Could you possibly make this forum more difficult to search?

Very briefly:

The forum disables the default Ctrl+F feature in browsers, so you can’t simply search for a word on the page. I understand it opens its own neat-o window and gives you a list of posts containing your word or search term. I don’t want that. I want to search the page like I do on any other website.

Secondly, once I find the post containing the word I’ve searched for in your neat-o box at the top of the page and click on that post to open it, if there is a reply to that post and click on the reply icon at the lower left of the post, it goes to the reply - and the post I was reading disappears! To be replaced by “177 previous replies” or “3 months later” or some such nonsense.

Really frustrating!!!

23 Likes

Totally agree. Please give me back my Ctrl-F. You can keep the magnifying glass, that functionality is ok, too, but, yeah, sometimes I just want to do a quick browser search of the page as the OP says.

:smiley:

6 Likes

I also agree on the Ctrl + F issue.

4 Likes

Ctrl-F works for me in Microsoft Edge browser.

2 Likes

The sad thing is, even if control+f was released as a hotkey (going through Chrome’s menu > search still works) , it’s useless as posts out of view get culled, so searching a lenghty thread is impossible.

It’s also not very handy that things like “Topic author”, “community manager” or other badges use CSS :after / content, which gets ignored by page search.

edit: as I’m typing this I notice cmd+f on my mac is working fine on this thread, but not in another :roll_eyes:

edit2: cmd+f might bring the forum-search one, but tapping cmd+f again will trigger the browser one in Chrome.

3 Likes

ah, well, that explains it.

2 Likes

I’d also be all for getting rid of this encumbering feature. It’s already hard enough to search through this forum just for the sheer volume of information it contains. This feature is just putting an extra, pointless hurdle in our way.

I can use CTRL+F… I’m using Edge.
I did have the same CTR+F issue before. But as soon as I click an empty space in the page and press CTRL+F again, it works.

I have to say it’s honestly one of the worst forums I’ve ever used, with indeed a lot of “features” that make it difficult to use:

  • the search feature which bypasses the browser search, just like you said,
  • the threads that automatically hides posts. WHO WANTS THAT ? I certainly don’t, It’s annoying, it’s confusing and it wastes people’s time.
  • and worst of all, the login system that forces you to have an Xbox account and works with some web browsers and not others. I simply can’t login with Chrome, I have to use Edge. And 5mn ago I was trying to login on my main PC, and couldn’t, it automatically showed me a checkin window (create a new account), even when I clicked on the login button ! So I’m using the laptop right now.

It does feel like this forum is designed to force users to switch to Edge (which btw is quite good), just like at the time Microsoft was trying to ram their inferior browser IE down people’s throats.

4 Likes

I bet it won’t be long till this post is closed :see_no_evil: :hear_no_evil: :speak_no_evil:

3 Likes

And add this related thread which highlights a lot of other issues (“show all” button taking you to a random place in the thread for example).

P…S. - CTRL-F (or “Find…” from the menu) works fine in Chrome

??

2 Likes

Your browser search tool can only look at text that is rendered in your browser. Because Discourse (the forum software), only renders a small number of posts at a time (max of ~20), the forums hijack the default Ctrl + F functionality in larger topics, allowing you to search through the whole thing.

If a topic is relatively small, like this one at 13 posts, then Ctrl + F will open up your browser default search system.

If you are in a larger topic and you want to use your native search tool, double tap Ctrl+F.

11 Likes

Ctrl f works in firefox!

3 Likes

Command + F works in Firefox on MacOS :+1:

1 Like

CTRL+F works well here (Edge)

Ctrl + F works on Firefox, no problem.

Oh gawd, no wonder it’s so difficult to use. Discord is the most aptly-named, er, app I have ever used. Completely unintelligible.

3 Likes

Do you mean “Discourse” (the forum software)? In my opinion it is a very good system both from a user end to admin. Very scalable and customizable.

7 Likes

Also works fine with Safari on macOS Catalina!
Also can confirm that it works on Chrome in Windows 10 as well (at least for me).

However in general, I do think this is about the worst interface of all the forums I am a member of. :eye:

1 Like