A "searcher" on call?

Just wondering if we might start a SEARCH HELPER - ON DUTY thread?
Keep it "manned" with people who sign on & post saying they volunteer to assist with title and topic searches. Sometimes no one would be there to help but sometimes there may even be more than one who might. Someone who can suggest what forum the thread belongs in would be helpful too. So many threads start with "I am not sure where to put this but..."

Matter of fact, I just mistakenly posted this in board and business questions!

When you are buying a home you need to hire an attorney to do a TITLE SEARCH and make sure no one else owns that home. You think it would be a simple matter to find out if someone else legally owns the home since PROPERTY RECORDS are public...but no. There are entanglements, obstacles, ambiguities and red tape to sift through before you can declare a home free and clear of prior ownership liens or tax obligations.

This is the way I feel starting threads.
Has this already been posted?


A volunteer amongst ourselves....someone we can PM while we are working on threads to search the search engine for us...MAKE 100% certain the topic has not been covered. Doesn't have to be a mod or an expert - just someone who will help you look before you post the thread. PM them the information and they comb search while you work on your story. HAS THIS ALREADY BEEN POSTED? Is this even something you can msg and ask a moderator? I think yes but in the downtime waiting for a reply someone else will scarf your topic.

I think it would condense vital ATS information to relevant pages and eliminate some of the redundancy we sift through on a daily basis. Save everyone a great deal of time....and it could be fun, give bored people who want to be included in stuff something to do, some way to participate even though they may not post all the time themselves. You might think people are just lazy but, people want to help - People just don't know what to do.

Why I bring it up now is that I was reminded of how handy an addition this might be in my "citizens search for the planets" thread and am coming down from the trauma of having to search myself.... Temporary elitist... And sometimes I am here with nothing but time on my hands and I would be willing to search the search engine as best I can to make sure someones topic is not already posted - just for something to do and so I won't have to read the same thing again and again under new titles!


Right now I am waiting, dreading the moment someone considerately adds ..."already posted, here."
So far so good...

I try to use the search engine but though it is simple enough a counting horse might do it - 5 out of 10 times the story will already have been posted. Some people use the Newspaper Headline and others make up their own headline and effectively HIDE their thread from searches. You would have to be here looking around and participating to notice it. If we do not have a searcher on call I think perhaps there should be some rule you must use the original headline associated with your linked information. This was it WILL show up in a search for the topic here on ATS.

I am all in favor of personal responsibility but I think it is the American way to create jobs by paying someone to do something we might as easily do ourselves. Not sure how this works out in the end efficiency and energy expenditure wise overall but there are some benefits I can see to having someone else do the work for you.

Human error makes us miss and forget to include things. When we are wrapped up in creating a thread I know myself when I use the search engine I try 2 ways of entering the information but not much more than that because I am so immersed in the topic and this aspect of it - I can't seem to step outside and see any more ways to phrase the headline or search for this in the search engine. Many times I will have missed some obvious search terms I might have used but was so close to the material I could not see it.

A disinterested third party that knows their way around a search engine could help people starting new threads Search - SEARCH.

Wouldn't it be nice NOT to see those...already posted / thread closed notices?

Thats a good idea, I was thinking of something similar the other night asa matter of fact. I have found that once a thread goes dead and is no longer on the recent boards or the member picks page that commenting on it so that you can put your veiws on the topic up for dicussion, is pretty much a waste of time. Or when a thread has been derailed, or if you do not want to derail a thread by posting off topic but related information, it leaves you in a bind.

I was thinking that maybe a "See Also" feature would be helpful. Something that members could use to tag other threads and post links to closely related threads. Maybe something that would go under the thread headline or the OP? And it would need to be member picked of course. I do like your idea though, sometimes the ATS search does not always pan out because it searches for key words only. But at some point i think that just posting on an existing thread is not the best way to go because after pages and pages the original idea goes stale and a new thread needs to be started to refresh the discussion ideas.

Originally posted by TheThirdAdam
Thats a good idea, I was thinking of something similar the other night asa matter of fact. I have found that once a thread goes dead and is no longer on the recent boards or the member picks page that commenting on it so that you can put your veiws on the topic up for dicussion, is pretty much a waste of time. Or when a thread has been derailed, or if you do not want to derail a thread by posting off topic but related information, it leaves you in a bind.

I was thinking that maybe a "See Also" feature would be helpful. Something that members could use to tag other threads and post links to closely related threads. Maybe something that would go under the thread headline or the OP? And it would need to be member picked of course. I do like your idea though, sometimes the ATS search does not always pan out because it searches for key words only. But at some point i think that just posting on an existing thread is not the best way to go because after pages and pages the original idea goes stale and a new thread needs to be started to refresh the discussion ideas.

I think SEE ALSO... is a great idea! I can't star you here in the forum but I found one of your recent threads and starred and flagged you there. 'Christians and gays' which of course I agreed with you on anyway. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I was reading 'NASA needs help finding planets' and thought the ATS community would be interested.

Surprised not to find it in the search.

"Citizens find 2 new planets" was the story title but what was exciting is they give this website where you can go and start looking. I still can't find anything about it on ATS - Without opening up every thread you can't tell the date or the author, the news story referenced in the thread or if the links are the same ones used.

On just the first 4 pages of search there are 30 threads on new planets and 10 on Nibiru.
Nothing to indicate if these stories involved NASA seeking our help to find them. Maybe I have been under a rock and just missed people discussing this planet searching? Unless ATS is just a political blogging website and not people with a passionate interest in space and science, that story should be news - BIG NEWS. I don't know why I couldn't find it but then these days I guess I miss more than I see.