Hey guys,
Having a little trouble figuring out how to filter searches.
It seems no matter what combination of operators I use, it always reverts to returning all results containing ANY words specified. So if i put in something silly like +skyline +jet +propulsion, i'll still get 11+ pages of results.

Am I missing something or if you can point me in the direction of a faq that would be great.

Many thanks.

 

C'mon guys,
help me out please. Anyone?

 

the search sucks.

 

hahahahahahahah, dont hold anything back now!

 

So it's not just me?

 

nope

 

OK so I figured out how to search properly today.

I usually just trawl the sections wading through useless info, but after seeing all threads about people complaining about Mods moving threads, I thought to myself, "Yeah duh, of course. If the search worked properly, less people would post ******** questions over and over and then noone would complain as they could find valid info through the search."

Of course I've been told as above the search sucks so deal with it. So I decided to take one more look at it... And I found that there is an option at the bottom of the advanced search options that says:

Search Type - Natural Language/Boolean

And you know what? When you change it from the default to Boolean and use the operators - It works as it should!!!!

Now I don't know if that's always been there, if it has excuse my stupidity for not seeing it earlier. But begs the question - How come noone told me about it? All the hours I wasted...

So maybe, just maybe everyones problem stems from the simple fact that when they do a search, they're not aware of the Boolean search? This should be changed to be the default and a simple FAQ explaining how operators work.

FYI the quicksearch function doesn't work with Boolean Operators atm. Maybe this is configurable.

Hero what are the problems you are seeing from the search function? People just say it doesn't work, but don't say how, they just complain it's a vbulletin thing. But from what I'm seeing it works as it should using Boolean.

 

Not sure if that has always been there but thanks for posting this up. Hopefully this will help some of those others who are having a similar problem.

 

i've tried using boolean without much luck.

i have the best of luck when limiting my search to specific forums.

maybe i just get lucky with my searching.

 

Personally I don't have too much of a problem even with the "default" settings. I think different people are better at typing in the best thing to search for. Trey and I both can sit down to search on Google (the god of all search engines, IMHO) and search for the same thing. 10 to 1 he will get better results than me because he is just better at picking what to type.

 

Yep, I'll even be kind enough to write up a faq on all the parameters if this change is made. Search has been perfect since I figured out how to use it.

 

I try to keep mine in the section I would expect it to be.

But yes, the search sucks...

 

I wonder if changing the default type of search is something that can be set on the server side? If not, it won't matter if they want to do it or not. I agree that it could certainly use some help though, regardless.