Using the Search feature

[XJSman89]

Many of you have said that the search functon on ACNA leaves a lot to be desired. I agree that it does... if you fail to use it correctly! ;D

I had some problems with it the first couple months that I was here. It returned almost no results, it was impossible to find threads (even if I knew the title it still wouldn't pop up) etc. My problem was this:



Note the part that I circled in green. You have to change the "posted within the last ____ hours ____ days" option to be able to find older threads. the default only searches back 7 days. Just change that puppy to "999" and you're good to go! You'll be amazed at how well it works especially if you've been getting along without it for any length of time.

Check out our FAQ Thread for more tips that will help you navigate easily around ACNA.

[Aurora40]

There still seems to be some point where it doesn't go back further than, though. I've changed it to 1500 days, and it won't find some of the very old threads.

[XJSman89]

I didn't know that. Evidentally there are limitations to it, but hopefully this will help some people out with more recent threads. I'm not sure what the actual limit of it is but I haven't had a time where I couldn't find the thread I was looking for.

[scottydl]

Yes, I've found that 999 days is maximum search term. So a little under 3 years of threads is all you will get (in the search), although older threads are still available if you search manually through a particular section of the forum.

I've also found positive results on the search by changing the "maximum results" to 30 or 40, and changing the "View results as" checkbox to display Threads instead of Posts. Makes the results much more readable.

[unirok]

Sorry but no matter what ACNAs search does not work very well imho. I have even searched with exact titles of threads and came back with no or wrong results. Its kinda hit or miss if you ask me.

[scottydl]

The search will not hit on thread titles, it hits on words within the posts. If you search that way it should be fine. Yes the format certainly could use some improvement, but you should get much better results by using the tips xjsman89 and I have posted.

[lawdog]

What about searches with three letters. I want to search for HID, HIR, and LED and I cant search for any of them. Any suggestions?

[lanceslambos]

yes PCM, ECU, ECM, HID, LED, ETC, ETC. can't find w/o pulling up lots of useless posts.

[lanceslambos]

hey lawdog i like the never ending red button lol i got to the repeat part ya cause i'm bored and want to blow up the world, heaven & hell.

[sall]

Yeah the whole three letter searching is less than to be desired. What can you can do? Pretty much... nothing. Unless you want to become a programmer for proboards, sadly!

My suggestion for HID and LED atleast is to use HIDs or LEDs. That is how I usually post them.

[scottydl]

Good ideas sall. And yeah, the 4-letter word requirement is unfortunately not something we have the power to change. I'm assuming the limitation is there so the search function (of the thousands of Proboards forums) is not constantly wasting server resources looking for common words like "the", "and", etc that users may type into their search phrase.

[lawdog]

ok thanks.

PS- dont click my signature.

[lanceslambos]

[quote author=lawdog board=suggest thread=17404 post=200220 time=1249486222

PS- dont click my signature. [/quote]

Red dots will rule the earth some day.