RE: [cobalt-users] Searching the Archives - was (Webalizer)

["Jonothon Ortiz \(Xnext, Inc\)" <jon@xxxxxxxxx>]

>>I think it's fair to say that the archives are very powerful
>>to people who have been on the list for a whileand somewhat
>>confusing to newcomers. I'm not sure what the solution is
>>though.

I kinda have to disagree with this statement; although viewed with that idea
in mind it is accurate I have to say that, from my own experience, digging
through the archives is NOT difficult - just time consuming and something
that just needs to be experienced in order to maximize the results.

Just like any search engine, it's knowing WHAT keywords to search for with
the full knowledge that the results are NOT 100% accurate and you will have
to check subjects that may be or may not be similar to your original post
WILL eventually get you what you want.

A good example is a search for "viewing PKG"; you are NOT going to bring up
any subjects at first that say anything to that effect but you will find
several posts that say "tar xvzf something-something" (>chuckle< don't
remember verbatim what the posts are). Since I was already familiar with tar
and recognized the options I figured there was something worth looking into,
so  I did and voila - it was what I was looking for.

In a way this brings up another thought; a VERY good assistance is having at
least rudementary knowledge of *nix commands; in the previous example that
rudementary knowledge helped me identify a post that was similar to what I
needed that may have been disregarded had I not known what TAR is.

To sum up this LARGE bucket-o-change, the more you use the archives and your
machine the easier it's going to be. Sure, it's a bit time consuming at
first but once you get the hang of it you'll find items rather quickly.

(multiple .02)

Jonothon Ortiz
Xnext Inc.