With my system your first search would be of a relatively small number of posts and if it is a common problem you won’t have pages and pages of unrelated stuff to troll though. The issue I have with your current setup is that where you get lots of stuff you might have missed you also get loads of useless stuff that hinders your search. The best way to search for something on a forum is to have the ability to narrow down the search as far as possible first, a keyword search just cannot do that.
A multi tiered system would be better where you can search in your own section for most common issues and the if required dig deeper in the global sections for less common and non card specific issues. The main section would be “USB and FIREWIRE”, this would then be broken down into devices and a totalmix section at the botton, this would cover issue relating to totalmix specifically for these devices.
Yes it would be a change and some posts would end up on the wrong section initially but they would still come up with a global search and over time you would have a far more useful forum.
I would have thought what I am suggesting would also be more useful to your RME too, you’d be able to see which cards (instantly) had the most forum action and for what reasons.
The lack of interest in this thread could suggest nobody agrees but It could also suggest people know that RME have a reputation for not being particularly customer focused and that adding +1 is just a waste of time, or they spend so much time trolling through pages of unrelated stuff they can’t be bothered to spend any more time on this forum then they need to.
Dont get me wrong, you should be applauded for having a forum at all when most dont, however as your suppport section is almost none existent people have to rely on it.