Search in dgrin has me befuddled

jfriend

When I use search, it seems to return to me a list of threads, not a list of messages. If the threads have a zillion messages in them like the New Features thread, how am I supposed to find the actual message I'm searching?

For example, I was trying to find a message in one of the LAB threads about how a curve can approximate the same effect as Apply Image. I knew it would contain "curve" and "apply image". When I ran that search, I got back a list of theads (several of them very long threads), not a list of messages. Is there some trick to search that will get it to return messages, not threads.

Andy

jfriend wrote:

Is there some trick to search that will get it to return messages, not threads.

No there isn't. And VBulletin search gives us fits - certain searches can crush us

Search by user, within a forum, for certain keywords, it's a challenge.

I've always found that Google is really good for searching dgrin. I put the following in my search box on google:

site:www.dgrin.com humungus africa

jfriend

OK, I'll try Google from now on

Andy wrote:

No there isn't. And VBulletin search gives us fits - certain searches can crush us

Search by user, within a forum, for certain keywords, it's a challenge.

I've always found that Google is really good for searching dgrin. I put the following in my search box on google:

site:www.dgrin.com humungus africa

OK, I guess vBulletin search just sucks. I'll try using a site-scoped Google from now on. I think we should all be aware of this when we tell users they should have searched before asking. In reality, it's really hard to find something with the built-in dgrin search.

Andy

jfriend wrote:

OK, I guess vBulletin search just sucks. I'll try using a site-scoped Google from now on. I think we should all be aware of this when we tell users they should have searched before asking. In reality, it's really hard to find something with the built-in dgrin search.

Thread titles help - and that's a big part of it. In addition, we're also trying not to say "use the search" but rather, giving out the info, the links. Many folks get thwarted by "use the search" - it's hard, reading is hard, right - so we don't want folks, especially new folks, to be put off by "use the search"

Great post, John!

Baldy

jfriend wrote:

OK, I guess vBulletin search just sucks. I'll try using a site-scoped Google from now on. I think we should all be aware of this when we tell users they should have searched before asking. In reality, it's really hard to find something with the built-in dgrin search.

Hey John,

Have you tried the advanced search? You get there by clicking the link under the search box.

Reason I ask is I tried to suggest Google search on ADVrider and quickly got a revolt on my hands. The search problem there is much tougher because there are 2 million posts.

Unlike Google, dgrin's advanced search lets you display results by post or threads, search by author, date range, forum and various combinations thereof. Google can't do any of that.

The only advantage to Google search I've heard is it can do 2 and 3-letter words. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to nuke vBulletin's search and go Google because search is resource-intensive but when I tried that on ADVrider I couldn't get any takers.

jfriend

Didn't know you could get results by post, not thread

Baldy wrote:

Hey John,

Have you tried the advanced search? You get there by clicking the link under the search box.

Reason I ask is I tried to suggest Google search on ADVrider and quickly got a revolt on my hands. The search problem there is much tougher because there are 2 million posts.

Unlike Google, dgrin's advanced search lets you display results by post or threads, search by author, date range, forum and various combinations thereof. Google can't do any of that.

The only advantage to Google search I've heard is it can do 2 and 3-letter words. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to nuke vBulletin's search and go Google because search is resource-intensive but when I tried that on ADVrider I couldn't get any takers.

I usually use advanced search because most of the time I only want to search one or two forums, not all of dgrin and I may know some other attribute of the post. Until you mentioned it, I didn't realize that I could view results by post, not thread. Now I see that option. That will make it a lot more palatable. I'll try that next time. What was killing me was getting a thread with 50 postings in it as the search result - that's completely meaningless.

Baldy

I see. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks.