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Search terms ignored

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:26 am
by flipwils11
I'm not sure why some of the most common (and to me relevant) search terms seem to be exempted on this board. Things like "stealth", "tires", and "2.25", the engine won't accept. It usually leaves me scratching my head for a while like a guessing game to outthink the search terms ommitter to get what I need.

Any reason why some of these terms are not allowed? :?

Re: Search terms ignored

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:14 am
by Charlie don't surf

Re: Search terms ignored

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:26 am
by jwscab
right, you would get pretty much every thread if you are looking for more 'common' words.

try this, go to google search, in the advanced search, add the search terms and then select at the website 'www.rc10talk.com'. it will search all relevant posts with the exact words with no omissions.

it's more bothersome to me when I'm looking for B2 or B3 or simpler 2 letter words that get omitted.

this isn't rc10talk specific, and this place actually has a decent search engine. I go to forums where you are better off just reading every thread rather than searching ANYTHING.

Re: Search terms ignored

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:34 am
by flipwils11
I've done that. I merely included "tires" as an example of a perfectly good term that is not included either.

I was searching for "stealth +2.25" in temple's tech subsection, which to me should be very specific.

I am well versed in search logic and Boolean search terms (or the shorthand +/- operators). :mrgreen: If the user is searching for specific terms within a subsection of the forum perhaps the engine could suppress the ignore logic. But if someone searches for tires on the entire forum I agree the user should be prompted to try different terms.

Re: Search terms ignored

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:00 pm
by Charlie don't surf
So what is the question, is it answer to the dropped search request be changed to "the search terms are too ambiguous" in leiu of "item does not exist" ? I'm having trouble following-

Re: Search terms ignored

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:48 pm
by flipwils11
My proposed changes in pseudo-code:

IF FORUM = ALL
THEN SEARCH TERM OVERRIDE = TRUE ## default

ELSIF FORUM = SUBFORUM+
THEN SEARCH TERM OVERRIDE = FALSE

ELSE # catch-all case
THEN SEARCH TERM OVERRIDE = TRUE ## default

Re: Search terms ignored

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:40 pm
by Lowgear
Hey what do you want from free message board software that comes loaded with just about every instance of cPanel? :P It does an alright job for what it is. Although I agree that its annoying when it omits search terms that it deems too short or common even when they're not. Searching using Google helps but that only works with pages its indexed.