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Forum Issue: Search — Parallax Forums

Forum Issue: Search

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
edited 2015-06-30 20:42 in General Discussion
Typically, in order to narrow a search, you would enter multiple keywords in an effort to find threads that contain all of them. In this forum, though, multiple search terms widen the search to include threads that contain one or more of the search terms. I've tried Boolean operators, like AND or &, but that didn't help.
Also, I feel that the search results provide too much context, making for a rather lengthy bunch of stuff to scroll through, when just the title of the thread would suffice.

-Phil

Comments

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    It's no surprise. Search is always broken and useless in forum software. Same like it  was back in the 1990's
    I tried searching for my old Altair emulation stuff. It's there if you dig deeply enough into the results.
    Honestly it would be better if we could just download the entire forum as a text file, no matter how big  it is, and grep it locally!
    The seriously broken part is that one used to be able to use Google site search to find stuff. Now the links are all busted that no  longer works.   
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173
    edited 2015-07-01 02:42
    It's no surprise. Search is always broken and useless in forum software.
     

    yes, even simplest things like quotes fail to 'zoom in'




    The seriously broken part is that one used to be able to use Google site search to find stuff. Now the links are all busted that no  longer works.   

    This is almost working, and I did find a rule you can use.
    When google tells you the old thread ID, (eg google easily finds
    PropBasic: Reciprocal Frequency Counter (0.5Hz to 40MHz) 40MHz now !!!
    as old-thread  123170, then just enter it thus

    http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/123170
  • I also found another way to search. Using a Google searchsuch as :
    Triangular PING array site:forums.parallax.com  
    If there is a down arrow, that means it has been cached. it brings up the old Forum format.

  • It's no surprise. Search is always broken and useless in forum software. Same like it  was back in the 1990's
    I tried searching for my old Altair emulation stuff. It's there if you dig deeply enough into the results.
    Honestly it would be better if we could just download the entire forum as a text file, no matter how big  it is, and grep it locally!
    The seriously broken part is that one used to be able to use Google site search to find stuff. Now the links are all busted that no  longer works.   

    The OBEX search has always been inadequate, but the vBulletin Forum search at least some filtering (such as "Title" and "Member name" and specific forum(s). Who wants to wade thru page after page of threads when you know a more narrow search will get what you want?!
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