I tried to search for "How we used to live" but I am told that all the words are too common and were removed from my search! Bloody cheek.
The search function always worked really well on the old forum but this particular forum software, which is used by hundreds these days, seems utterly useless when it comes to intuitive searches. I assume that there is a knack to it that I have not yet found.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
How to use search?
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Don Satchley
- 625 lines
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:02 pm
Re: How to use search?
Perhaps you could try an advanced search on google, using "how we used to live" and then the domain mausoleumclubforum.org.uk. Hope that helps.
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Simon Coward
- D-MAC
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- Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:56 pm
Re: How to use search?
I'd wondered about this as a possibility, but I'd tried it before suggesting it, and it doesn't work because Google doesn't index the contents of the forum pages (because of the settings in the file robots.txt).Don Satchley wrote:Perhaps you could try an advanced search on google, using "how we used to live" and then the domain mausoleumclubforum.org.uk. Hope that helps.
We all have to eat a peck of dirt before we die.
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goldencondor
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- Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2015 11:03 am
Re: How to use search?
I have found the same. I was looking for the 'Boy From Space' thread in the archive section but couldn't find it so had to go through the history manually. Any chance the forum administrator could change the search function so that it will search for phrases and not only individual words? Not sure if that's possible?Simon Coward wrote:I'd wondered about this as a possibility, but I'd tried it before suggesting it, and it doesn't work because Google doesn't index the contents of the forum pages (because of the settings in the file robots.txt).Don Satchley wrote:Perhaps you could try an advanced search on google, using "how we used to live" and then the domain mausoleumclubforum.org.uk. Hope that helps.
Re: How to use search?
Not sure why you are having a problem as I just searched for the boy from space using the standard search in the top right and get the following:
As you can see, it gets your posts, the original PR post and also posts including the words. Did you pop it all in quotes? I don't know if that is case sensitive.
As you can see, it gets your posts, the original PR post and also posts including the words. Did you pop it all in quotes? I don't know if that is case sensitive.
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Simon Coward
- D-MAC
- Posts: 884
- Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:56 pm
Re: How to use search?
The search ignores two of the three words you input and only provides results anywhere near the top because the thread's been active again this morning - and thus is already easy to find without the search. When goldencondor was searching for it that wasn't the case and so the relevant results were buried.stearn wrote:Not sure why you are having a problem as I just searched for the boy from space using the standard search in the top right and get the following:
As you can see, it gets your posts, the original PR post and also posts including the words. Did you pop it all in quotes? I don't know if that is case sensitive.
The fact it returns 255 matches of which only 32 are from the relevant thread is hardly heart-warming.
We all have to eat a peck of dirt before we die.
Re: How to use search?
32 is more than 10%, and I am used to hunting through search results for what I want. The exclusion of common words is a double edged sword and may hone in on the result you want if included or just increase the total amount.
By going into advanced, reading the options, and then having a few goes at it, you can narrow the search quite well:
In this instance I opted to reduce it down to searching for topic titles only. I realise that is knowledge with hindsight, but as it was a press release, it was a safe assumption. The +boy +space option gives slightly more results, but nothing seems to offer results where both have to be present. I'm not sure anything can be done within the current software.
By going into advanced, reading the options, and then having a few goes at it, you can narrow the search quite well:
In this instance I opted to reduce it down to searching for topic titles only. I realise that is knowledge with hindsight, but as it was a press release, it was a safe assumption. The +boy +space option gives slightly more results, but nothing seems to offer results where both have to be present. I'm not sure anything can be done within the current software.