The search facility never seems to find what I want. I dont think it works properly - can we have something that works like Google and can search for phrases etc properly ?

I'll vote the same, I remember a time when the forum search worked a great deal better, then 'something happened' (or seemed to) and the search became woefully inadequate!

Was it after a forum software update or something?

It should be AND

not OR

When I do a search on a user and a keyword, all I get is a list of threads... I have to search through the whole thread to find a post by the user I am trying to find.

eg. Wildcat and Chewbacca (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/search.php?searchid=5572019)

I have to manually sort through 2000 plus posts to find the one I am looking for.

Am I using the search facilty wrong? If not, I think it should be improved such that I can go straight to the post I have searched for.

When I do a search on a user and a keyword, all I get is a list of threads... I have to search through the whole thread to find a post by the user I am trying to find.

eg. Wildcat and Chewbacca (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/search.php?searchid=5572019)

I have to manually sort through 2000 plus posts to find the one I am looking for.

Am I using the search facilty wrong? If not, I think it should be improved such that I can go straight to the post I have searched for.

Click search, advanced search

enter Chewbacca in keywords and Wildcat in username

Click posts (as opposed to threads) in bottom left corner

Click search

3 results returned, all by you with 'Chewbacca' in

Absolutely!

The SF Search is always a little...strange. One for Geoff to slave over. :hihi:

The search facility is really useless, which is a shame as it's vital.

the search facility fell apart when the software was upgraded :(

I've no idea if it's just me, a software bug, or something else :suspect:, but if I search on my username to see if somebody has addressed me directly in a thread (and wants a reply) I get more returns if I'm logged out than if I'm logged in

I also gave Geoff an example many moons ago of a thread I knew existed but had not been able to locate with a keyword and username search, but another user had posted a link to the thread having used different search criteria

I also gave Geoff an example many moons ago of a thread I knew existed but had not been able to locate with a keyword and username search, but another user had posted a link to the thread having used different search criteria

I believe we discussed this at the time, if not then email me and I will answer it again.

As for improving the search, consider it an ongoing mission which I would be happy to try again to solve right now :)

we did Geoff, but other than establishing that it was an issue, I'm not sure it was possible to do much about it without completely reloading every thread ever posted on the forum :(

I believe search is now fixed :)

Please try searching for a phrase, i.e. "school dinners" or whatever. Just make sure you change the "Show results as" setting to posts rather than threads - otherwise it won't be clear whether the results are right or not.

Tried it with my name . In the results there are posts about plasterers with 'Name removed' in but the posts about me referring people to websites that accept paypal come further down the list even though it holds my full name in and is thus more relevant (this thread (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=312903&highlight=rudi+tapper)) :(

Also I tried searching for "100mm macro" and that did nothing for me :P

Also, is there a minimum search string length ? I tried searching for the single word "wii" and it didnt bring up any results at all :loopy:

As advised in post above, please put query in " ... " if you want to find it together, otherwise it matches the words individually.

I believe the minimum is 4 to prevent the server from crashing - it's just unfortunate for things like 'wii' I'm afraid.

I searched for "amd athon" and got a result :)
Here: http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=328345

Just tried it with two searches I have failed to find results with before. The first: "Nottingham house" worked fine.

The second "man with van" didn't work, nor did man with van, nor did man, van.

So maybe it still needs some tweaking?

As stated above, the search needs to be with terms of 4 letters or more unfortunately. This affects 'man and van' and all similar terms.

that seems to be working better :)

just one thing though....

the search results used to prune out the contents of quotes so it didn't look like what was quoted was said by the person listed as having made the post (if you follow me)

I think this was an issue previously that had been resolved previously, but has now reverted

As stated above, the search needs to be with terms of 4 letters or more unfortunately. This affects 'man and van' and all similar terms.

I thought tht just meant total searches of three letters, not searches for all three letter words! It took me ages to find a thread for a man with a van when I needed one.

Search on VBB sites hasnt been as good since about version 3.5 and higher (They did something and i have noticed it hasnt been as good since)

As stated above, the search needs to be with terms of 4 letters or more unfortunately. This affects 'man and van' and all similar terms.

It's an SQL issue isn't it?