This forum could use an upgrade ....

[Alchase]

My only complaint is when I post pics from my iPhone, they come in sideways for some reason.
I thought I read a solution to this issue awhile ago, but damned if I can remember, 

[Liroy]

That still isn't a search and if have to read a FAQ or go to a forum to learn about how to search for user posts then you aren't arguing in favor of the software.

...

You should be able to search for @Parasite from the home page and get the results. That is what everyone expects.

If you want a list of all posts from a user, you've already been given the solution how to get there. Opening someone's profile to see their posts and topics is very normal and quite the standard everywhere; has been the case since forever and the same approach has been adopted by many other places; just look at Reddit for example (heck until recently they didn't even have the ability to search for usercomments at all, whilst this forum does have such an option.) or to some extent even Facebook. (Speaking of horrible search functions...)

If, however, you want to search for a specific topic or phrase a specific user has participated in, then you have to click "Search", enter your keyword and then fill in their username in the "By user" field and voila: you get exactly what you wanted. You can even filter/narrow it down further to your wishes if you please.

So that's two options to achieve what you want with great ease. Doesn't sound difficult to me and I think it's pretty straightforward, at the very least easily discovered by visiting someones profile or the search function once and you'll instantly see these things. List of all posts by user? Visit profile. Want to search for specifics by that user: use the search function, it's what it's there for. That's it. But maybe I find it easy because it's what I've seen on pretty much the majority of forum software out there with a substantial userbase and has been like that for 20+ years. (SMF, myBB, phpBB, YaBBSE back then, etc.). But sure, I've also seen the "@user" option in software like Discourse. It's simply a different design philosophy for the search function. The developers of this forum software chose to do it differently and more in-line with how it's always worked since inception, simple as that.

Lastly, regarding FAQ's... This is actually what user manuals are for. If you're not sure how something works, you can look it up. Considering search functions work (a little bit) different everywhere, your assumptions may be different between software A and software B and thus it would be recommended to see if what you had assumed or what you're used to is the same here or that it works differently. There's nothing strange about that either and is not arguing in favour or against any software; not this one nor what you're used to otherwise. It's just different software, much like how smartphone A does not operate exactly the same way as smartphone B. This is more what comes down to what you're used to from elsewhere, but elsewhere is fortunately not the same everywhere. It'd be boring if all we have are single standards with zero differences and it would halt innovations. So yeah, sometimes you have to leave the convenience of merely assuming/expecting everything to work the same everywhere and do a wee bit of reading.

These types of forums have moved to wordpress. It's the standard and would solve a lot of these problems.

N...no. That'd be a nightmare for a place like this and really not quite suitable for a forum this size at all imho. Plus it's really not the standard in the world of communities. (Not to mention that WordPress being abused as a glorified CMS (not necessarily speaking of the BB) whilst it was never really designed for that purpose leads to a multitude of problems, including security and optimisation issues. Heck, I'd almost say in some aspects it has, through community butchering, become the modern day PHPNuke. But perhaps that's a bit extreme.)

Having said that, the new generation of this current software does address a couple of points raised; such as the inclusion of a fully responsive design, more hooks, username mentions, user notifications (including desktop notifications in supported browsers), drafts, likes, etc. It will definitely be worth looking in to upgrading to the latest generation, but upgrading is not a task that should be taken lightly or be underestimated.

[jackelope]

Click on the user's name or profile.
Click on banner that says Profile info
Click on Show Posts

That will show you every single post that user has made on the forum since they started their account.

That still isn't a search and if have to read a FAQ or go to a forum to learn about how to search for user posts then you aren't arguing in favor of the software.

You should be able to search for @parasite from the home page and get the results. That is what everyone expects.

These types of forums have moved to wordpress. It's the standard and would solve a lot of these problems.

You mean like this?

Leave the search box empty. Click search.  Click advanced search. You get this:

[jackelope]

Try this regarding the search function. If you know you’re searching for a deer related topic let’s say…. Open up the deer hunting board and search from there. I’ve had no issues to the point that it makes me wonder what the heck people are complaining about with the search function.  It literally always works fine for me that way. The search function even works in Tapatalk now.

Well that in itself shows a limitation.

No site wide search of posts from a user for example.

Posting media also causes a lot of frustration.

Advanced search maybe?

[konradcountry]

If you want a list of all posts from a user, you've already been given the solution how to get there. Opening someone's profile to see their posts and topics is very normal and quite the standard everywhere; has been the case since forever and the same approach has been adopted by many other places; just look at Reddit for example (heck until recently they didn't even have the ability to search for usercomments at all, whilst this forum does have such an option.) or to some extent even Facebook. (Speaking of horrible search functions...)

I'm not asking for a solution. I'm pointing out that there isn't a straightforward one that users are able to find on their own.

Reddit is quite simple and can easily be found by typing "search by user Reddit"
https://www.reddit.com/user/karusu88

And it has all kinds of search modifiers.

