Request for better mod search engine

[Miller]

Would like to be able to search by author. It's bad to look through past skin threads, see a skin you like, and then try to search through numerous T72 skins attempting to decipher which one is the one that's pictured in the old thread.

Would be nice if they had little thumbnail pics too.

[Homer]

The thumbnails are generated only if the download file is a graphic. For example, if you were to upload a .BMP file, you would be able to see a preview thumbnail for it and this is why you dont see anything for the zip files

Yeah, the search feature for downloads is totally limited... something that might work for you is sort the download list by date and reference the date of the post of what you are looking for.

[silent-one]

I agree, finding a mod you want is a nightmare here. often cant tell which author. Normally refers you to the forum to see a pic. theres got to be a better way of doing this. Look at any of the flight sim sites like combatace or lomacfiles. you can always get a pic of what your looking for and search by type of plane. Everything just appears chucked togeather here.Im not ungrateful,I love the mods here. Its just as a noob its harder than it needs to be to grasp whats out there.

[Sean]

Miller,
I dont know what to do about this - theres a half finished function in the downloads area that was supposed to allow users to upload a screenshot, but I've never been able to get it to work....

silent-one,
The downloads section is pretty much the same one any nuke based site uses. You have to know what you are looking for, and the person submitting it has to label it well. Otherwise you will not find what you are looking for.

In general, I've requested that people put anything they want kept in the downloads section, not attach them here in the forums. Theres been a warning thread posted in one of the forums for a year or two now. When the time comes to upgrade forums, and theres no import function for the attachments, they will all be lost and all those files and pictures will be deleted.

I'd be interested in seeing how other people do it, but it would be good to get some specific links. Combatace is just a forum, with a search engine - same as here. lomacfiles.com doesnt appear to be anything but a collection of random links, put up by a domain registrar to try to make some money.

[Homer]

Think of the file search as conventional artillery.... it comes close and if youre lucky, you will get a hit. "File For Effect" (Sean made me say this)

[Dachs]

I have absolutely no idea how it works, but try to take a look at http://www.avsim.com/
They have a pretty well functioning file library, and a very effective search function.

PS. You have to register now, but it's free.

-Dachs

[stuart666]

http://www.flightsim.com have what I consider to be an excellent file hosting system. The only downside to it is that you have to register, and that at high download times, unless you pay they wont let you in.(though that is FS2004 we are talking about. SB pro isnt that popular. Yet.)

Most of the files include a thumbnail when they are uploaded, so that the server can give you an idea of what you are downloading.