Changes to Announcements and Search

[Son of Samurai]

We just updated the software that Appliantology runs on, and I thought you guys might like to know what's changed. While most of these changes are in the backend of the site (the part that keeps everything running, but that you guys don't have to see), there are a couple visible changes that you may have already noticed.

Announcements have been moved a little bit -- they now show up as a box in the sidebar with a bullhorn on the top. You used to see these in the middle of the page, right above the main content. This isn't a huge change when you're viewing the site on a desktop computer, but when you're using a smartphone, it means that you will not see the announcements block. We may change that in the future, but for the time being, keep that in mind.

Also, Appliantology's search engine has received some improvements. You'll see that there's now a dropdown menu that appears when you click into the search box. This menu lets you select which part of the site you want to search (very important, especially if you're looking specifically for files in the Downloads section), and it gives a few other options that you can use to fine-tune your query. These options were actually always available to you, but you used to have to go to "Advanced Search" in order to see them. Now they're more accessible.

One other tweak to searching: the search engine used to default to searching whatever section of the site you were currently viewing (so if you were viewing a forum topic, it would default to searching just that topic). Now, to help avoid confusion, it will always default to searching the entire site -- though you can still search within the current topic, forum, section, etc. if you so choose.

If you have any questions about these updates, let me know!

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

Whoowee! Sho nuff looking mighty fine round hyeah, @Son of Samurai. Nice work keeping Appliantology on the bleeding  edge of technology on the free-range internet! 

[Lighthouse]

Thanks for continuously improving.

[Samurai Appliance Repair Man]

That’s the goal- we want to make sure  Appliantology remains the premiere appliance tech resource site off the corporate plantation (eg, FB).