I am not sure if this sort of idea has been suggested before.

The search function is useful, but when searching, we are all trying to find old threads where someone has run into a similar problem and has either found a solution, or another poster has replied with one. Threads where a question has been asked with no reply, or with no solution aren't as immediately useful. They may be able to point us in the right direction, but an instant solution is of course preferable. Currently, searching the forums brings up of course both of these "categories" of threads.

An easy to implement way of providing better search results would be to flag threads, once they are no longer active and considered "closed", as containing a solution to the question that is asked. These thread IDs could be added to a database of threads where the poster has found a solution. An additional search criteria could then be added, "search only posts with solutions", which could be enabled or disabled by the user in the search options.

Personally I think this would be extremely useful.

You can do this via the tagging system (a search should turn up the details). We plan to bring the system out of beta soon, at which point you'll see better integration with the current search.

--jeremy