[awebb]

***YES I KNOW THE PICS ARE MASSIVE, I'M GONNA FIS-IT!!!***

Alright so recently I've been acting like an overweight E-thug know-it-all (I'm a big enough person to admit it). So this thread is aimed at hopefully rectifying a common problem we have here on DSO.

I constantly get young gentlemen asking me "How are you able to find information on this forum and I am not?", aside from the fact that I'm a superior man, the answer is plain and simple. I know how to search.

So that's what I'm going to do, help you help yourself. I'm not the most knowledgeable about the intricacies of the internal combustion engine nor do I know what trim turbo will work best for you, but if there is one thing I've learned how to do in my life it's search for the answer.

So I'll start off by using Google:

1) I want to know how to get more HP out of my baller mad tyte D15B7, so what do I search for? [How to get more horsepower out of my d15 civic], nope that's far to wordy. It's going to return pages and pages of useless crap. Your query is not going to benefit from having a long phrase, most of those words Google will just throw out. So here's what we do, strip down the statement to it's barest core. How about doing a search for [D15B7 hp gain "D-series.org"], this will yield a smaller more defined list.

On top of that whenever you type quotation marks ("") Google will search for those EXACT words, so if it doesn't contain the phrase "D-series.org" then it's not going to show up in the search.

2) But wait, I did that and I only saw one D-series.org link?

I know, what you're looking for is the lite blue link that reads [More results for D-series.org>>]. Click that bad boy.

3) There you have it, look at all those awesome DSO links. I'll even give you a little hint, if you middle click on the link you can open a new tab with each website in it. This will allow you to scan over links, open quick, and keep scrolling downward. After you've reached the end of the page you can then begin sorting through the open tabs that you've got. Look for long posts or different phrases (something to refine the search next time, like swapping out the word "fluctuating" idle for "bouncy" idle)

 

[awebb]

Now to search DSO:

1) Say you're in the forum portal (you know that big place with all shiny subforums) and you wanna find out how to make your D15B7 faster (yes we're still on the D15B7 power gain trip). We start out by clicking the "Search" command next to the "New Posts" command on the top toolbar. But do we just do our search from there?

ABSOLUTELY NOT, I'll explain why later (look for the * ).

So once the "Search" drop-down menu has appeared select the "Advanced Search option". I find the un-advanced search vastly cluttered.

2) Keep in mind, I'm posting this for n00bs.

*Once you're in the "Advanced" search you can specify a number of things to refine your query. In the non-advanced you're literally looking for every instance of every word entered in every forum, not a smart move for a quick answer.

There are two intial categories that you can populate before doing your DSO query.

(1) Keywords: Just the same as google, pick out the core words of what you're searching for and search for them. If the search looks like it's to broad then don't be afraid of searching for only those phrases in the title (you can select this option from the drop-down menu below the keywords box).

Unfortunately, the "Keywords" search doesn't use quotation marks the same way Google does. So, for instance, if you had a specific phrase like "strong black man with soft hands" that you wanted to look up, it's going to return a TON of crap.

(2) Names: You can either search for phrase + person as it pertains to post (like the number of times I've posted IACV) or you can search for the phrase + person as it pertains to thread titles (like if you wanted to find out "cam specs" from something Transzex posted).

3) What happens if you can't remember ole dudes name who made that post (I personally can't remember what the last 3-4 digits in Staypuff's name are to save my life), so just type in the first few letters. A drop down menu will appear and you can select the members name from there.

4) Here's one I dunno if a lot of people know about, once we've specified that we want to see all posts with "D15B7 power HP" contained in them we need to specify which subforum we want to look in. We can select ALL the forums, which is a horrible idea, or we can select only the forums that apply to us. In this case I select "Naturally Aspirated" and "Engine Building" by holding down "Ctrl" and multi-selecting the two. This means you don't have to do one search per forum, you can do one search over multiple forums that are applicable to the knowledge you need.

Note: I chose to use "power HP" because often times people ask, "I'm lookin to make more power how much HP should X get me", thinking along those lines will help in searching.

5) So after a while I find this thread and it looks like it's got tons of great info, AWESOME. I'm done right, nope. I've now got to sort through this thread.

 

[awebb]

6) Now despite the fact that the initial post is dripping with good info, I want to find stuff that only applies to D15B7's. There are two different ways to go about this in any given thread.

A little know feature is hitting "Ctrl+F", this will open up a "Find" command in most any software. For instance it works for Adobe, Word, Firefox, IE, etc...

When this is open you can search for any words on that page but only on that page, it won't search the whole thread for you.

7) Well I didn't find anything about D15B7's on the first page, do I have to open each page as a new tab via a middle click and do the Ctrl+F thing there? Nope, there is a "Search this Thread" command on the lower toolbar (the command is next to the "Thread Tools" command). Click it and a drop down appears that will allow you to search hundreds and thousands of pages for just one simple word/phrase.

8) BAM!!! Answers to D15B7 questions. Homie's got all the normal stuff done and he's wanting to take it a step further, but does this answer the exact question you had to begin with, "horsepower gains out of a D15B7"?

