Search tips?

[miisterwright]

I have not had very much success with using the search feature the the forums, even when I put several of the key words of a threads title in the search bar. Any tips???

[angrysparrow]

1 - Try using more specific information on the 'Advanced Search (http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/search.php)' page. The more info you fill out (dates, etc) the more focused your results will be.

2 - Search by Tags (http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/tags.php). This will only really be effective in searching for threads created in the last 7 or so months, but for threads during that time it is usually effective enough.

3 - Use Google (http://www.google.com/) to specifically search this site only. Do that by entering your search term into a Google search bar, followed by 'site:hammockforums.net' (without the quotes) and it will return results from this site only.

There are probably more tricks, but those come immediately to mind.

[Ramblinrev]

does the forum search feature allow for "x x x" searches? That is exact string inside the quotes?

[angrysparrow]

Yes, it does.

Also, boolean searching is enabled. To learn about that, read this example that talks about searching using boolean operators. It is taken from another site, but that site also uses the same vBulletin software.


To search for expressions which include spaces, use the hash/pound symbol (do not use quotes)
eg. le#pen will return matches for both Le Pen and LePen

Boolean operators also work. Words are AND'ed together by default.
eg. serbia croatia will return all threads which mention both countries

serbia or croatia will return threads which name either

serbia and not croatia (or serbia -croatia) will return matches which mention one but not the other

The asterisk wildcard also works
eg. com*uter will return matches to both computer and commuter

It can also be combined with the boolean operators: com*uter and not computer will have the same effect as just searching for commuter

A useful trick for searches shorter than the 4-letter limit: append an asterisk
eg. CIA* (but beware this will also return any words beginning with cia)