The confusion comes from this:

If you are on main/index => It searches the entire site
If you are in a subforum (General chemistry, etc) => It only searches that section
ditto with child boards, and other things.

yep absolutely!  and as using the search engine plays an important part in participating in these forums, the problem is that these characteristics of SMF search engines aren't 'expected' by the average wasp (f1 ) and when the search results come up with weird answers like "maybe were you looking for 'wackier' when I've entered 'wacker' it causes some confusion, to say the least

  which would almost be funny except the reasons for his occurring were never "clear or evident" and subsequently 'unresolvable'.  I asked about what was going on but never got a clear answer until recently, but I think this was more my fault for not (being able to) asking a clear question.

    Why should/would anyone be familiar with these idiosyncrasies of SMF search engines? I cant imagine they would be, and this is no-ones fault, but if you dont know these factors it can be a source of mindfuck!    I know it caused me much grief for a few years 

This is why I think adding this information below the rules or somewhere where the new wasp is likely to see it can't hurt and would possibly help.

and imo it would be good to point this ^^ out 

And as to lughs comment, yes matey I was implying the collective re: 25posts.  Unfortunately I couldn't find the thread discussing this topic to which you're referring

  I joined there so I could look at some of the things you linked to it here...BUT....a number of those links are 'off limits' to fresh as a 'new' member  

  AND some of those links are in threads here where newbie topics are being discussed where the references have been made re; stuff the new member want's to know FIRST before doing, and therefore avoiding those classic newbie errors esp asking about things that have already been discussed to death and CAN be found (IF the member knows how/has access )

  And having to make 25 posts seems really excessive, and as I cant either find/have access to the thread you mention lugh, I thought I'd ask 'why' here, as it's something I'm sure you could clear up easily, and as I imagine the 'reasons' have been well considered and I wouldn't want to 'second guess' the thinking behind it.

plus other wasps might benefit from the knowledge

 and my curiousity hopefully sated

thanx lugh     Yeah I discovered only yesterday that the links I referred to now do work for me  subsequently I spent all day there and was impressed and educated

One thing I did learn from spending all that time looking around, is the 'differences' beween these two sites, and now I see why many wasps dont want this place to cater to the 'newer noobs' 

It was the first time I had been able to access the place completely and I was impressed, especially with the amount of very good information for the newbie    as well as the wealth of information in general. I will certainly be reading much more there

thanx for the reply lugh

ps. even though I'm not the flaming type, I don't mind 'constructive flaming'

There needs to be a method to upload files in the mail service of this forum....similar what the collective has on theirs, i see no reason why it would be difficult since both forums use the simple machine format.....java

There needs to be a method to upload files in the mail service of this forum....similar what the collective has on theirs, i see no reason why it would be difficult since both forums use the simple machine format.....java

Vesp would need to activate this function with full Admin privileges.

Agreed, its a real pain in the butt having to upload to a third party site. Also, what happened to the FTP server? Ive been away for a while and I remember it was very practical to use back then. For sharing efficiently and obvious privacy issues.

Vesp has disabled it due to copy right concerns with uploaded content (e-books, etc.) with the site host.

I will try to install this feature in a bit. Will need to find the SMF addon first.

Unfortunately the mod has to be manually installed for this version of SMF:

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=parse