yes, looks like the situation is better. It works especially by continuous remindment everuwhere. What about number of new users since then?
Edit: Remindment like this works, thanks for everybody's effort. A further thought is: If everybody already read it, but still a lot don't follow it. That may be caused by some human nature for urgently need an answer for his question. Noticed MODs' effort like your goodself to execute the rule, it helped.

Sorry i'm not quoting people here, i'm typing this on my phone.
First, the number of people reading the rules is far less than the number of new users, which doesn't even account for the long time users. Not that it matters hugely, the rules only truly matter to people posting, which is realistically isn't too bad.
Regarding the use of two search engines, it can be seen in a bad way, or it can be seen as having two different tools instead of just one. Neither is perfect, neither is better (opinions and experiences may differ), and they can often be used interchangably, but they are not the same and should be used differently.

Min 4 letter search is awful for a tech forum. No idea why such a known forum hasnt found a work around.
Theres no way around how terrible it is. As mentioned before the sheer number of issues that arise with things that start or 3 letters long renders search impotent.
MMS/USB are two major problems Ive had recently and couldnt do a search to find an answer. Of course that results in yet another thread on the topic being created that is probably needless.
Google search isnt forum specific so it too is too cumbersome to be useful.
Orb , MMS ,SMS , USB, APK , API I mean over half the "talk" we use for Phones involves 3 letter acronyms. Not even beginning to mention something like 1.6 , 2.0 when getting spcifics on those 3 letter acronyms.

says i have a text message but i don't

im sure this has proably been asked before. but i have the HTC Tilt 2 from AT&T and says i have a new message when i dont. i have tried deleting all the messages in my sent, deleted, inbox, and drafts but touch flow still says there is one at the bottom. i also dont have a notice for one. how do i fix this?

I have a touch pro 2 and I have the same issue. I tried calling HTC and they said to shut the phone, have someone text me an amount of times equal to what the number of text messages it says I have is, then wait 5 minutes and turn the phone on. That didn't work. I need to get around to waiting on hold 15 minutes to ask them again. :/

ive had this issue before and there is a fix for it...
1) unzip the attached file to your storage card
2) run the exe file
3) restart your phone
let me know if you guys need more help, but that should do it. it always works for me.

Worked. Thanks. Now to figure out why Visual Voicemail isn't working and how to fix that 1 hour 2 minute thing on the clock.

This sms issue has been discussed in at least 50 different threads on here. There is no way you guys used the search feature to solve your issue. The last thing this forum needed was YET another thread about this
If you don't know how to use the search feature (which if you look at the top of nearly EVERY page here on XDA you'll see the "search box" so I really don't know how you couldn't) that's built into the forums, in google do something like search "sms count problem XDA" and I bet you'll come up with threads that have the fix in it...
common sense goes a long way.
Regardless... glad you found your solution

If you want to turn this thread into condescending posts, I can post screenshots of Firefox's history from the last 2 days using the search feature for a handful of other things. Convenience goes a long way. Searching isn't the most simple thing. Things have to be worded correctly, versions have to match.

thanks puff601 the programs worked like a charm. and Aaron yesterday before i made this thread i did use the search function and i got so many pages that it would take me hours to look through. i looked through the first ten and found nothing pertaining to my issue.

