Here’s a suggestion… get back to pushin that rock!
No… actually I sorta like the separation thing, could that be implemented?
Dun’s right… but sometimes you don’t know exactly you’re searching for, maybe you just wanna browse.
What has been suggested - adding another set of forums - would be just as tedious to wade through as optimizing the search feature. I don’t see much of a benefit, though it wouldn’t suck or anything.
Yes, exactly my thoughts, sometimes you may just want to browse through Philosophy of Mind threads and it would be a shame if our suggestions were not to be taken seriously.
I just searched for Philosophy Of Mind and my results were way off, infact i did not manage to locate any Philosophy of Mind threads.
ps. If my attempts here result in futile effort then I’ll be sure to head back to the hill where I will find my rock 
Sisyphus0
If you’re looking for ‘philosophy of mind’, try looking through the psychology forum. The forum titles, as I’ve come to understand them, are more basic guidelines than ‘topic distribution’ per se; i.e., it’s all pretty much ‘philosophy’, just with subtle organization: the psych forum doesn’t explicitly deal with the ‘academic subject’ of psychology.
Not to mention, you could always start your own thread if you don’t find what you’re looking for on the first few pages of a forum. That is kinda the whole idea, after all.
Thankyou. 
Sisyphus0
This isn’t answering your question Sisy but I’ve found the google ‘site search’ feature is better than the standard ILP search Dunamis suggested.
In the normal google search bar, type in the word (or phrase using quotation marks) you are searching for then type in “site:www.ilovephilosophy.com” to indicate where you want to search.
eg
epistemology site:www.ilovephilosophy.com
or
epistemology russel site:www.ilovephilosophy.com
or
“philosophy of mind” site:www.ilovephilosophy.com
I prefer this over ILP’s search because the results are often ranked better, it’s more direct and it provides a small summary where the search term appears in the sentence (which helps when deciding if its worth clicking).
Would it be useful to all to have the google sitesearch feature available from the main forum page?
that sounds excellent
-Imp
Done - maybe you can write a sticky about it somewhere.
very cool! done and done!
-Imp
Bessy’s suggestion on moderation.
Only ask someone to be a moderator if you give them names like:
Moderator #1
Moderator #2
Moderator #3
Please allow all of our wonderful moderators to be PEOPLE, let them keep their screennames and sign on at a seperate time as the #'d moderator. We must stop thinking of them as inhuman, pitifully stupid or godlike. Give them back what they deserve…
[size=150]anonymity.[/size]
Thanks. This means there’s now no need to input “site:www.ilovephilosophy.com” after the search term.
Not a bad idea Bessy. Hiding behind a “moderator” name may have some drawbacks though? Its more difficult to complain if you think a decision is bias when you don’t know who’s behind the name?
[thinking]???[/thnking]
All mods would be seen by their writing style within minutes, but the fun of guessing would be a great sport. The next best thing to moderators showing no bias or humanity:
Computers taking over all humans permanently. Hmmmm. 1984 seems pretty mild. 
Its not a bad suggestion. Ben would be able to assign a particular shell to a particular mod. It might detract from the friendliness though.
Yeah, the friendliness is just choking me up.
You can disguse a writing style easily enough…
besides they mods wouldn’t have to say alot I wouldn’t think. They could do their forum writing with their normal alias’.
The only things they would really have to say are things like ‘this has been locked’ ‘you have been banned’ ‘Gobbo shut the fuck up’ etc. PM’s might be a bit different… but whatever, no system is gonna be foolproof
Is this Sarcasm day or something!?
Sarcastic? No. Completely serious. This is a simple solution. Mods get two different names for two different purposes - as a mod and as themselves. Hey, just think of the pricks they could be then. We would get away with nothing.
I must say (and I have said it before) that there is a happy medium between a boring site and a really provocative and interesting one. I love the arguments and the sarcasm. Hey, I live for it, but that’s me. I write on the Beethoven site (ok, boys, I am a freaking genius there) Anyway, the mods there are so strict that even a slight off-color reference is reason for hysteria. What makes ILP great is the seriousness flecked with the mundane and ridiculous. I say mundane should be a bit nuts, and that way we know that the upper areas are forbidden for the ranting and ad homs. What’s a little ad hom with a politically correct smiley face anyway?
Thanks Imp, my efforts were not so futile after all…
Sisyphus0