Paladin Pinion

Unklebob.Hotaling wrote: Anytime you can`t find something, ie the search box... instead of looking for days, just ask... Right, I could have, but the point is, it's hard to see and hard to find. It shouldn't be. People should not have to ask on a public venue just to find a search field. It should be prominent, because 90% of the new people being directed here will want to know something that's already been asked. They'll want to search so they won't feel foolish. Like me.

Boy, I don't know...I'm no stranger to blogs or computers and I program for a living in RL. But I had a terrible time using search here. First off, I couldn't even find a way to DO a search for a couple of days. All they've got here is a tiny little text link at the very top right of the page. If your window is scrolled even a few pixels and you don't know it's there, you can't find it. I was looking for a search box, and of course there isn't one. Then I looked for a button but that isn't there either. It took me a long time to notice that tiny little link. Okay, so maybe that was my own fault. But I can't be the only one. Once I found the link it gave me a generic search box. I had posted to a thread the day before and I wanted to read new replies but couldn't remember the thread title. So I typed my own name in there. All I got back was my own profile. I typed a few keywords of my reply that I remembered. No results. I went back to the generic search and clicked the advanced option. Finally I could enter my name in a specific search field and it found the thread. By then I'd spent way longer than I should have. I was on the verge of just giving up. If I were designing this area I'd put a usable search field in a prominent place on every page, with a clearly labelled "Search" button next to it, and an expandable pane for advanced options that did not require navigating to a separate area.