Search isn't the main issue. It's the image upload. I've seen many classified posts where people get frustrated and ask to send the image by cell. Just because I can do it does not change that fact that it has problems. I'm not asking for help. I am pointing out that the software has areas where it can be improved. I don't like to see people get frustrated with software.

If, however, you want to search for a specific topic or phrase a specific user has participated in, then you have to click "Search", enter your keyword and then fill in their username in the "By user" field and voila: you get exactly what you wanted. You can even filter/narrow it down further to your wishes if you please.

So that's two options to achieve what you want with great ease. Doesn't sound difficult to me and I think it's pretty straightforward

If you click Search and then fill in the user name it returns:
Did you forget to put something to search for?

No I didn't. I entered the user name and it should assume I am searching for all posts.

That should be the default behavior. It also doesn't suggest using some type of wildcard like * nor does it work. I can however use an asterisk for the user which is odd.

If your search needs a FAQ to search by user then it has problems. At the very least searching for anything using the box should return an advanced search with the results beneath.

[konradcountry]

That still isn't a search and if have to read a FAQ or go to a forum to learn about how to search for user posts then you aren't arguing in favor of the software.
These types of forums have moved to wordpress. It's the standard and would solve a lot of these problems.

N...no. That'd be a nightmare for a place like this and really not quite suitable for a forum this size at all imho. Plus it's really not the standard in the world of communities. (Not to mention that WordPress being abused as a glorified CMS (not necessarily speaking of the BB) whilst it was never really designed for that purpose leads to a multitude of problems, including security and optimisation issues. Heck, I'd almost say in some aspects it has, through community butchering, become the modern day PHPNuke. But perhaps that's a bit extreme.)

bbPress (Wordpress based) has over 300k active installations and runs forums both smaller and larger than this one.
https://wphive.com/reviews/plugins/bbpress-plugin-review/

Corporations use it more than any other forum software so I don't see why you are being so dismissive of it.

[KFhunter]

No forum software can make everyone happy.  I don't reddit, so that software is confusing to me.   

I am a poweruser of this forum, as attested by my 30 thousand posts and volunteering to be a moderator 

The only thing I find lacking is automated picture reduction and compression like when you post a pic on Facebook it sizes it way down and peels the meta data off.  It would be hella nice if it were kiss simple to post a pic here. Yes I know screenshots...but pics are one of the spots that generates the most frustration for nontechy members. 

The other issue is being addressed, and thats cell phone use. 

[KFhunter]

That still isn't a search and if have to read a FAQ or go to a forum to learn about how to search for user posts then you aren't arguing in favor of the software.
These types of forums have moved to wordpress. It's the standard and would solve a lot of these problems.

N...no. That'd be a nightmare for a place like this and really not quite suitable for a forum this size at all imho. Plus it's really not the standard in the world of communities. (Not to mention that WordPress being abused as a glorified CMS (not necessarily speaking of the BB) whilst it was never really designed for that purpose leads to a multitude of problems, including security and optimisation issues. Heck, I'd almost say in some aspects it has, through community butchering, become the modern day PHPNuke. But perhaps that's a bit extreme.)

bbPress (Wordpress based) has over 300k active installations and runs forums both smaller and larger than this one.
https://wphive.com/reviews/plugins/bbpress-plugin-review/

Corporations use it more than any other forum software so I don't see why you are being so dismissive of it.

The forum owner is already invested in smf, I'm not a forum software guy, but I think it would be a *very* big deal to put everything from smf to bbpress or other software.

I could see loosing a ton of stuff, and many folks here only use this forum and no other, all they know is smf and barely navigate that as it is...a big switch to a whole new platform would be met with *much* resistance.

I like XenForo forum software myself. 

[jackelope]

That still isn't a search and if have to read a FAQ or go to a forum to learn about how to search for user posts then you aren't arguing in favor of the software.
These types of forums have moved to wordpress. It's the standard and would solve a lot of these problems.

N...no. That'd be a nightmare for a place like this and really not quite suitable for a forum this size at all imho. Plus it's really not the standard in the world of communities. (Not to mention that WordPress being abused as a glorified CMS (not necessarily speaking of the BB) whilst it was never really designed for that purpose leads to a multitude of problems, including security and optimisation issues. Heck, I'd almost say in some aspects it has, through community butchering, become the modern day PHPNuke. But perhaps that's a bit extreme.)

bbPress (Wordpress based) has over 300k active installations and runs forums both smaller and larger than this one.
https://wphive.com/reviews/plugins/bbpress-plugin-review/

Corporations use it more than any other forum software so I don't see why you are being so dismissive of it.

I’m not trying to be part of this conversation. Just want to let you know that Liroy isn’t really a very active member of the forum and he’s in a different country.  He’s the guy who helps us with the tech end of the forum because we’re all a bunch of dummies in this regard. So I’m not sure if or whenever he’ll respond.

[konradcountry]

That still isn't a search and if have to read a FAQ or go to a forum to learn about how to search for user posts then you aren't arguing in favor of the software.
These types of forums have moved to wordpress. It's the standard and would solve a lot of these problems.