Maybe it does maybe it doesn't, but you can take the knowledge you've gained and search for high compression builds. Maybe they'll say something about cams and springs and port sizes and etc... in the thread you find when you search for that. And in the end you'll have either A) the answer you're looking for or B) a great start to a thread.

Mod's this is intended to help not be a slap in the face to anyone, so if you feel like locking it go ahead but this is me actually trying to go out of my way to help people.

If you guys want to add anything to this (tips or tricks) go for it.

Also, sorry about the HUGE pics. I'll work on getting the image size down tomorrow cause it's 1 am here and I'm tired.


Words of Wisdom from Zen Chameleon:

(Before I start lemme say I did edit some of this just to try to clarify some points)

"Learn the Lingo"
I know when I first started one thing I had a problem with was not knowing what abbreviations meant or what some key terms were. I got in the habbit right away to google search them (then I found THIS THREAD). It doesn't help you to read through a thread if you don't understand what you are reading. It also doesn't help if you're using the wrong terms to describe your issue when asking for help. Plus these will help by giving you more searching key words.

"So many websites so little time"
I hunted down as many honda forum sites as I could find and saved them into my favorites right away. My first goal on each site was to read or at least skim through stickies, F&Q, and archives, I would get an idea how to navigate each one to make it easier to know where to go and often testing out thier search bar just to see what info they had to offer that was dirrected towards my needs. After doing this I could narrow down which ones I liked the best for whatever multitude of reasons. After I narrow down which ones I think can help me the most I'll take the next step. It's just wise to throw your net out as far as you can reach.

*I (awebb) actually still do this too, I either build a full blown excel spreadsheet categorizing the tabs by the sections (body/drivetrain/motor) then post links in there with a breif description or I build a running email of links and add to it each time I stumble on something useful. The second option allows me to search through my Gmail account for subject matter very quickly.

"Subscribe to Thread"
This is my favorite thread tool. I use this to save threads that I skimmed so I can read through them better at a later time, or even save them because I havn't read it at all yet. But what I use it for the most is to have my own personal archive, after subscribing to a thread you have the option to put it in folders that you can name. Some of my folders are named things like
"Mini-Me info", "Build Threads", "D16Z6 specs", "Engine Building", "Library Info", or whatever, of course I use the "Subscribed thread folder" to stage threads untill I put them into the folder they belong in.

"Guru's"
These guys are hard to get info out of right? Wrong...all you have to do is hang out long enough and you'll know who most of them are. How does that help? Well the great thing about forums is info is almost never "lost", all you have to do is find a few that really know about whatever subject your trying to find info on and simply click thier profile, once in the back door find "Show All Statistics" this will lead you to every post and every thread that person has done on that site under that account. I usually start with threads started by that member and dig deap if need be, and then if I must I'll even dig through thier posts if I feel it will lead me to the ansewers I'm looking for. You can learn a endless amount of info about said Guru or even regular members by doing this, and chances are if you had found a person that was real helpful to you before then they will have tons of info hidden here. It's like thier personal archive that you can tap into. Just don't read mine, i'd prolly look like an ass lol.

*I (awebb) would like to add to this, BE HUMBLE when you ask a senior member for help and try to display that you have searched on your own before you barade them with questions. PMing one of the said Guru's with "hey dood I knw u knw ur shit... what kinda fluid should I use n my trany" will only get your request ignored and deleted. Yes that's actually a real PM that one of the senior members got and forwarded to me, and yes it got deleted before it was replied to.

 

[Tw34k]

First!

To say how awesome this is.

Edit: already decided to put it in sig.

 

[Sammo115]

Must spread the Reputation around before giving it to Austin again.

 

[Pata]

my "y7 to y8 intake manifold swap" has been legendary so far :TU:

 

[2drz6]

Edit: already decided to put it in sig.

beat me to it.... dang it...... must spread love before giving it to awebb again

 

[12ozwrecker]

i couldnt get past the first paragragh.
Awebb gots to use the return key a lil more often.
i Whole heartedly agree with the post. but i cant deal with the size on my HP mini....lol.

 

[BeerDrinkin]

Awesome post, and it just may help. awebb for pres

 

[Sammo115]

You know what would be pretty nifty, If alot of us start putting this in our sigs. LMAO. Its almost like. BAM! in your face. How can you miss the link type thing.

 

[BigJnWorldWide]

Well done good sir! Rep rep rep if it lets me.

 

[4D2Envy]

Rep!

 

[mattliston]

Awebb, top 3 baby. top 3!

:bigrofl:

 

[remoer]

So since we can't flame noobs due to some of them are noobs I will be linking the fuck out of this threads for noobs.

Good thread a Webb.

 

[sheasekhatch]

cool story bro. :bigok:

 

[©urbow]

Nice!

 

[awebb]

Thanks guys!!!

I fixed the image size and I really hope this does help, cause there is a bit of an art to searching. We'll see.

And I really appreciate you guys linking this in your sig's!

 

[Staypuff578]

Oh my sweet lord, epic thread.

Will be Sig'd soon.

 

[BeerDrinkin]

now in sig

 

[Zen Chameleon]

Great detailed writeup!!!
Should this be in the DIY section? lol J/K :TU: