<p>Having been here for 3 years, I've seen many similar posts made year after year after year. It doesn't annoy me (since the group of people change and want to discuss the same thing in a new thread), but sometimes I wish that all posts of a certain type could be categorized in a central link directory (which can be updated with respect to time). It gives the old posts from years ago some more value. Plus, the search feature isn't particularly good in capturing sentiments expressed in "normal language."</p>
<p>Wouldn't it be soo useful if we could create categories of posts related to something? It would also make more reading of things we're interested in.</p>
<p>of course, due to high turnover within this forum, the posts will repeat themselves.</p>
<p>It's easier there than here, though, because forum keyword searching often isn't very effective for sentiments that can be expressed in many different ways. </p>
<p>The best policy would be a group collaborative effort. One person (unless he has no life other than CC) will not be able to identify all threads related to a particular keyword (for example, say, procrastination). But a group of people could all post in a particular thread related to such a collaborative effort after they see a new post related to such a topic (or after they search through archives and find such a topic), and then post a thread URL after key word.</p>
<p>Has that ever been implemented in a forum though? Out of the many forums I've visited, the search bar was always in an inconspicuous place. A lot of forums are based on software that would make it quite difficult to do such a thing (PHP coding can take hours and hours on end).</p>
<p>Sticky threads don't really work either. A lot of people don't read them. Despite the existence of a "NO CD CRACKS/WAREZ/ETC" thread in an Internet gaming forum I went to, people still kept on asking about no cd cracks/warez/etc (and getting permanently banned for it). </p>
<p>Pop-ups would be killed by pop-up blockers. :p</p>
<p>People never read "terms of use". </p>
<p>There could be a "SEARCH THE FORUM BEFORE POSTING A NEW TOPIC" message whenever someone posts a new topic. Again, I don't know if anyone would read that. =P</p>
<p>Eh, we'll have to deal with it. =P Still, cataloging all of the existential angst, GROUP PROJECTS SUCK, MY SCHOOL SUCKS, I CAN'T STOP PROCRASTINATING threads would be funny. =P</p>
<p>Well, CollegeConfidential must get tons of money off of advertising, I'm sure they have the money to get someone to do the coding.</p>
<p>If there was a sticky thread it'd have to be all across the forum. I think sticky threads might work here, since most of the people who post new threads are old members who probably would've looked at all of them, as opposed to new members/trolls/spammers/etc. But of course the last post that told people to search before posting a new thread only got Featured, not Stickied.</p>
<p>Hm. Actually, that's somewhat interesting about the HS Forum here - that most who post new threads here have been here for a while (but aren't new members), but who have expressed often-expressed sentiments. The old members are also the ones more likely to overlook sticky threads though (I notice that they pretty much become one with the background). A sticky thread certainly wouldn't hurt as a first step though. </p>
<p>As for advertising, hm, CC could potentially make more money out of that than a lot of other websites, given how many people are wiling to purchase just about anything just to get into college. But the ads on the forums are very inconspicuous.</p>