Suggestions for VisaJourney

[jordanianprincess 0]

What would encourage people to read the material that has already been posted instead of using the forums as their only way to find information?

Seriously, I wish I knew the answer to that question! The guides are great and can answer most any question; its when you have something a bit more unusual and need to search the forums where I see problems arising. The results aren't really meaningful...you have to sift thorugh endless posts where your search words are highlighted - every stinking reply that has quoted those words! I find it really frustrating!

I think the real problem is that people just don't want to take the time to search on their own. Or I could be generous and say they just don't have the time.

I agree that the search function is way too limited. And part of the problem is that threads are often not titled appropriately. "K1 question" is not a good title, for example. I think expanding the moderation role to include making topic titles more transparent would be a good start.

Imagine if your search word was "Help!" lol

LMAO

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

The timeline section should now support people who entered under an alternate visa type and are filing for AOS, AP, EAD's, etc. The timeline section will allow you to not have to enter info on a visa if you select the "Other Visa" type and you can only fill out the AOS related items.

[lisaf 0]

What would encourage people to read the material that has already been posted instead of using the forums as their only way to find information?

how about a link (?) in the title bar that goes to a " top 10" (or whatever) faq's or posts for that topic? people can hit that before posting?

ie someone sees a topic for 693A forms can hit a button which goes to the no 1 answer for that topic.

or: any post with I-864 in the title can direct to same top faqs or last 10 posts ,and will probably find what they are looking for?

disclaimer: I am not a computer geek and have no idea how difficult any suggestion is

[jezebelseven 0]

Changing the search box so you can search for shorter strings and more specific strings. As it is you cannot search for common abbreviations like AOS or DS157, etc, etc, etc. It also doesn't differentiate between two search terms-- If you search for 'green' and 'socks', it will return anything with either term, when really I'm looking for a post that mentioned "green socks", not "my cat named socks", or "green grass". The search function, for me, has been nearly useless thanks to that. Even the standard of searching with ""s doesn't help at all. It also is fairly annoying that you have to wait 30 seconds to search again, when half the time the search didn't even complete because I forgot I can't search for such short strings.

Being able to edit your post after more than the tiny little 2 minute window or whatever it is it gives you would be nice. I understand a time limit but it could do with being lengthened IMHO.

Guides, forms, and other general information could REALLY do with being updated more often. I know it's probably not wise to create a wiki form because too many people with bad information could wreck it, but this is a case where I think the 'elders' idea would be great-- They could be contacted when updates need to be made. An example would be that currently one of the guides pages mention that P4 in London should be containing a payment slip, when they no longer do so. This generates a daily thread asking 'Omg where is my payment slip what do I do?!?!'. If the guides were actually correct, this might cut down on a lot of repeat 'duh' questions.

I strongly agree with moderators being able to change the topic titles to be more clear, ie, changing 'Omg help emergency' to 'Form B398 Question 12 when you are previously married'.

I hate the idea of limiting how many posts newbies are allowed to make. There are always newbies with legitimate new questions and I'd hate to see new relevant info being held off because of a post limit. I understand the premise of the idea but think its a last resort.

To those of you who want to block images in signatures, you may find the route I use helpful if you havne't done it already-- I use an ad blocker program for firefox and just often adblock any of the images that either bother me, annoy me, or are too large.

Edited February 6, 2007 by jezebelseven

[mRx 16]

There should be a new Q&A section called "questions that you shouldnt ask"

It should include....

Q: I got an email saying that they sent a request for further evidence, what do you think that they want?

A: More evidence

Q: My spouse is beating me, what should i do?

A: Get your hands off the keyboard, guard your face, get to a phone, and call the police. Their phone number is 9-1-1.

Q: I entered the US illegally through an underground waterslide, and have been living here happily for 10 years using a fake SSN, how can i get a visa and become legal?

A: Go to the local police department, present your faux-social card, and describe the underground waterslide.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

My all-time favorite is, "do I really need to meet my "fiance/fiancee" in person before filing the I-129F? The government is so mean!"

[rebeccajo 14]

My all-time favorite is, "do I really need to meet my "fiance/fiancee" in person before filing the I-129F? The government is so mean!"

I loved the thread about what 'free to marry' meant.

[brnidokiegurl 0]

Did anyone tell them sorry nooooooooo its comes with quite a price "not free"

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Let me just clarify one more time:

It is the FLAGRANTLY INCORRECT ANSWERS by new members that is far more of a concern to me than posts by new members that could be avoided if their research skills were better.

Why these people answer a BASIC question incorrectly is beyond me. Trying to be helpful? Trying to rack up boxes and hearts? I don't know.

Some people just like to hear themselves talk...freaks of nature.

[Marilyn. 340]

Changing the search box so you can search for shorter strings and more specific strings. As it is you cannot search for common abbreviations like AOS or DS157, etc, etc, etc. It also doesn't differentiate between two search terms-- If you search for 'green' and 'socks', it will return anything with either term, when really I'm looking for a post that mentioned "green socks", not "my cat named socks", or "green grass". The search function, for me, has been nearly useless thanks to that. Even the standard of searching with ""s doesn't help at all. It also is fairly annoying that you have to wait 30 seconds to search again, when half the time the search didn't even complete because I forgot I can't search for such short strings.

Being able to edit your post after more than the tiny little 2 minute window or whatever it is it gives you would be nice. I understand a time limit but it could do with being lengthened IMHO.

Guides, forms, and other general information could REALLY do with being updated more often. I know it's probably not wise to create a wiki form because too many people with bad information could wreck it, but this is a case where I think the 'elders' idea would be great-- They could be contacted when updates need to be made. An example would be that currently one of the guides pages mention that P4 in London should be containing a payment slip, when they no longer do so. This generates a daily thread asking 'Omg where is my payment slip what do I do?!?!'. If the guides were actually correct, this might cut down on a lot of repeat 'duh' questions.

