singerguy

Nope not mine. I don't have the luxury yet of selling some sewing machine parts as I am just starting.

Grannyh67

You can probably find one on eBay, that is where I got all my parts for my vintage and antique machines.

J Miller

Why is it a pre-requisite? Is there some internet rule that says a person must search for something he or she is looking for before they ask for help? If so, please post it and all pertinent information about it.

Is it hard to search? For some yes. For others no. I have a great deal of trouble finding things. I do try Google and occasionally eBay, but rarely find stuff that I KNOW is there. If someone gives me a direct link I can go there and take care of what I need. But if I loose that link ... forget it, for me to find it again is a lost cause.

As many times as people on this and other forums have said to "Google it", it's becoming a very annoying comment. I wish those that can find anything and every thing in an instant would either cough up the link or just not post anything. I guess this last year of sickness has made me touchy, but being told I must Google it before I can ask about then told it cant be that hard, well, it's just got me P.O.'d.

And Mike, In all the times I've been told, and I've seen others told, they must Google it first, NOT ONE has shared this "Let me Google it for you." link. Not one. Nice secret you Google lovers have been keeping. I'll try it, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.


Sorry I this post offends Mike or anyone else, but this "you must search for first BS has me
( __________ ) this time.

Joe

J Miller

Well I tried that LMGIFY and the first link was an insult to those who are not Google freeks.
I did try it and asked this question: "Where can I buy latches for a New Home sewing machine bentwood case?"
It came up with 44,000 results .... ALL of them about Singer cases. Lot of good that did me.

So as far as I am concerned Google can KMA.

Joe

Candace

Too many words in any search will just add more junk to the results. I'm not sure I'd have better results but in your case, Joe, I'd just search with "New Home sewing case latch" or something like that. No real need to ask questions like where or why etc. just the facts. Keeping it simple always narrows down the results better, I've found.

J Miller

Candace,

That's one of my problems. Having been trained by police officers to write excruciatingly detailed reports when I worked security I tend to be over wordy at times. I really try to follow the KISS principle, but usually fail at it.
I'll try your suggestion and see what happens.

Joe

J Miller

LOL ... It came up with 10,800,000 hits and the first page was all bobbin case latches. Oh boy.

I put in "New Home bentwood case latch" it it came back with Singer cases again. I give up.

Joe

oldsewnsew

HAH!! thats magic. Howd he do that!? ;^}

quiltingcandy

I do believe when someone comes here first they are of the mind that someone here already knows where to find it. And it is a reputable place. Can't tell you how many websites I have saved due to the recommendations from the good people of QB. It amazes me too how many people can search for something and find it quickly and I have tried for hours with little if any results. Ot just depends on what you are looking for and how specialized it is.

SteveH

Ok, I will admit I am one of the "did you Google it first?" crowd, but I TOTALLY get where Joe is coming from. I have been in the computer industry since before the PC was available (barely) and the truth is there is a "computer speak" that a person develops over time. When used, it seems so simple and straight forward that it is not uncommon to think folks who don't get it, are slow or lazy... SO not true.

I work with a LOT of ESL folks and I have to write manuals that they can read and comprehend while still not boring or being demeaning to English first folks. it is a challenge. Compu-speak is the same.

so, for a 30 second primer......

Google crawls the web reading and logging as much as it can about the various websites it finds. EVERY word.

When you do a search it compares that search to it's database of info. It is not actually "looking all over the web" when you search, it is just looking in it's database.

If I say search for sites with "all about me" (without the quotes) It will find the database records with the most "matches" to each individual word in the search. NOT in that order or even together. So the above search term would find the page in it's database with the highest count of the words "me" "about" and "all". a lot of people give computers more credit than they deserve. For example, in the above search, the computer has no "understanding" of the term "me". If i wanted to really do that search I would type the phrase (about "Steve Heeter") without the parentheses. the quotes tell the system to look for EXACTLY what is in between the quotes IN THAT ORDER AND CASE.

There is a LOT more that can be done to make searches "smarter" like putting a + in front of word that says this word is more important that the others and MUST be on the site for it to be shown, whereas without it is only gets as close a match as it can.

definitely not as simple as some folks think.

and as Joe pointed out, getting replies is the EASY part, weeding out the unwanted replies is the tricky part.

oh, and one last note. the first few replies are usually paid sponsored replies so look over the whole first page of results before clicking on the links