no search button

Vortakh · Jan 21, 2007

Greetings,

I have no search button on any enworld forum page, although the faq says there should be one.

Any enlightenment would be appreciated.

V.

IronWolf · Jan 21, 2007

Vortakh said:
Greetings,
I have no search button on any enworld forum page, although the faq says there should be one.

Any enlightenment would be appreciated.

You need a community supporter account to have the Search functionality.

http://www.enworld.org/subscriptions.php?

Vortakh · Jan 21, 2007

Thank you for the quick answer.

I think I'll manage without a search function then (which other forums provide for free, by the way).

But in case I will change my mind, why are there three different prices for every available function, without an apparent difference?

V.

Morrus · Jan 21, 2007

Vortakh said:
But in case I will change my mind, why are there three different prices for every available function, without an apparent difference?

Three different currencies. £, $ and Euros.

LightPhoenix · Jan 21, 2007

Vortakh said:
I think I'll manage without a search function then (which other forums provide for free, by the way).

As to why Search isn't free here. A while back ENWorld was experiencing heavy bandwidth issues. While the provider was awesome and never shut the site down, ENWorld was extremely slow to load, especially at peak times. They analyzed the traffic, and it was found that the Search function was consuming a large amount of bandwidth. Since this site is basically free, and Morrus doesn't make any money running it, it was determined that people would pay for Search.

If you don't want to support the site and pay for Search, there are other ways to search the boards. If you go to Google and type in "site:enworld.org" and whatever terms you are looking for, that will run a search over them. It's by far less elegant and user-friendly, but it is possible.

Vortakh · Jan 21, 2007

I just wondered why especially search is not free, since the lack of free searching will probably result in more redundant questions whose answers are already part of the forums, thus creating more traffic and work for the moderators.

Nevertheless, I won't "cheat" me a search function via google, since although I don't appreciate the pay-search, the enworld people have all the right to do it this way. If I don't want to pay, I have to live without it. If I want it so badly, I have to pay for it. Period.

Thanks for the enlightenment in this matter. I will ponder both options.

Bye

V.

P.S.: Oh, and about the three different currencies - I am just blind sometimes.

P.P.S.: One more question though: Why is Search alone more expensive than the FCSA?

LightPhoenix · Jan 22, 2007

Vortakh said:
Nevertheless, I won't "cheat" me a search function via google, since although I don't appreciate the pay-search, the enworld people have all the right to do it this way. If I don't want to pay, I have to live without it. If I want it so badly, I have to pay for it. Period.

I wouldn't consider it cheating at all. Compared to a Google search, the VBulletin search is MUCH better. I don't have access to Search either, and if I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, using Google can be a real pain sometimes. Not to mention the sorting options with VBulletin are wonderful, and I sorely miss them.

Besides, a search with Google doesn't use ENWorld bandwidth at all, so it's not costing the site anything.

As to your point about redundant threads, this is solely in my own experience, but that has happened even when Search was an option. There may be a little more, I don't know for sure, but I don't particularly think it's noticable. Then again, I don't spend as much time in General as some, and none in Rules, so I wouldn't know for sure.

Umbran · Jan 22, 2007

Vortakh said:
I just wondered why especially search is not free..

On reason that search is not free is, quite simply, that searching is expensive, in terms of computing power. For us, with so much unstructured data, it is very expensive. Small sites that have smaller databases can afford it. Big sites focused on comerce with huge revenues can afford it. We are in the uncomfortable middle ground of having a huge data base, but not so much business. So, for us, search is expensive.