raz1337 said:
If you want to turn this thread into condescending posts, I can post screenshots of Firefox's history from the last 2 days using the search feature for a handful of other things. Convenience goes a long way. Searching isn't the most simple thing. Things have to be worded correctly, versions have to match.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JWJR said:
thanks puff601 the programs worked like a charm. and Aaron yesterday before i made this thread i did use the search function and i got so many pages that it would take me hours to look through. i looked through the first ten and found nothing pertaining to my issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not meaning to be condisending at all... the reality is like I said.. searching isn't hard, might take you a bit but compared to what? Making a post and then waiting for someone to search for you and post the fix that's been discussed a million times? How dare users on here call people out on that!!!!
If you do a search, even just in this sub forum you'll probably find 20 threads started by people who have less then 10 posts asking about the exact same thing... The other day I looked and at the top of the post's there were 2 threads about this... this one and another one right under it. Come on! Just for kicks I punched in what I recommened above by searching in google the "sms count problem XDA" and low and behold the third link down was a link to a touch pro 2 sms problem... the first link showed what you had to look for, the "fixunreadcount" program, as did the 3rd link. Now, am I claiming to be a genious because when I had this issue way way back I did just that and came up with the answer almost right away? No, but the fact is I looked and found it.. Luck? Maybe... but before I post anything I look and look... or if anything say I loaded on a custom rom and had the issue I would post in that thread asking if anyone had the same issue. I'm sure someone would ring in!
Google Result for sms count problem XDA
You're right.. searching isn't the most convenient thing... Especially when you don't know how to search properly I'm sure that can be a real pain in the butt.
Regardless you got your fix one way or another and that's all that matters as I'm sure it annoyed you beyond belief... maybe this post will stay at the top of the charts for a while so other people who have the issue can find it right away and not have to use the search feature...
better yet a mod should just start a new sticky thread with fixes and known issues with the phones..... Update it every few weeks and it would make the forum a lot cleaner place.

Aaron McCarthy said:
Blah blah blah
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just don't get it. There's a difference between human interaction and the strict wording requirements of the search function. You seem to be so dead set on proving why a certain method works so well that you fail to understand the human interaction aspect of a forum.

Text messaging problem choosing the wrong person... anyone else?

When I go into my main texting screen, and choose a name from all my saved texts at the time, it will sometimes randomly open up a different person than the one I clicked on. I have sometimes sent the wrong text to the wrong person because of this. It does it maybe 1 in 20 times. Does anyone else have this issue. Phone specs in my sig, and also did it without custom kernel and on fresh 3.4.0.1

Sounds like you are experiencing the infamous "Android SMS Bug".
Sent from my HTC EVO 4G with Tapatalk

There are a million threads on this...its bring addressed by google...
sent from my DAMN EVO!!

Success100 said:
There are a million threads on this...its bring addressed by google...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously, not to sound like a troll but why does NO ONE SEARCH before posting anymore?
I'm about to unsubscribe from the RSS feeds because I get about 17 new "How do I Root?" threads every day in addition to a few "DAE have this problem that everyone has?" threads.

skylar.sutton said:
Seriously, not to sound like a troll but why does NO ONE SEARCH before posting anymore?
I'm about to unsubscribe from the RSS feeds because I get about 17 new "How do I Root?" threads every day in addition to a few "DAE have this problem that everyone has?" threads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's never a smart thing to subscribe to RSS feeds especially when it comes to support forums. I used to do it but got so many emails daily. Give the guy some slack though. He probably didn't know it was a bug and therefore didn't search because of it.

Yeah sorry guys. I thought it might be a rare case. Off to yahoo for me..
And it's not that it sends it to the wrong person... it just loads up the wrong conversation when touching a name and I have to double check. When hitting send, it still sends to that person thats currently on the conversation screen. Only does it with people who I've already listed in the main text screen showing all the people

danman132x said:
Yeah sorry guys. I thought it might be a rare case. Off to yahoo for me..
And it's not that it sends it to the wrong person... it just loads up the wrong conversation when touching a name and I have to double check. When hitting send, it still sends to that person thats currently on the conversation screen. Only does it with people who I've already listed in the main text screen showing all the people
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using an AOSP rom by the way? I noticed that it happened to me a lot when I was using CM's ROM.

gqstatus0685 said:
It's never a smart thing to subscribe to RSS feeds especially when it comes to support forums. I used to do it but got so many emails daily. Give the guy some slack though. He probably didn't know it was a bug and therefore didn't search because of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree:
RSS feeds are always preferred over revisiting the page. You reduce load on the server by not streaming all the content back and forth until there is a discussion you want to dive into. I'm not sure what you use for RSS if it's sending you emails but switch over to Google Reader.
I understand he didn't know it was a bug... my point was why not search for it first. The very first thing I do when I encounter something like this is "google it". That either takes me to pages where others are discussing the same issue... or proves that no one else knew about it.
A forum isn't meant to be a never ending jetstream of new threads. Look at the developer forums, they have a single thread per ROM/App/etc. and update it with discoveries and new software versions. The thread becomes the SOLE SOURCE for information on that topic... making it easy to find what you are looking for.
</TrollMode>

gqstatus0685 said:
Are you using an AOSP rom by the way? I noticed that it happened to me a lot when I was using CM's ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, Fresh 3.5.0.1. Did it with fresh 3.4 also and stock kernel. But I just looked it up on yahoo and seen lots of pages talking about it.

