Filter Function
I know the request for filters isn't a new suggestion but my suggestion would be to adopt a design UI similar to the Logs page.
This is the top of the Logs page. I would wish something similar in two situations.
A) You search for a specific term in the search bar which would lead you to the forum search area.
B) You click on a specific players Forum Posts
- You could organize by Original Posts (First Post in a thread), the title (which only checks the subject line), the body, which would check the actual post and not the title etc.
- Can also choose which section of the forums to look in, i.e. Tutorials & Guides, General Discussion etc
- As well can choose the time reference. Useful if you only want newer information
Now you may look at this and say, well you can already choose most of these filters when searching in the forums. The key difference here being that you can adjust and filter your search without going back and refreshing your original search everytime you want to adjust the filter.
This brings the UI to a common system already currently being used in the game and would hopefully help utilizing the search function a greater degree.
Expand Options
Now while you are searching, this would be an option when mainly looking at original posts (or almost any of MeanMike's comments) about the ability to partially hide content so the search page functions cleanly and in a more compact manner. While searching, the comment or thread would be limited in size to the side bar options.
This SS shows a standard post that would not need to be shortened.
The below SS shows a comment that is too long and would need to be expanded to see the full comment.
This makes searching through the forums cleaner and easier. Each comment or thread could be expanded on the actual page, allowing a person to look closer at the entire comment, while skipping past the ones that bare no interest for them. This is nice when looking for past information especially when it was written by someone that has created a lot of threads with lots of content (think emforus and his crimes 2.0 guides).
Conclusion
These are 2 QoL changes that keep a consistent style with Torn's current UI, streamlines an area that has often been criticized in the past, and makes for a better user experience.