As a newcomer, who has not participated in l77,000 of your conversations, some of this really is frustrating. You may know what you are talking about, but a newcomer does not. Do you think "hints' for newcomers' could be clarified??
from the "hints" page: How Do I Know If A Subject Has Been Discussed?
first, someone might (reasonably) ask: Why should I care if a subject has been discussed? (1) Some of us have actually read most of those 177,000 conversations and have become (predictably) jaded. (2) Chance would have it that there are some real gems among all of those that you might actually find enjoyable or instructive.
thus, you can use the forum Search function to find whether, for example, a particular word has been discussed here. (I, personally, get much use out of the forum Search function in researching my "rehashed topics" threads [see page 6 of Miscellany for most recent post].)
first, notice that there are two Search links up at the top of the page. The topmost one is the AWAD site search, which you can use to search the
entire site, but is not useful for searching within these forums.
it's the second Search down that you want for doing a forum search. Clicking that link opens up the Search form, which looks a bit daunting at first blush, but there are only three(3) fields that you need concern yourself with, 1) verify that you have "All Forums" selected in the left-hand frame 2) enter your "Keyword Terms" in the box at the top of the right-hand frame [this is the word or phrase you're looking for] 3) fill in the "Date Range" [ Newer than
10 Years is a maximum search, and you don't need to furthur narrow this]. Then click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the form.
for example, if I wanted to find the thread(s) where the word "jamfled" was discussed, I'd select All Forums, Search Terms = jamfled, Date Range = Newer than 10 Years. The results looks something like this, with each line being a link to the respective post:
. Re: rehashed topic #4 - jamfled Miscellany tsuwm 08/28/07 11:01 AM
. Re: rehashed topic #4 - jamfled Miscellany Myridon 08/28/07 10:51 AM
. rehashed topic #4 - jamfled Miscellany tsuwm 08/28/07 10:34 AM
. Re: jamfled? Q&A about words zmjezhd 02/23/07 08:45 AM
. Re: jamfled?? Q&A about words BranShea 02/23/07 08:05 AM
. Re: jamfled?? Q&A about words Jackie Administrator 02/23/07 06:31 AM
. Re: jamfled?? Q&A about words BranShea 02/23/07 05:23 AM
. Re: jamfled?? Q&A about words Hydra 02/23/07 04:28 AM
. Re: jamfled?? Q&A about words BranShea 02/23/07 01:27 AM
. jamfled?? Q&A about words tsuwm 02/22/07 08:54 PM
[there are actually only two threads here, identified by the subject lines missing the "Re:" part.]
p.s. - you can actually get back in to the anals [sic] of AWADtalk history using this search. to wit, try searching for the phrase "arrow of time" [quotes required]...
Re: time Q&A about words wsieber 09/19/00 01:01 AM
