The 4 character limit is a limit set by IPB that is not changable to my knowledge. As for the amount of topics, it's just like any other board. Members make topics, people reply. Why delete them when they're contributing topics? They index trap17 and some members use them for reference. Even the old ones that aren't posted in can still be used for reference.



If you think it's going to offend someone, don't say it. Don't even say "no offence".

The search function is something which doesn't apply to some of the topics we are looking for and sometimes could be deemed useless. For e.g. lets say I want to search for AVI, I can't possibly be typing Audio Video Interlaced ... etc am I right? This was something which I have been talking about for quite a long time, and sadly this is the way it has got to be, you have to search for at least 4 characters. Not user friendly in my opinion.

I agree that that the forum is way too messy, very often you find repetitive topics in the same forum in the first page itself. In the Mobile forum, you could have several instances of the same topic asking about which is the best mobile phone. I don't really understand why we couldn't organize it better, perhaps to employ a moderator for each particular forum so that they can clean up the mess. We can't always be relying on Opaque, Buffalo ... etc to come editing our post, telling us to post to the guidelines and adhere to the rules ... etc

I can't believe someone is actually complaining that the Trap has too many topics to post on. I think you should take this dire issue up with OpaQue so he knows he's been moving in the wrong direction all this time! I mean, it's completely pointless to have too many choices.

I'm surprised..Yes, Opaque and Buffalo do a lot of work here on the forums, but they're not the only ones moderating the website. There are a couple of us, and we do our best to take care of spam. There are many reports and day that can be taken care of within a few minutes to an hour. We can't catch everything, it's impossible. That's why we do rely a bit on reports.

My point is that, we have more than 50 forums including subbed and are the few good moderators we have on the site sufficient to block out repeated topics and actually organize the forum in a neat way? I do appreciate the effort of our moderators but I don't think it is enough. These guys can work their asses off, but at the end of the day, considering the scale of Trap17, it isn't going to be enough.

Another major consideration on the 4 or 5 character limit to the search function is the Server Resources required to reduce that limit. The Servers are "shared", so every time you do a search, quite a few of the Server Resources are committed to the Search capabilities. If you reduce the character spread on the search pattern, the resources required to perform the search with fewer characters is greater than a simple ratio of the number of characters. Each character you drop geometrically adds to the requirements, so there is that to consider as well. The trade off for the search size versus the resources available versus the Server demand for those resources.
This is a MySql thing.

I disagree, this forum is extremely good. I mean sure there are some repetive topics but those members who make these topics usually get warned, so it is not a problem. There are some crappy forums out there with loads of spam, just go to domains-info.net and compare their forums to Traps. So even though there are a lot of topics Trrap is good at catching the repetitive ones and warning the member, or even deleting the post itself.

What we do for Trap17 is plenty - sure more can be done. But please remember, we're all volunteer moderators. We aren't paid, we moderator because we enjoy it. We're also all on different timezones. We also have lives of our own. We need to worry about family issues first, and not be moderating Trap17 24/7. If we weren't doing our job well enough, there'd be many more reports then there actually are. If you have an issue with a duplicate topic, then report it. And we'll take care of it.

Fear not, overwhelmed semite! After some time you may find yourself feeling completely different. My beef is actually quite opposite from yours, in as much as there are topics I'd like to post on but can't find an appropriate location. For example, I feel there should be a forum, or at least a sub-forum on Religion, as well as Philosophy. There is certainly enough interest in these subjects to warrant their inclusion. Yes, there the so-called "spirituality" sub-forum under Health and Fitness which caters to trendy "new age" drivel and it's narrow-minded adherents, but this is hardly the place for free-thinking intellectuals to discuss Plato's "Republic," 19th century German philosophy, or the incredible legacy Catholicism has has on Western thought. No, if anything, Trap 17 could benefit from more, not less opportunities for unhindered discourse. I have been assured these topics may be included