vjones777
March 23rd, 2009, 05:30 AM
After spending the last hour and a half trying to find out how to 'properly' do advanced searches, I've discovered that the forum search engine has problems, and that these have been widely reported.
It seems there's a possibility that the search engine may be changed, sometime in the future. In the meantime I'd like to suggest the following:
1. That a How to Search the Forums sticky/tutorial post is provided.
2. Change the Advanced Search page to add a (prominent?) link to that post.
3. On the Advanced search page, add a link to google with "site:ubuntuforums.org" prefilled.
4. Update the Forum FAQs to include or link to that post. Ubuntu-geek?
5. On the Forum pages, move the View "Unanswered posts" from the 'Tools' dropdown to the 'Search this forum' dropdown, which is where you'd expect it to be.
6. On the advanced search, add a single menu item in in the search menu for "all unanswered posts". That entry should autoselect sensible options (eg excluding OMGPP and having sensible date ranges) that doesn't crash the server.
Rather than just gripe, I'd like to suggest the following as a starting point for such a post. I take no credit for it, its just what I've gathered after the trawl through the 'search' posts. Please feel free to add and correct as reqd.
OK, here goes............................
How to search the forums
The forum search function has a quick search (at the top right of every page), a Forum search and an advanced search page. Note that the quick search function (top of each page) displays results by posting date, not by relevancy. The advanced search allows the sort order to be specified.
It is also possible to search the forums using google (append "site:ubuntuforums.org"), The crunchbang UbuntuSearchengine (http://crunchbang.org/ubuntu-search-engine/), Uboontu (http://www.uboontu.com/), googleubuntu (http://www.googlubuntu.com/) or <PLEASE ADD ANY OTHERS>
Another option for firefox users is to create a custom search bookmarklet - see here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5907184)
If the forum search function does not yield the results you expect it is hightly recommended that you try one of the above search tools.
How to perform AND searches
The default search will find results containing ANY of the search terms - an 'OR' search. If you want to restrict the results to searchs containing ALL of the terms (an AND search), use the + sign to use AND searching.
For example, searching for dapper install would search dapper OR install, while +dapper +install would search for both terms in the same post. (The search system still shows the searched keywords as OR, but the results do come up correctly.)
How to perform phrase searches
This is currently not possible with the forum search tool. Instead, use google or one of the other search utilites mentioned above.
How to search for unanswered posts
It used to be possible to search all of the forum for unanswered posts, but this was reported to be too resource intensive. There are now two methods:
Search within a forum
Search the 'main' forums
Search within a forum
Choose a forum e.g. Absolute Beginner Talk, go to Forum Tools (drop down list 2nd from the right) then select Unanswered Posts.
Note this will only search within the one forum, and must be repeated on each forums page if multiple forums are to be searched.
Search the 'main' forums
Select Advanced Search, then Find threads with AT MOST 0 replies, specify a sensible date range, and select 'Absolute beginner talk' (if required) and 'Main support categories. See here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5877676&postcount=7) for details.
It seems there's a possibility that the search engine may be changed, sometime in the future. In the meantime I'd like to suggest the following:
1. That a How to Search the Forums sticky/tutorial post is provided.
2. Change the Advanced Search page to add a (prominent?) link to that post.
3. On the Advanced search page, add a link to google with "site:ubuntuforums.org" prefilled.
4. Update the Forum FAQs to include or link to that post. Ubuntu-geek?
5. On the Forum pages, move the View "Unanswered posts" from the 'Tools' dropdown to the 'Search this forum' dropdown, which is where you'd expect it to be.
6. On the advanced search, add a single menu item in in the search menu for "all unanswered posts". That entry should autoselect sensible options (eg excluding OMGPP and having sensible date ranges) that doesn't crash the server.
Rather than just gripe, I'd like to suggest the following as a starting point for such a post. I take no credit for it, its just what I've gathered after the trawl through the 'search' posts. Please feel free to add and correct as reqd.
OK, here goes............................
How to search the forums
The forum search function has a quick search (at the top right of every page), a Forum search and an advanced search page. Note that the quick search function (top of each page) displays results by posting date, not by relevancy. The advanced search allows the sort order to be specified.
It is also possible to search the forums using google (append "site:ubuntuforums.org"), The crunchbang UbuntuSearchengine (http://crunchbang.org/ubuntu-search-engine/), Uboontu (http://www.uboontu.com/), googleubuntu (http://www.googlubuntu.com/) or <PLEASE ADD ANY OTHERS>
Another option for firefox users is to create a custom search bookmarklet - see here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5907184)
If the forum search function does not yield the results you expect it is hightly recommended that you try one of the above search tools.
How to perform AND searches
The default search will find results containing ANY of the search terms - an 'OR' search. If you want to restrict the results to searchs containing ALL of the terms (an AND search), use the + sign to use AND searching.
For example, searching for dapper install would search dapper OR install, while +dapper +install would search for both terms in the same post. (The search system still shows the searched keywords as OR, but the results do come up correctly.)
How to perform phrase searches
This is currently not possible with the forum search tool. Instead, use google or one of the other search utilites mentioned above.
How to search for unanswered posts
It used to be possible to search all of the forum for unanswered posts, but this was reported to be too resource intensive. There are now two methods:
Search within a forum
Search the 'main' forums
Search within a forum
Choose a forum e.g. Absolute Beginner Talk, go to Forum Tools (drop down list 2nd from the right) then select Unanswered Posts.
Note this will only search within the one forum, and must be repeated on each forums page if multiple forums are to be searched.
Search the 'main' forums
Select Advanced Search, then Find threads with AT MOST 0 replies, specify a sensible date range, and select 'Absolute beginner talk' (if required) and 'Main support categories. See here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5877676&postcount=7) for details.