[zeestephen]

We need a better search engine.

I estimate that 50% of my searches do not return a result, or, at least a recent result.

I search entire titles, then I search one or two individual key words.

And my posts still get pulled.

As long as posts are separated by a couple hours, what difference does it make?

In fact, there are important posts that hundreds of readers miss every day because of the “one post” rule.

As a reader, how am I supposed to search for posts that I don’t even know about?

Topical searches help somewhat, but every time I read at Free Republic I find new information or new articles I never would have searched for.

[shibumi]

Maybe this will help -

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3137836/posts

[cynwoody]

We need a better search engine.

I estimate that 50% of my searches do not return a result, or, at least a recent result.

Just use Google.

E.g., site:freerepublic.com cowbellistan

Bingo! Looks like it's already posted!

[imardmd1]

Sometimes you search, find nothing on your topic, then start making your post, only to find that someone else had the same idea while you were putting your post format together.

Make sure you search on a key word or phrase from your topic title, and/or for the article's author.

Make sure you have all the data on your article--including the html-tagged excerpt--ready for posting, and do your search just before preparing your submission.