Here is the official Android Defect. Google has already fixed the issue and will publish it in a future release (see comment 1460):
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=9392#c1460

danman132x said:
Yeah sorry guys. I thought it might be a rare case. Off to yahoo for me..
And it's not that it sends it to the wrong person... it just loads up the wrong conversation when touching a name and I have to double check. When hitting send, it still sends to that person thats currently on the conversation screen. Only does it with people who I've already listed in the main text screen showing all the people
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly what mine does once in a while. Unlike the "google sms bug" where the sms sends to the wrong person, mine sends to the right person, but just selects the wrong person's thread once in a while. I have almost sent some "naughty" texts to my mom and boss before I looked who I was sending them too lol.

sitlet said:
Exactly what mine does once in a while. Unlike the "google sms bug" where the sms sends to the wrong person, mine sends to the right person, but just selects the wrong person's thread once in a while. I have almost sent some "naughty" texts to my mom and boss before I looked who I was sending them too lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never a good idea to have your bosses number saved in your address book if you're going to possibly.....
I'd memorize it. Anyway it happens to me so often that I always clear my inbox after each message that I send someone.

SMS texting
I guess the big question is "Is there a real fix for this"? If not, then we know we can't use that feature with this phones reliably. I see this happening a lot but I don't hear of anyone working on it? Since this is open source code, I think this could be fixed. For now my question is a possible work around that we know work 100% all the time?
What are you guys doing to ensure the message to your girlfriend/wife doesn't go to your kids?

Easy way to foster searching!!!

- New user comes on here and does a search, but gets no results or not what they're looking for.
- They do another search.
- "Sorry. You must wait 25 seconds."
What do you think will happen?
They go and create yet another redundant pointless thread.
Reducing this time limit by at least 15 seconds would go a LONG ways to helping people search more. I know personally I always get extremely frustrated when I search for something and then have to wait. If we want people to search more, why make it so frustrating?

Welcome to the ADHD generation. Is it hard for people to search using Google with an XDA modifier or doesn't it occur to people to try?
Genuinely interested!

DirkGently1 said:
Welcome to the ADHD generation. Is it hard for people to search using Google with an XDA modifier
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. Most people have no idea what that is.

Is it even possible to look through all of the returned search results in 25 seconds? You'd have to be a record breaking speed reader
I suppose if someone enters the search term with a typo and then tries again it might be within the 25 second window.

Regularly when I make a search I click on the wrong option (display thread/post or else) and I'm stuck with that 30 seconds limit and this is really annoying. What's the reason for this limit? Avoid overwhelming servers?

DirkGently1 said:
Is it even possible to look through all of the returned search results in 25 seconds? You'd have to be a record breaking speed reader
I suppose if someone enters the search term with a typo and then tries again it might be within the 25 second window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, exactly. Typo, or my search term was too specific, so I get 0 results.
missparker76 said:
Regularly when I make a search I click on the wrong option (display thread/post or else) and I'm stuck with that 30 seconds limit and this is really annoying. What's the reason for this limit? Avoid overwhelming servers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EXACTLY!! I HATE that.
I click one option; it returns 0 results, so I want to broaden my search and... I can't.

I see now why this hasn't been a problem for me. I always start with one or two keywords and, if necessary, get more specific in following searches.
Kinda the other way round

DirkGently1 said:
I see now why this hasn't been a problem for me. I always start with one or two keywords and, if necessary, get more specific in following searches.
Kinda the other way round
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I think most of us do like you. This has nothing to do with the fact that we are stuck by the 30 sec limit.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

With all due respect to seasoned members and searchers, really, it isn't that simple to someone who is new to all of this and seeking knowledge. I really don't understand why there's any time limit on searching whatsoever, that seems very counter-intuitive - and it will absolutely result in needless first posts, as Paul220000 pointed out, especially when you've got an issue on your hands you just don't understand how to fix.