N...no. That'd be a nightmare for a place like this and really not quite suitable for a forum this size at all imho. Plus it's really not the standard in the world of communities. (Not to mention that WordPress being abused as a glorified CMS (not necessarily speaking of the BB) whilst it was never really designed for that purpose leads to a multitude of problems, including security and optimisation issues. Heck, I'd almost say in some aspects it has, through community butchering, become the modern day PHPNuke. But perhaps that's a bit extreme.)

bbPress (Wordpress based) has over 300k active installations and runs forums both smaller and larger than this one.
https://wphive.com/reviews/plugins/bbpress-plugin-review/

Corporations use it more than any other forum software so I don't see why you are being so dismissive of it.

I’m not trying to be part of this conversation. Just want to let you know that Liroy isn’t really a very active member of the forum and he’s in a different country.  He’s the guy who helps us with the tech end of the forum because we’re all a bunch of dummies in this regard. So I’m not sure if or whenever he’ll respond.

I do understand feeling emotionally invested in a project but I'm seeing problems in this software (Simple Machines) that are clearly frustrating users. Blaming the user is not the answer especially when it isn't a problem in many alternatives. Hopefully the new upgrade will address some of these issues.

[bearpaw]

I like the forum as is. My only complaint is the picture posting is not as easy as it was. I dont know if my phone has increases the data size, but it (the site) used to easily post 6 or 8 pics at a time, and  no need for a bunch of resizing or screen shot takes. Now every pic must be a screen shot, some of those dont load and its limited to 2 at a time. Lots of extra steps. It has definitely cut down on my posting of pics just due to the effort involved in getting it to work at times.

Posting Photos is an issue I hope to make easier. When we had trouble with one of our previous servers we set the forum to only accept two photos per post so that the server could handle that. After our coming software upgrade I'll experiment with increasing that number (depending on Liroy's advice). The issue with resizing, we have the forum set to only accept up to a certain size of photo files 800x600 pixels, otherwise with the extreme number of photos posted on this forum our server requirements would be crazier than they already are. Each new generation of phones keeps taking larger file sized photos, that's why your phone photos are now better than many cameras. Phones are taking photos that are several times larger file size than they used to be, thus more users are having to resize photos. My hope is that we can get photo resizing automated at some point to resolve that issue.

[bearpaw]

That still isn't a search and if have to read a FAQ or go to a forum to learn about how to search for user posts then you aren't arguing in favor of the software.
These types of forums have moved to wordpress. It's the standard and would solve a lot of these problems.

N...no. That'd be a nightmare for a place like this and really not quite suitable for a forum this size at all imho. Plus it's really not the standard in the world of communities. (Not to mention that WordPress being abused as a glorified CMS (not necessarily speaking of the BB) whilst it was never really designed for that purpose leads to a multitude of problems, including security and optimisation issues. Heck, I'd almost say in some aspects it has, through community butchering, become the modern day PHPNuke. But perhaps that's a bit extreme.)

bbPress (Wordpress based) has over 300k active installations and runs forums both smaller and larger than this one.
https://wphive.com/reviews/plugins/bbpress-plugin-review/

Corporations use it more than any other forum software so I don't see why you are being so dismissive of it.

Liroy has already addressed this in his post. I'll add that I have looked over other software, as Liroy more or less indicated, each has it's advantages and disadvantages, I'm firmly convinced that this forum is best served to stay with SMF software.

We are working on moving the forum to the latest upgrade now, it will take some time, you can follow the progress here: https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,270047.0.html

[pawpaw1934]

Bearpaw and team?
It is possible there is better software out there. It is possible and upgrade would be nice....I don't know forum management and or operations, but I do know I enjoy the forum and appreciate all the work you and whomever put into it. Thank you! Keep up the good work. It is APPRECIATED! 

[netcoyote]

My only complaint is when I post pics from my iPhone, they come in sideways for some reason.
I thought I read a solution to this issue awhile ago, but damned if I can remember, 

Image file rotation problems are usually related to embedded metadata forcing a rotation when using an image on another platform from where it was created. It can usually be fixed by stripping the "EXIF" data from the file before sending it to the new platform. You'll need an image editor to strip the metadata if your photo software doesn't have an option to save it without the data. This may be more info than you wanted, but just wanted to let you know there is a way to  fix the problem.

[bearpaw]

My only complaint is when I post pics from my iPhone, they come in sideways for some reason.
I thought I read a solution to this issue awhile ago, but damned if I can remember, 

Image file rotation problems are usually related to embedded metadata forcing a rotation when using an image on another platform from where it was created. It can usually be fixed by stripping the "EXIF" data from the file before sending it to the new platform. You'll need an image editor to strip the metadata if your photo software doesn't have an option to save it without the data. This may be more info than you wanted, but just wanted to let you know there is a way to  fix the problem.

When on my iphone the simplest solution I have found for photos loading sideways or upside down is to take a screenshot and post the screenshot instead of the original.