forum search

I know the website has many issues, but the search function for searching the forums is now terrible. It used to be decent on the old scirra.com - Now I can never find anything. And when I have 'Relevant' selected I always get posts that are from 10 years ago and completely irrelevant.

I can never find any match on things in my search string.. even when I know the topic or its something I posted on. I search and it never comes up. I have to look in my post history to get to it.

how about some options? like 'only these exact words' or except 'these words' and some better matching? It used to be good before why is it so poor now?

for example, I am looking up if someone has talked about key bindings and remapping. I get a very high number of hits all having nothing to do with key bindings or remapping, not even close.

— thank you that helped!

who knew a '+' would fix that? is that documented somewhere? if so, I never saw it.

EDIT: still didn't really find what I was looking for.. only 1 or 2 threads on key bindings, there has to be more...

— yes I always hear this from the construct team...goto google: site: construct.net/forums xyz ...which honestly is such a blow-off response.

As far as I'm concerned the website is part of the $99 per year we are all paying for...being able to find information fast. The current Documentation is a fraction of what it should be, there are no examples like GMS2 has.. the forum was the only way you'd figure out things, and now it's not nearly as functional as it used to be.

If the search always sucked, then fine, I probably wouldn't complain, but it used to be fine and now it's unacceptable.

I guess I bring it up because it annoys me but I also want to help the community and make everything more useful for everyone. I also teach construct and my students can never find anything on the forums mostly because its not user-friendly...but it didn't used to be that way, in 2017 it was a lot better.

better yet, instead of fixing the search, Tom can't you just get an intern to watch the forums and update the doc when some question that isn't answered by the doc gets answered (by the community)? and/or add example code with screenshots?

Because here's a question I had to ask the community and someday some poor sap probably won't be able to find it!

construct.net/en/forum/construct-3/general-discussion-7/create-object-rule-143726

because it wasn't in here:

construct.net/en/make-games/manuals/construct-3/project-primitives/events

or here:

construct.net/en/make-games/manuals/construct-3/system-reference/system-actions

or here:

construct.net/en/make-games/manuals/construct-3/project-primitives/events/sub-events

I would have expected this information to be in one of these 3 places. Maybe it's somewhere else? I don't know... I did a search in the doc on "Create Object" which is where you would expect to get this information. but this is one of those situations where the Forum search wouldn't help, since I couldn't remember the rule and had no idea what words to even search on but I knew there was something about it having to do with Create Object or Events or picking etc... but searching the forums and the doc yielded nothing.

— yes I always hear this from the construct team...goto google: site: construct.net/forums xyz ...which honestly is such a blow-off response.

As far as I'm concerned the website is part of the $99 per year we are all paying for...being able to find information fast.

I do have to admit I agree partly with you. In any case, was just trying to help.

Must say I have always found the official 'manual' (of C2 in any case) severely lacking. It describes the bare basics of everything, but there are hardly any examples to be found. I suppose this could be due to the fact that examples can't be tailored to everyone's needs.

But it has certainly forced me to open new topics on the forums, and that waiting, or should I say, hoping for a reply can be a not so fun experience. I mean, you stumble across a problem and want to solve it preferably before the days end so you can move on with your project.

Fortunately there are many helpful people here on the forums, who basically help for free. But your argument has made me think just now; should it be the community to carry the burden of customer service?

Ofcourse, without a thriving community, when the manual would be lacking, the forums can be really helpful. Although I don't feel the manual should be lacking in the first place.

I'm still using C2, and I will probably need to upgrade sometime in the next years, I surely hope they will improve on this. Especially with a recurring subscription, which is basically like a prison ball and chains around your ankle, because you know you can't escape from C3 sooner or later.

Oh, where I was going is, with that recurring income I find it unlikely that a decent manual and improved service will be out of the question.

—

But it has certainly forced me to open new topics on the forums, and that waiting, or should I say, hoping for a reply can be a not so fun experience. I mean, you stumble across a problem and want to solve it preferably before the days end so you can move on with your project.

Fortunately there are many helpful people here on the forums, who basically help for free. But your argument has made me think just now; should it be the community to carry the burden of customer service?

Ofcourse, without a thriving community, when the manual would be lacking, the forums can be really helpful. Although I don't feel the manual should be lacking in the first place

I VERY much appreciate all the people in the forums, they are what make Construct what it is...

It's also why I try to give back as well. I'm always hitting "unanswered topics" to help out with easy questions I know the answer to, to help promote the community.

The information the manual is lacking is spread out in these forums (and Ashley's blogs). When I was still new to Construct and the forums used to go down (which they did a lot in the past) it was like I was flying blind! The Construct Team should tend these forums with TLC.

I've added more years to the forum search in the next update so you're not restricted to 1y max.

We're skipping across a lot of issues here:

should it be the community to carry the burden of customer service?

No, but the forum is a nice to have that pretty much every other game making software has. It's an extra you are not obliged to use.

Ofcourse, without a thriving community, when the manual would be lacking

This is as far as I am aware, up to date. Note, manual is NOT for "how-to" guides it's a very specific document documenting features in Construct 3.

Which manual entries are missing?

The Construct Team should tend these forums with TLC.

Search could probably be improved, what else needs TLC in it?