I strongly agree with moderators being able to change the topic titles to be more clear, ie, changing 'Omg help emergency' to 'Form B398 Question 12 when you are previously married'.

I hate the idea of limiting how many posts newbies are allowed to make. There are always newbies with legitimate new questions and I'd hate to see new relevant info being held off because of a post limit. I understand the premise of the idea but think its a last resort.

To those of you who want to block images in signatures, you may find the route I use helpful if you havne't done it already-- I use an ad blocker program for firefox and just often adblock any of the images that either bother me, annoy me, or are too large.

the edit limit has increased.... I think the edit has no time limit right now....

also for the search function.. if you are searching for AOS put a * after.... example: AOS*

---

and I just did a search for DS157 and I got some results..... ---

and if you want to search for green socks put this in the search engine "green socks"

Example: ---

please don;t link to searches... -ewok

Edited February 7, 2007 by Captain Ewok

[doodlebug 3]

Q: I entered the US illegally through an underground waterslide, and have been living here happily for 10 years using a fake SSN, how can i get a visa and become legal?

A: Go to the local police department, present your faux-social card, and describe the underground waterslide.

:lol:

[jezebelseven 0]

the edit limit has increased.... I think the edit has no time limit right now....

There's some sort of time limit because it's not allowing me to edit my last post now. If it's been lengthened, that must be recent...

and I just did a search for DS157 and I got some results..... ---

I meant DS 157, but the * wildcard does fix that... however, I wouldn't call that common knowledge, at least for a large portion of posters here. It'd probably be more user friendly to do away with any limits on it imho... For example, searching for "letter of intent" still kicks back errors, and even I didn't think to search for "letter of* intent", if that would even work. I don't think it just did when I tried it.

and if you want to search for green socks put this in the search engine "green socks"

Example:---

I swear to god I've tried doing it like that a billion times over and it doesn't ever return however it did for you. I don't understand it. I even searched that exact term, with quotes, before posting this, just to verify somehow I haven't been screwing up all this time, and got about 200 different topics talking about random things mentioning 'green' and random things mentioning 'socks', as well as the occasional topic about 'green socks' scattered in.

Edited February 7, 2007 by Captain Ewok

[Marilyn. 340]

the edit limit has increased.... I think the edit has no time limit right now....

There's some sort of time limit because it's not allowing me to edit my last post now. If it's been lengthened, that must be recent...

and I just did a search for DS157 and I got some results..... ---

I meant DS 157, but the * wildcard does fix that... however, I wouldn't call that common knowledge, at least for a large portion of posters here. It'd probably be more user friendly to do away with any limits on it imho... For example, searching for "letter of intent" still kicks back errors, and even I didn't think to search for "letter of* intent", if that would even work. I don't think it just did when I tried it.

and if you want to search for green socks put this in the search engine "green socks"

Example:---

I swear to god I've tried doing it like that a billion times over and it doesn't ever return however it did for you. I don't understand it. I even searched that exact term, with quotes, before posting this, just to verify somehow I haven't been screwing up all this time, and got about 200 different topics talking about random things mentioning 'green' and random things mentioning 'socks', as well as the occasional topic about 'green socks' scattered in.

I see the problem.... you need to use these " not this '......

and for the limit on the search.. I could imagine if there was no limit that would slow down the search a lot.... and Captain Ewok mentioned once that the search is what slows down VJ sometimes....

*ok something is screwed up here

Edited February 7, 2007 by MarilynP

[jezebelseven 0]

I see the problem.... you need to use these " not this '......

and for the limit on the search.. I could imagine if there was no limit that would slow down the search a lot.... and Captain Ewok mentioned once that the search is what slows down VJ sometimes....

*ok something is screwed up here

I didn't use 's when I did the search-- I used "s. I just use 's in my posts. I know the difference between them. Thanks though. As I've said, I don't know the reasoning, but the Advance Usage for search rules just do not always work properly for me. I've tried the plusses and minuses, tried the quotes, and sometimes it gives me what I was looking for, sometimes not.

We have to weigh the slow down versus what giving way to the slow down would cause. Is the point to keep the site running super fast, or to have access to relevant info available to everyone? When we rely on so many abbreviations and common short words, it just makes sense to be able to search for those terms as relatively easy as possible, without figuring out the secret code, as it were, to searching for things? Maybe it's just me, but a wildcard like * would seem to slow down searches more than me searching for the words "affidavit of support", versus searching for "affidavit of(1234567890qwertyuioipasdfghjklzxcvbnm -=`[]\;',./)bananapenguinbooksmellyrockblueglowingcdhammocksupport". I see the point of people not just being able to search the word "of", but if I'm including two other terms, it should realize I'm searching for an exact string of words. Perhaps some way to allow only certain often used 'short' terms-- For example, if it lets us search 'AOS', but throws a fit at me searching for merely 'hi', I'm down with that.

Not to be rude, but if it slows the site down that much allowing us to use search properly, then maybe it's time to upgrade servers. It's a bit silly to nag at people to 'use the search button' when doing so is so handicapped that it gives back bad results sometimes. I dunno. I'm still confused why it likes you using "quotes" but if I use them, it selectively ignores me. Maybe it's only handicapped for me.

Ewok-- You broke my post.

Another idea, if not having been mentioned yet, would be the ability to rate threads. The most helpful threads would be 5 starred, the ones filled with bad info and trolls would be a 0.

[Jenn! 918]

It's not just you, Angela. Quotation marks have never worked for me either.