Searching Tips: Function Use

[kerble]

you know, STFU.

glynnisjohns PM'ed me per a recommendation about finding a poll for the film the Night Porter and thought I'd post my tips for using the Search function. I responded as such:

It looks like there's no poll for Night Porter.

what I did to refine my search is put "night porter" in quotes in the search field, and then clicked the second button underneath it to "search all topics"

You can refine the search even more by limiting those pull down windows to "polls" (which will only show things you can vote on) and "Crap/Not Crap" (which will limit it to just the C/NC section).

this way, you only get 4 results, none of which are "Night Porter", as opposed to having to weed through all the topics that have the word "Night" or "Porter" in them.


fuck you! Cole Porter.

Fuck you! "Night Moves."



hope it helps.



Faiz

[kerble]

scott copters posted this in the Iron Maiden double thread:

My bad, but something needs to be done to streamline the search function because I searched "Iron Maiden" (in quotes), and you'd think that the thread with it as the subject would come first--or at least in the first two pages. I don't know about you all, but, despite the amount of time I burn posting here, I have no desire to get carsick scrolling through fifteen pages to make sure a topic hasn't already been done.

brett. i hear ya.

here's something that may help.

first of all, using quotes does nothing. the search function ignores them completely.

second of all, the key is, after typing in your carefully chosen search text (in this case "iron maiden" but no quotes necessary), make sure to click the little button that says "search for all terms".

okay! now in our case, iron maiden, it only returns 36 results. still a bitch to look through, but not as bad as 15 pages.

to avoid looking through all these results, the super-streamlined way to do it is this... after the 36 results come up, hit "ctrl-F" on your keyboard, which brings up a "find" window. type in "iron maiden" *with* quotes, and click "find".

it only finds two instances. the two iron maiden polls!

success!

if the search function used normal conventions, like allowing the use of + or - in front of words, or quotation marks to denote multiple-word phrases, this would solve a lot of these issues.

but clicking that "find all terms" button and then using the "find" function built in to explorer will make the mess a lot easier to navigate through.

very helpful.

[kerble]

also, from Bradley R. Weissenberger from the same thread:

My bad, but something needs to be done to streamline the search function.

the key is, after typing in your carefully chosen search text (in this case "iron maiden" but no quotes necessary), make sure to click the little button that says "search for all terms".

Toomanyebayequipmentpurchases is correct. Use the "search for all terms" function.

It is also a good idea to limit your search to the "Crap/Not Crap" forum. You can do this by going to the "Forums" section and selecting "Crap/Not Crap".

This approach provided me with a list of 29 topics, which is an easy amount to review.

Please note that my Johnny-on-the-spot response to Brett Ralph comes ten months after he posted his question.

Customer service!

Should not be so poor!

[ironyengine]

The search function is a giant pile of horse's dicks. But it is all we've got.

[emmanuelle cunt]

one can activate "search for all terms" by typing

+ "iron maiden"

without matching the "SFAT" box. you will save a good quarter of a second (if not more) by doing it.

[Jeremy]

.... a giant pile of horse's dicks...

i would hate seeing this.

[electrons]

one can activate "search for all terms" by typing

+ "iron maiden"

without matching the "SFAT" box. you will save a good quarter of a second (if not more) by doing it.

I find it easiest to search for:

iron + maiden

or

iron AND maiden

They show the same results, no quotes necessary. (Pretty sure AND must be capital)

I also use toomanyberrsandsmokes CTRL + F function. It is helpful on most webpages; I even teach it to my 3rd grade students! See what you miss when you were born in the 70s?!?

[emmanuelle cunt]

would it be possible to add "search only thread titles" option to the search engine?

and yes, ctr+F option is ver useful.

[Adam CR]

The EA forum 'search function'.

She is, how you say? Not having much of the searching, and also the functioning also is not. Functioning.

I am bringing to you for the death to the 'to Kerble':

She is advanced of the Google!

The typing must be of "http://www.electricalaudio.com" into the "Domain".

I am having tested for Mister Kerble, she no 'to Kerble' the 'I kill the 'to Kerble'.

[mrdfnle]

The EA forum 'search function'.

She is, how you say? Not having much of the searching, and also the functioning also is not. Functioning.

I am bringing to you for the death to the 'to Kerble':

She is advanced of the Google!

The typing must be of "http://www.electricalaudio.com" into the "Domain".

I am having tested for Mister Kerble, she no 'to Kerble' the 'I kill the 'to Kerble'.

crap

[emmanuelle cunt]

[z00york]

wahhhhh, did not mean to post, cant delete

[Adam CR]

[sphincter]

Also a great way to search for an old thread you want to find is just to post a new one with the exact same topic and let the losers who want to kerble everyone find it for you. No more wading through page after page of search results, plus it makes those chaps feel good about themselves for a while. Way to go champs?

[emmanuelle cunt]

Google powered Firefox PRF search plugin by Russ

[placeholder]

Don't mind me! I'm just postin' this because E.C.'s username makes the filter on my office computer block the entire C/NC forum.

[lemur68]

Okay this is a new one:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 16777216 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 524288 bytes) in /var/www/phpBB2/search.php on line 351

[ERawk]

Reminder and for Newbies:

If you don't have Firefox to use the Google Electrical search app, bring up old threads in Google this way by typing in the dialog box the following:

site:electrical.com "topic of choice"

It should work pretty well.

[endofanera]

Reminder and for Newbies:

If you don't have Firefox to use the Google Electrical search app, bring up old threads in Google this way by typing in the dialog box the following:

site:electrical.com "topic of choice"

It should work pretty well.

It's worth noting that this search string will return a number of pages on older versions of the board in addition to the new board. If one replaces the "phpBB" or "phpBB2" in those addresses with a "phpBB3," it will often result in a "Sorry, but this board is currently unavailable. Please try again later." error. Making that substitution and also adding a "www" to the front of the address will typically bring up the newer version of the older thread.

For this reason it's been recommended to make the Google "site" limitation "www.electricalaudio.com" instead of simply "electrical.com." I dont know if this will change the set of results returned, but it will minimize the amount of futzing around you have to do to get to the thread you were looking for.

Bad as it often was at returning usable results, I sure do miss the search function.

[ERawk]

Thanks 'era.

I was wondering why certain threads were not functioning like they should. Sometimes, I would be able to find another hit from the same thread that worked.