Suggestion Need a search note for those not registered

[brooknorton]

I registered today after nearly giving up on trying to figure out how to search a Forum. Once I registered, a "Search" option appeared at the top of the screen.

What is needed is a note in plain view that says searching is disabled until you register, or some similar logic to let an unregister newcomer understand how to search.

As it is, the first thing a visitor experiences is total frustration at the apparent inabilty to search.

Thanks, Brook Norton

 

[berkeman]

I registered today after nearly giving up on trying to figure out how to search a Forum. Once I registered, a "Search" option appeared at the top of the screen.

What is needed is a note in plain view that says searching is disabled until you register, or some similar logic to let an unregister newcomer understand how to search.

As it is, the first thing a visitor experiences is total frustration at the apparent inabilty to search.

Thanks, Brook Norton

Welcome to the PF!

Sorry you had that frustration. I'll let others comment on possible ways to address it on the PF.

 

[Borek]

Just add site:physicsforums.com to your google search query.

Actually, you can add site: parameter to every query to limit search to this particular domain. Works also with top level domains (so for example site:de will search only German sites with domain addresses ending in .de).

 

[jtbell]

When I want to search all of PF I usually use Google with the "site:" modifier. The forum's own search function is a bit erratic. I use it only when I want to restrict searches to a specific forum.