reinbeau said:
With all due respect to seasoned members and searchers, really, it isn't that simple to someone who is new to all of this and seeking knowledge. I really don't understand why there's any time limit on searching whatsoever, that seems very counter-intuitive - and it will absolutely result in needless first posts, as Paul220000 pointed out, especially when you've got an issue on your hands you just don't understand how to fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search is very resource intensive, and to make sure the site remains fast, it is necessary to have some restrictions on it.

pulser_g2 said:
Search is very resource intensive, and to make sure the site remains fast, it is necessary to have some restrictions on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course. But 30 seconds is just too long. It results in a lot of useless threads.
Another thing that would help tremendously is to default the search to the "Search this forum" link. I.E. whatever forum you're in, clicking search will default the "Search in Forum(s)" box to the forum or device you're in, since usually you're looking for device specific information anyway.
Compare these two links to see what I mean:
General search: http://forum.xda-developers.com/search.php
"Search this forum": http://forum.xda-developers.com/search.php?f=556
Notice the second link searches only the Nexus One forums.
For a new person looking for info, it would probably be more beneficial to search for device-specific information rather than the default of searching all 700+ forums.

If the resource drain on xda is really that big a deal on searches, maybe adding that Google Search bar that searches with the xda modifier that a lot of other sites and blogs use would be a workable solution.

Yep but would it still allow to search only in specific forums and threads and not in the whole site?

i went to search something yesterday and it took me over 30seconds to find the search box... frustration had already begun to creep on me... finally i located the 'search this forum' button... using it was easy enough... i typed into the box the words 'recalibrate battery'... i then carefully proofread my search criteria before putting it through, which took about 30seconds by the way... at this point i was getting excited... then it returned just about every thread those words were mentioned in.... more frustration...
i agree the search may or may not be confusing to some people, be too slow, have wait periods, or give you the entire forum just in a different order... but it's not XDA's fault... go to any forum that uses vbulletin and you will have the same issues...

distortedloop said:
If the resource drain on xda is really that big a deal on searches, maybe adding that Google Search bar that searches with the xda modifier that a lot of other sites and blogs use would be a workable solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are planning on improving the google search for the site.
As others have said at the moment the google search only works on a Site basis, we're looking into getting it on a per-forum basis.
Dave

I dont understand how to use this site at all

If you post a 'i dont know how to do this' or 'its not working can some one help please'
you get loads of people telling you off and insulting you for it BUT the site has no propper search tool - the search thing is limited 'must be a certain amount of words' and say if i want HD2 ROM - whats the chances that that will be in the topic title EXACTLY
so the search brings back 0 results -
And if you ask for help, theres no notification system to say some one has replied?
so you have to book mark the page and keep going back - instead of logging in and all peoples replies popping up in a inbox type area...
lol - and 'tags cannot contain overly common words 'use / how'' - what the hell????
MAKE A PAID MEMBER AREA THAT WORKS PLEASE - ill pay $60 a year for a propper site

Well, the search tool is great. I used it so many times and never had any problem with it.
A paid/prenium membership... lol. Are you kidding ? Do you really think people will pay to get a smarter search engine when they can just think a few seconds more to use the proper key words and get the search engine working as they want ?

Why don't you subscribe to a thread you have posted in/started, and wait for an email alert that there has been a reply?
The Search tool isn't a Crystal Ball and doesn't read minds. Use it well and the results will improve. For example, a search that includes the word 'propper' will probably fail as the word is spelt 'proper'.
Sounds to me you just need a bit more experience with how forums work. As you become more familiar with the XDA forums it'll become easier.

da-alster258 said:
If you post a 'i dont know how to do this' or 'its not working can some one help please'
you get loads of people telling you off and insulting you for it BUT the site has no propper search tool - the search thing is limited 'must be a certain amount of words' and say if i want HD2 ROM - whats the chances that that will be in the topic title EXACTLY
You just need to learn how to use it. I have never had a problem with it. If your search results are 0. Then reword the search question.
so the search brings back 0 results -
And if you ask for help, theres no notification system to say some one has replied?
so you have to book mark the page and keep going back - instead of logging in and all peoples replies popping up in a inbox type area...
You can subscribe to the thread. Go into your User Control Panel. Scroll down to the bottom. On the Left side of the screen choose list subscription. You can then set it to notify instantly.
lol - and 'tags cannot contain overly common words 'use / how'' - what the hell????
MAKE A PAID MEMBER AREA THAT WORKS PLEASE - ill pay $60 a year for a propper site
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know they are not much but the answers are in red. Hope this helps some.

