This came up in another thread in City Photos, so I thought I'd type out a little primer on how the search function works so that everybody can get the most out of its use.

 

Seriously, I couldn't use this forum without the search function.

 

 

Basic Searches

The "little white box"

 

There's a white box underneath the ad in the top right corner of the page with the "search"  button next to it.  This box works in a very specific way--it searches within whatever page you're on.

 

It's better explained this way:

 

1) Searching from the main forum page

Entering a word or phrase and hitting the search button from the "main" page (the one where it lists all of the forum sections) will search all of the boards.

 

2) Searching from a board's page

For example, if you're looking at all of the topics on a board like City Discussions and you do a search from that page, the search will only pull up threads from City Discussions.

 

3) Searching within a thread

If you have a thread active and you are reading it, a search from that page will only search within that thread.

 

 

Advanced search

The magnifying glass

 

To the left of the basic search box is a little magnifying glass icon.  Clicking on that opens up advanced search:

 

This box allows you to:

* Better refine your search phrase to match all words or to match any words

* To search for posts by a specific user

* To search for posts from within a certain period of time

 

It also allows you to define how you'd like to see results:

* To show results only as topic headings, or to also include the text (helpful when you're trying to find the gist of the resulting article).

* Most recent, longest topics, shortest topics, most recent topics, oldest topics

 

If you click on "choose a board to search in, or search all", you can refine the search even more.  For example, if you're looking for a certain project, you can limit the search to "Projects and Construction" so that you wont get a lot of returns of threads where the project is mentioned in passing, but which contain no details.

 

 

A couple of other things

 

1) Keep search terms very specific.  "Cleveland" will produce an astronomical number of results, so try something more specific like the name of a developer, a certain politician, etc.

 

2) No numbers!  At least, no numbers in the search box unless contained within quotation marks (Ex: "11200 Grasscat Blvd" will work but the same, without quotation marks, will not.)  Due to problems with the software, entering a number without quotation marks in the search box will result in an error page.  It's also possible to get around it by altering your search terms.  I-75/I-475 in Toledo could be found by using "Toledo downtown interchange" and doing an advanced search in the Transportation forum.  I just tried that and I got 4 results.  The I-74/I-475 interchange was the first one on the list.

 

3) Quotation marks are your friend.  This really helps to pare down the results when searching for something specific, like "Fountain Square", "Jacobs Field", or "grasscat's mom".

 

I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting, but these are the basic facts.  If anyone thinks of any others, post them in this thread and I'll add them to this post.

 

The trouble will come in searching for this page, LOL.

 

Thanks grasscat for this...Now searching when you are in one of the "new posts/replys since visit pages" will search the whole forum, correct?

If you mean the "unread topics" page(s), then yes.  It searches the whole forum.

I added a clarification.  Numbers are searchable if they're within quotation marks.

 

This is very useful.  Thanks for putting it together.

One thing I've noticed...

 

I tend to get error messages if I enter too many characters in the search box.  This started around the time of the last forum upgrade.

 

So my advice is to keep your search string as short as possible.  A good rule of thumb is that if it all fits within the visible part of the box, then it should be fine.

 

Search function works beautifully since the move.  Use all the numbers you want now.   :)

Cool.

I've modded the search function to utilize Sphinx search.  This should drastically speed up searches on the site and decrease server load at the same time.  Let me know if anyone has issues.

I've modded the search function to utilize Sphinx search.  This should drastically speed up searches on the site and decrease server load at the same time.  Let me know if anyone has issues.

I miss not being able to do a "title" search or a search within a particular forum.  The old search was better.

Should be fixed.

What's with that? I want to try a different word and try it now.

What's with that? I want to try a different word and try it now.

 

Searching uses more system resources. That is why the 20 second limit was in place, but I've since removed it. Happy searching!

thanks!

This forum's search is OKAAAAAAAAAAAAY, but most forum's search functions really suck. I still have the best luck going to Google, typing site:(site url) a space, (search term) no parenthesis. so to search for one of my insightful posts where I reference Metal, just type

 

site:urbanohio.com gcrites80s metal

 

and BOOM! Google also doesn't have all those restrictions about no numbers, no two-letter words and all that.

I ised the search new function twice, using thread or post terms I know are there but the search function couldn't find it.

1 hour ago, KJP said:

I ised the search new function twice, using thread or post terms I know are there but the search function couldn't find it.

The background processes need to finish, then the search will work correctly.  Consider this weekend as a "sneak peek".  Everything will be primed and working correctly by Monday,

I'm not sure if it's just me, but my searches now show zero results, no matter what I search.

On 1/11/2014 at 5:52 PM, GCrites80s said:

This forum's search is OKAAAAAAAAAAAAY, but most forum's search functions really suck. I still have the best luck going to Google, typing site:(site url) a space, (search term) no parenthesis. so to search for one of my insightful posts where I reference Metal, just type

 

site:urbanohio.com gcrites80s metal

 

and BOOM! Google also doesn't have all those restrictions about no numbers, no two-letter words and all that.

 

Still a big user of this; it's far better than any forum's built-in search. And it never goes down.

38 minutes ago, DarkandStormy said:

I'm not sure if it's just me, but my searches now show zero results, no matter what I search.

 

It seems to be working fine for me.  Anyone else having the same issue?

On 8/31/2020 at 12:55 PM, richNcincy said:

It seems to be working fine for me.  Anyone else having the same issue?

 

Apparently, I need to search more than three characters to get results.  Seems to have been my issue.