ClassicBroncos Forum search techniques

[Broncoward]

Can someone give me a quick block of instruction to search the forums here more effectively. I'm just taking to long on average to find stuff if I find it at all.

Thanks
Ward

 

[admin]

Can you give an example of a recent search you've done that doesn't get the results you want? If you can tell us how you're searching we can make recommendations on how to improve it.

If you're searching for multiple words then one of the biggest tips is to pay attention to whether the search is set to "show threads" or "show posts". This option is right under the search drop down box in the upper menu.

"Show Threads" option means that it will look over the entire thread to find results. "Show Posts" means it will only show individual posts with your search term in them.

Example: Say your search term is "explorer brakes". If you use the "Show Threads" style search (the default) then you'll find threads where someone in one post may have used the word "explorer" and then someone later in that same thread used the word "brakes". But that doesn't necessarily mean the thread was about "explorer brakes" Just that somewhere in the whole conversation those two words showed up.

But if you use the "Show Posts" option then the results you get will only be specific posts that have both of those words in them. This is much more likely to give you results that are actually about "explorer brakes"

 

[Pa PITT]

Don't feel bad look at how many post I have and still can't find half what I search for ..

 

[Broncoward]

Thanks Jon I have been doing the default and getting all post with either word in it. This should help thanks for the quick response.

Its like I always say...I can't be the first to have what ever problem I have with a Bronco and the forums are handy to flush out those that had it and solved it...Thanks again

Ward

 

[mattt]

While I've had to wade thru many pages of threads when searching for topics.....this topic was on the first page of this forum.....nice.

One question on searching as I'm having the same problem when running a search...I get too many threads that are not what I'm looking for. On some forums you can add a + sign between words and it will make the search looks for ALL words vs. just one or two words and not in the same post.

Basically I'm getting 12 pages of results when searching and maybe only 3 threads in the search results are what I'm looking for.

Is there a way to make "search" look for ALL words you put in?

I'll try the post search and see if that yields different results.

 

[admin]

Can you post an example of a search you're trying and not getting good results for?

 

[mattt]

Tonight I'm searching for threads about the BC Broncos hard fuel line kit. I've tried many different combos of words, and I almost always get 12 pages of results with 97% of the results having just one word that was in my search.

Is there a way to get "search" to only show threads with all search words present? Some forums have a selection box for "all words" or "any words" just like the selection box for "search titles only" or "search threads"

 

[admin]

Try searching just in posts and using this search string:

"bc broncos" hard fuel line

Oh, and if it works now all of a sudden you're not going crazy. I just realized that a search setting was screwed up and not all members were able to use "boolean" search (which is basically using quotes or AND type connectors)

 

[admin]

Oh, and you have to put quotes around "bc broncos" because just bc by itself will be ignored by the search. It's too small a word and isn't indexed in the search database by itself.

 

[mattt]

Thanks for the info and advice. It's working better now. I used the quotes as you said, and it automatically adds * in between each word. I'm guessing that means it's searching for ALL words now. Thanks again.

 

[admin]

Be default (now) it will search for all words you type. Those will be the first results. If there aren't many results for all of those words then you may also get results that have some of the words. It should rank them by relevance, so those with all words will be at the top.

The quotes actually tells it to search for that phrase, so not only all of those words in quotes, but in that specific order.