Why Don't People Search The Forum Archives?


What CD player has a volume Control? Newbee in the world of analog? What are the best cables for the money?

Sound Familiar?

I spent some time searching the forum archives, and was amazed at the wealth of information contained within. Often, many individuals have and post legitimate questions. Although, these questions (in many cases) have been answered time and time again in the forum archives.

Unfortunately, due to the redundancy of these questions, many of the well established Audiogoner's will no longer respond to these redundant/repeat questions. This may leave the individual asking the question feeling somewhat neglected, not realizing that their question has been answered and/or discussed many times previous.

I also find it interesting, that Audiogon management explicitly states in the "What We Will Decline" section of "Moderation Guidlines", that questions of repetitional nature will be filtered and declined.

http://forum.audiogon.com/fr/moderated_guide.html

The forum archives are a tremendous resource of information. Is there a manner in which individuals posting in the forum could be directed to the forum archives BEFORE posting their particular question? I mention this because the individual posting, may find more complete coverage of their particular question already exists, yielding them much more thorough results/information. Could the Audiogon moderators utilize "keywords" of a newly asked question in order to refer to the archives before that particular question is actually posted?

Would this be considered or construed as unreasonable?

Could this be considered "overmoderated"?

Any suggestions/input?
128x128buscis2
All good points here from both sides of the fence.

Having said that, asking the same question in 2002 might not get you the same valid responses that you'll get in 2004. Not only have situations and people changed in that amount of time, so have the products available the levels of experience garnered. With that in mind, the general consensus of a very specific product, the in's and out's of AC lines and filtration, etc... are all searchable via the archives. As i've seen here, some people actually do search first and then post due to a lack of information found in the archives. Obviously, this is the "right" way to do things but it surely isn't as fast or as personal.

Having said that, i've had MASSIVE problems trying to find specific posts in the Agon archives via the search engines. This is true even if i know specific wording used. How good do you think the results will be for someone that puts in a very generic query when you can't even get the results that you seek when you already know EXACTLY what you're looking for??? Quite honestly, the search engine here is NOWHERE near as efficient as the method being used over at AA. As such, if Agon wants to cut down on repeat questions, they should seek out ways to make the information already collected more accessible to those interested in it. Having valuables hidden in a safe may keep them valuable, but it does nothing to demonstrate the beauty and their worth to those that are unfamiliar with such gems. Sean
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Sean, The best way to go nowhere is not knowing how to get there. :>)

The finest, most expertly tweaked search engines will not instill initiative in the user. Also, a lack of awareness on behalf of the user in conjunction with a lack of discipline will result in "just another redundant post".

I have been enjoying this site for over 2 years now. And I'm being very honest when I say this, I am just finding out about the wealth of information contained within this forum. Could this possibly be why I am becoming more sensitive to redundancy?

It was a point and click learning experience. Although, if the first time I posted a question, I was directed to "an annex" or a "library" or directly to the "Forum Archives". Maybe not only would I have become even more thoroughly informed, but also be more capable of asking a question with a higher level, or degree of relevance. Something we could ALL learn from, while still maintaining forum participation in a welcoming environment.

We have had some great suggestions today. I hope that ultimately , a compilation of the resulting responses could be presented to the Audiogon officianados for a possible "update", or "streamline", depending on one's perspective.

Make Sense?

I think, ultimately, the problem is Audiogon not having & PROMOTING a FAQ section with generic answers to common questions. I don't even know if having a FAQ section is possible due to rapid changes in latest & greatest technologies in audio.
I would like more functionality available for searches.

I still don't even know how the results are sorted. If I search for "Linn" the first result is from 2001, the second from 2000, and the third from 2004. They don't even appear to be sorted alphabetically.

Here are the first 5 results I get:

Linn Majik vs Kairn/LK85
Linn vs Wadia
Alarm settings with RCU and Linn Movie Di
Linn Majik biamp question
Adding phono stage to Linn Majik

This makes no sense. Can anyone explain how this works??

At the very least we need date sorting.
I specifically remember Arnie and the gang at Agon wanting to compile a very thorough FAQ section. Maybe this is the "push" that they were waiting for : ) Sean
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