I didn’t know where Qadgop got it, but I did know he didn’t originate it, since that’s the source of the title for Asimov’s novel The Gods Themselves.
Yes, yes, it was derivative and I should have cited my source. Schiller via Asimov, modified by me.
You ruined a perfectly good chance for “April Fools” with the :smack:
I think if the search defaulted to “pick your dates”, instead of “any date”, it might make a difference.
Check it out yourself, if you click advanced search, the “any date” option is default, and I bet a lot of people don’t even notice that. If I want to search for a week old thread, I have to change that.
I propose a new Board Rule, where no one should suggest enhancements to the core functionality of the vBulletin software unless they 1) have actual working experience with vBulletin, 2) have actual working experience with MySQL, PHP, and Apache, 3) can demonstrate such knowledge by past posts or references to their experience, and 4) have read and understand the numerous past posts by the SDMB Staff which say clearly that the Chicago Reader is almost certainly not going to apply custom modifications to the installation on this site.
Seriously, although they’re well-meaning, threads of “I don’t really know anything about databases and stuff but this looks easy, or at least I’m sure someone else could put in the unpaid time research and implement it, because I’m just the idea guy” need to stop. They needed to stop back in the Clinton Administration some time, but hey better late than never. I propose that the Administration take this Rule suggestion to their e-mail circle and discuss.
Actually, I’d suggest a slight modification to the rule (which I know was offered somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but bear with me): People should be free to offer any suggestions they like, but by doing so, they implicitly agree that when they get the response “it isn’t that simple and if you knew the system you’d understand why” they will accept it without further argument.
Oh, please…so this month’s coffee mugs for the mods are only gold plated instead of solid gold. It won’t kill them to make that little sacrifice this one time…sheesh.
Gold plated? I’m still holding out hope for rhodium.
Gen-u-wine rhodium. Only the best for our staffers!
But it’s so easy to hide behind the “it’s so complicated, you just don’t understand” excuse.
I’ve seen many cases, on this board and in real life, where someone objects to any change with “it’s too complicated” or “it would be a disaster”, and when one finally looks into it, it is not that big a deal after all.
One recent example was the ability to edit posts. There were several threads asking for this feature, and I read many responses from Mods saying that it would be a “disaster”, since people would be able to go back and eliminate evidence for stuff they wish they had not said, among other “terrible things” that would happen if the feature was enabled.
Now, the feature has been enabled, and, lo and behold, nothing bad happened. The board is humming along just fine.
I’m not commenting on turning on or off of existing software features. Only making changes to the software itself. And it’s not even a matter of whether or not it’s complicated; there is a corporate directive that customizations to the SDMB will be kept to an absolute minimum, or even nonexistent. And I’m not speaking for anyone official, etc., etc., only repeating what has been officially posted innumerable times.
However…unless you are a programmer or have administered a bulletin board, you might not know which requests are simple, soft switches and which ones are hard, heavy hacks.
Stick with those cheap gold cups, and ask em to apply the price differential to hardware. I’ve had coffee from a solid gold mug, and it’s perfectly drinkable. 
How do you know if it is not an existing feature of vBulletin to use an external search engine? (many software programs provide default solutions for some functions, but enable the user to provide the path to an external program that provides a better functionality)
In general, should members be fully educated in the details of what vBulletin can or cannot do “by turning on or off existing features” before making requests?
Ha! Teach me to use an outdated reference.
I remember when rhodium was junk. Why so 'spensive now?
Look, here’s the bottom line:
If we had better we’d be offering it to you. We’re not here to make your life more miserable; to the contrary,we want you to enjoy your time here. We want you to make posts and read posts and be a fully participating subscribing member of this merry little community.
To that end whatever we can do to make this a good experience, then that’s what we want to do. That is in large part what we have now. Everything in the way of system goodies that I could turn on that enhanced your functionality, that is turned on. We have turned off that which does not enhance functionality and/or causes trouble, either for us as moderators or for the system as a whole. What’s left is what there is.
I’m not going to claim it’s an incandescent perfect experience neither but it is the best we can come up with what we have happening now. It is – for now – the best we can do.
There will be times when the system is better and times when performance just sucks, just like it is everywhere else in cyberspace. We can’t claim credit when it’s great and we can’t accept blame when it sucks, we’re pretty much doing the same thing through it all.
Don’t take it personally.
I run vBulletin and have for 6 years. Unless the newest version has a built-in link to an external search engine, I’m unaware of any such link. Do you have a cite that it does have it as a feature? It’s possible to make an external link, sure. I’ve done similar things for my own board, linking to the database directly from applications I’ve written. But it also took a lot of hard work too, database programming and PHP work.
All I’m saying is that at times the requests of “I don’t know much about anything but I’ve got this idea. Why can’t you make it work?” are irritating. I know that people mean well, and I’m not wanting to shut down discussion, but seriously, there needs to be at least some thought and research needed before making a suggestion. Otherwise, it becomes just like a typical GQ question that could have been answered with a 5-second Google search. Maybe I was just especially cranky today, I don’t know.
Besides, the other points previously posted by me sort of trump this discussion.
Production is only about 20 tons a year, mostly from South africa and Russia, so there’s no big stockpiles lying around. The major bulk use for the metal is in catalytic converters for automobiles. China’s automotive industry is booming, and other nations are strengthening emissions standards.
I had some oil of rhodium wood once. IIRC it was very expensive. However, it has nothing whatsoever to do with rhodium the metal…
Whoah! Whoah! Chill out! 
Not everyone is well versed in how vBulletin works, let alone run a message board. I can program in C++ and am quite computer literate but I didn’t feel like reading through the technical manuals for vBulletin just to try and figure out what kind of algorithm it is using for search.
Also, my question is not a simple yes or no. You have to know the inner workings of how vBulletin searches to answer it. You also know how to write code for vBulletin to know if it is easy or hard to do.
I will look at the search parameters to see if I can fiddle with it some.
I did a while back and got it to seach within more narrow parameters and that eased some of the burden of searching. It got wiped out in an upgrade and we got busy with other stuff and I had put off trying again because I thought another upgrade would be happening and it all would be for nothing.
But I don’t think an upgrade is happening any time soon – not to say it wouldn’t, could happen any time but it would be a surprise to me – maybe I can back up my data somewhere so if it did we’d not lose what I come up with.
I’ll look and see what I can do. Please bear with me as I check it out.