ID:207239
 
Applies to:Website
Status: Open

Issue hasn't been assigned a status value.
When you search the forums, you don't get a complete set of results. For example, if you search the Demos & Libraries forum for "sidescroller" you get a link to this post, but you don't get a link to this hub entry.

It seems intentional that you're only showing the latest post that's linked to the hub entry and not showing the hub entry, but this isn't ideal. At first glance, because there's no link to a hub entry, it looks like the library isn't available. If anything, I'd rather the search results only show the library's hub entry.
Why would a forum search return hubs instead of posts? If you search the entire site, by using the box in the upper right, then you get hub results.
In response to Falacy
Falacy wrote:
Why would a forum search return hubs instead of posts? If you search the entire site, by using the box in the upper right, then you get hub results.

I thought those results could show hub entries, but it looks like they just created dummy posts to link to hub entries (this one, for example).

It still makes libraries and demos hard to find for newer users (you have to really get how BYOND works to understand what the difference is between "hub", "forum", and "discussion"). If I saw this non-descriptive post I wouldn't be inclined to click the small link to the hub entry. I suppose being consistently bad has its merits.
In response to Forum_account
Forum_account wrote:
It still makes libraries and demos hard to find for newer users (you have to really get how BYOND works to understand what the difference is between "hub", "forum", and "discussion").

Most people would probably use the default search at the top right of every page. Which if they search for "fog of war", the very first result is a link to the hub of your fog of war demo thing.

I agree things could be improved, but not by making forum searches return hubs as results.
The search bar on the top right is unlabeled and a bit confusing with another identical search bar right under it on the community page.

Either way, the fact a Naruto game is the first hit when searching "sidescroller" is a problem which should be addressed.
It's also confusing that the results list shows posts, games, libraries, and other things in all the same manner. These things make sense to people who are very familiar with BYOND, but it'd be very confusing to someone that is new. It gets bogged down in its own nomenclature. People will want to search for games, demos, or articles, they won't know what it means to search the "BYOND Hub".
In response to SuperAntx
SuperAntx wrote:
Either way, the fact a Naruto game is the first hit when searching "sidescroller" is a problem which should be addressed.

I agree. It's only fair that original games get priority.
We changed "BYOND Hub" -> "Games & Resources". We'll think about the forum search. The site organization is better in this update but there are still some things that need improvement, so we'll be getting to those.
Speaking of that unlabeled search box, is that bar ever going to have a fixed position?
In response to Tom
Tom wrote:
We changed "BYOND Hub" -> "Games & Resources". We'll think about the forum search. The site organization is better in this update but there are still some things that need improvement, so we'll be getting to those.

It looks like the developer page was removed so the only way people will find things is by digging through the forums or searching. I don't see a way to find a concise list of good resources. It's fine to go with a search-based approach but that means people need to easily be able to filter how they want to and have a good way of ranking results. I'm not sure there is.
Yeah, the dev page didn't get much traffic and didn't fit well with this new scheme. What I'd like to do is have the keywords more readily available from the forum, and I agree that a way for ranking stuff would be helpful.

For the short-term, probably the best thing we could do is put a few sticky post ups showing useful links.
The search bar in the "Games" section is not so highly visible---I didn't even notice it existed within the first 5 minutes of me trying to find a way to search the hub and not the forum! I would request that it be more prominent, that the search bar at the top of the website searched the hub, as most visiting gamers are apt to think, or that there at least be some option to toggle the behavior in an obvious manner.