da-alster258 said:
If you post a 'i dont know how to do this' or 'its not working can some one help please'
you get loads of people telling you off and insulting you for it BUT the site has no propper search tool - the search thing is limited 'must be a certain amount of words' and say if i want HD2 ROM - whats the chances that that will be in the topic title EXACTLY
so the search brings back 0 results -
And if you ask for help, theres no notification system to say some one has replied?
so you have to book mark the page and keep going back - instead of logging in and all peoples replies popping up in a inbox type area...
lol - and 'tags cannot contain overly common words 'use / how'' - what the hell????
MAKE A PAID MEMBER AREA THAT WORKS PLEASE - ill pay $60 a year for a propper site
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thread tags should be unique. ie. the following are pointless tags:
a, the, of, but, and, you, it, he, she, them, they,
The following are good tags:
AmonRA, ClockworkMod, Recovery, softbrick, ODIN
You should subscribe to threads you post in, then your usercp will show you replies to those threads.
Remember google is your friend. Search for what you want, and the word XDA, and you will find it 99% of the time

pulser_g2 said:
Thread tags should be unique. ie. the following are pointless tags:
a, the, of, but, and, you, it, he, she, them, they,
The following are good tags:
AmonRA, ClockworkMod, Recovery, softbrick, ODIN
You should subscribe to threads you post in, then your usercp will show you replies to those threads.
Remember google is your friend. Search for what you want, and the word XDA, and you will find it 99% of the time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this. XDA has so much content from users that almost always you can find what you're looking for by either using Google or the XDA search. The key is word choice. That is why XDA urges users to search well prior to posting because the situation more than likely isn't unique to you.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1041206

da-alster258 said:
If you post a 'i dont know how to do this' or 'its not working can some one help please'
you get loads of people telling you off and insulting you for it BUT the site has no propper search tool - the search thing is limited 'must be a certain amount of words' and say if i want HD2 ROM - whats the chances that that will be in the topic title EXACTLY
so the search brings back 0 results -
And if you ask for help, theres no notification system to say some one has replied?
so you have to book mark the page and keep going back - instead of logging in and all peoples replies popping up in a inbox type area...
lol - and 'tags cannot contain overly common words 'use / how'' - what the hell????
MAKE A PAID MEMBER AREA THAT WORKS PLEASE - ill pay $60 a year for a propper site
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been a member of this site for all of less than 4 days. And in that 4 days, I have learned:
1. How to Root
2. What ROM is best for me phone
3. How to use said ROM
4. What my phone can do when flashed
5. How not to be a n00b.
This site is absolutely amazing, and I learned, rooted, flashed, and enjoyed... All without using the search. I watched the "n00b video", cringed a bit, bit my lip and dove in. A wise man once said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."
Trust me. I wanted to find someone who would hold my hand and lead me through it. But even my boss, who has rooted MANY phones, would not point me in any direction (and he has taught me MANY things). You learn best through trial and error. I think the best quote in the intro video is "READ READ READ!"
And as for a paid membership... Seriously? I can see donating to the site, and donating to the developers (which we should all be doing anyway)... But paying just to get premium access to features available on any other forum is just mundane.
However, we did have a VIP area for our donators on Xbox-HQ. Our members who donated got first pick access to the newest releases of SID's and Auto installers, and the like, and access to FTP servers with everything they needed (legally) to get started. Maybe that would work...
hmmmmm.
Otherwise, my advice to you, sir? Just point and click. Find your phone, find a thread that relates to you (if you cannot get the search to work how you want) and read read.... READ!
Good luck! It is really not that hard once you delve in!
-AngelosDracul
P.S. Youtube works great too, "XDA Flash (name of phone here)" maybe?