Android Community Search Tips

[JaceMan]

While we may not get a "better search," there ARE some things you can do to improve your searching experience. Try these tips out in your own searches to increase your search accuracy and efficiency.

For starters: vBulletin ignores content in signatures when searching, so you don't have to worry about loose searches being tainted by signatures.



SEARCH TIPS!!!

By default, keywords are "anded" together. That's sometimes known as the "+" option when searching a search engine.

Example: jesus freke
This will return matches for threads/posts that have both jesus AND freke in them.

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To search for an exact phrase you can take advantage of quotation marks.

Example: "jesus freke"
Where searching for jesus freke returned posts/threads that mentioned both words, searching for "jesus freke" only returns posts/threads that group the two words together.

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To search for posts that only contain one of your keywords, you can make use of the "or" operator.

Example: jesus or freke
This will return matches for threads/posts that mention either jesus or freke.

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Maybe you want to search for a phrase, but you want to remove some posts you know will be returned, but aren't related. Not a problem!

Example: jesus not freke
This will return all posts/threads with the term jesus but do not mention freke. In other words, it will return all instances of "jesus" so long as they DON'T ALSO include "freke."

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Maybe you want to search for one of two possible topics. Say you know that you can root with either JF or Haykuro and you don't care which result comes up. You will settle for either, but you also don't want to get confused in a thread that explains both. Well, never fear -- you can search for either/or and make sure you're only reading about one OR the other.

Example: -jesusfreke or haykuro / jesusfreke or -haykuro
This will return posts/threads that mention haykuro but do NOT mention jesusfreke, OR it will return posts/threads that mention jesusfreke but do NOT mention haykuro

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To search for words/terms that may or may not include a space use the pound symbol... it's sometimes referred to as the hash tag.

Example: jesus#freke
This will return matches for jesusfreke and jesus freke.



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NOW, GO SEARCH!


Mods, feel free to sticky this if you think it will be useful!

[DaYuMu6ft7]

Hey!!! Thanks Jace...

This should come in handy, since it's been such a Hot Topic lately

[xdavidn88]

Very good thread.

A mos def stickied thread.

[deserttopping]

nice job. well worth a sticky.

[kitsunisan]

"To search for words/terms that may or may not include a space use the pound symbol... it's sometimes referred to as the hash tag.

Example: jesus#freke
This will return matches for jesusfreke and jesus freke"
This one was new to me. Nice post.

[*susan*]

Very good. Thanks for taking the time to do this for the community.

[Fare]

Example: -jesusfreke or haykuro / jesusfreke or -haykuro

This actually doesn't work. Notice how the search results are for jesusfreke OR "-haykuro",not jesusfreke or -haykuro. for whatever reason you are not able to use the "-" boolean search modifier, just "NOT". When you use "-" it puts the result in quotation marks and doesn't acheive the desired result.

interesting enough, you are not able to do this at all (Jesusfreke or not haykuro) as you are given an error, "Search terms contain invalid syntax: -word1 OR word2 / word1 OR -word2". Further more, you are not given access to the subexpression boolean modifiers, so jesusfreke or (not haykuro) doesn't work either.

usually you are given a larger set of Boolean search modifiers, but I can't get the following to work:

- = boolean minus (subtract/filter result)
() = subexpressions
~ = acts as a negation operator, causing the word's contribution to the row's relevance to be negative
* = wildcard
<> = give importance to a given word

[JaceMan]

This actually doesn't work.

It works fine for me.

I just used my very own example for posts.

Searched for: -jesusfreke or haykuro / jesusfreke or -haykuro

Results were returned and tested.

First result: Notice, it mentions haykuro but not jesusfreke
Fourth result: Notice, it mentions jesusfreke but not haykuro.

So, what's the problem?

[Fare]

So, what's the problem?

jesusfreke haykuro - Search: Keyword(s): jesusfreke, haykuro

control example

jesusfreke -haykuro - Search: Keyword(s): jesusfreke, "-haykuro"

Only yields one thread, the only thread with "jesusfreke" and "-haykuro"

jesusfreke not haykuro - Search: Keyword(s): jesusfreke, -haykuro

this is supposed to be "Coupe de Grace" where I properly defend myself, but these results include Haykuro but are different from the "control example's". Maybe it's case sensitive? maybe it doesn't include thread titles? haykuro is probably different than haykuro's, haykuros, haykuroDaLaLaLaDingDong (try using wild card characters, they don't work...).

I'm stumped (and apathy is begining to set in...)

[JaceMan]

If you search for -haykuro it is looking for a hyphenated haykuro not a "don't find haykuro." The exception is when you're searching for one of two different things with search eliminators in them.

Such as I want to find jesusfreke without haykuruo OR I'll settle for haykuro without jesusfreke. Those types of searches allow for the minus sign to be used the way you're attempting to do. Although, it will also return hyphenated instances of the "minus-term" as well.

Stick with searching as my guide suggests without getting "creative" and you should be ok.