Forum Search Functions In General

[Setec Astronomy]

Why is it that so many forums block the search function to non-members? I was looking at a make-specific vehicle forum with 65,000 threads, and couldn't do a search because I wasn't a member. What sense does that make? So I become a member, do a search, don't find what I want, and never come back? Do forum administrators like this because it pumps up the membership numbers and that helps them with advertising? I don't get it.

[theeloved1]

I will never understand this either...

One of the big car audio forums got rid of search capabilities all together for like 6 months to "save bandwidth"...what good is a forum without a search function??? Needless to say, they put the function back because the traffic decreased greatly on the site.

[Setec Astronomy]

Plus, maybe I would become a member if I could find threads that were of interest to me.

[Danase]

Well, think of it this way too. The more members that are on these forums the more money a forum owner might get from sponsors. If a potential sponsor goes on a forum and sees 300 members as opposed to 65,000 they would just walk away.