Searching
Ok, you've followed the above regimen, you know all the rules, you've read the various stickies and now your ready to post up a storm. Right? Wrong.
STOP. Remember that little
SEARCH button on your Navigation Panel. Well now is the time to utilize it.
Search fills a variety of roles:
- Answers on demand: Though this site is popuated by thousands of members sometimes questions go unanswered. Instead of waiting around in hopes someone answers your question you can take the initiative to scroll through the archieves of the many people who have more then likey had the same question as you
- People gone but not forgotten: People come and go. There technical knowledge, know how, and advice doesnt. You'll find that alot of great information can be had from members past (i.e Raughhammer).
- Data straight from the source: Being the Technical site this is you'll often find alot of industry insiders will post here. Magazine editors, product developers, ect. There contributions are greatly appreciated. They however dont have the time to sit here and answer questions all day. By searching you can often find there posts and take comfort knowing its straight from the source.
- Data Gathering: Research and Data Gathering are two of the most important tools we have in this modding game. Proper research first and foremost will save you money because lets face it, we all dont have the money to try every product available and then decide whats bests for us. Researching will help narrow down your choices to help pick the right parts for your budget and application
How to PROPERLY search
Time and time again i see a post that starts off "i search but couldnt find any relavant info" and then they go on to ask a general question that is answered in a sticky or even sometimes in another persons thread still on the first page. Thats not searching.
Im going to walk you through a
proper search. You've had your car for a while and you've been thinking about adding some headers for more power and sound.
You click
Search and the drop box menu comes down.
You type in "headers" and the following comes up:
As you can see there are over 250 threads all over the place with the word "headers" in them. Lets see if we can narrow it down some.
Click the
Search button again, but this time when the drop box comes down click on
Advanced Search. That brings up the following:
In the advanced menu you will notice i entered the same keyword "headers", but this time i have specified i want to searc the "Power Development" section including all subforums. With that we get this:
Now we've further narrowed down our search but there is still alot of irrelavant info to what we our searching.
Lets go back up to the
Advance Search and limit our search to the "External" forum:
With those perameters this is what we come up with:
Now you are at a point where you can search around and get some basic info. There are pages and pages of great information to be had.
Lastly, to narrow down the seach even more we will look for threads with the word "headers" in the topic and look in the "External" subforum only.
The results are as follows:
As you can see there is
plenty of info to go through and gain some knowledge. While searching you'll no doubtedly come across many different views of the variety of headers available. If post after post recommends a certain brand you can be sure its for a good reason (i.e Kooks/Qtp's). Once you have narrowed down a choice or two you can use the
button to find more information on these specifics. Just use the last option layed out above: example
- Kooks, title only, external forum.
The same process can be applied to any other general question you might have; cams, springs, lids, intakes, TB's, ect. Just search in the appropriate forum; meaning if your looking for cam info check the Ls1/Ls6 Internal forum and the Dyno forum.
Good luck and Happy
Searching,
The Search Button Director
Getting Started on Ls1Tech 
).
