Please make this site's search function work properly

I can never find anything with it, no matter how hard I try

Thanks...

One line of code. Whoops, was that spam?

Any specific problem/example? IMO, the search engine is a bit slow and clumsy to use but I have no problems with the results - in most cases, they're as precise as your search terms allow.

Takumaji said:

Any specific problem/example? IMO, the search engine is a bit slow and clumsy to use but I have no problems with the results - in most cases, they're as precise as your search terms allow.

Click to expand...

Well, it seems that no matter how specifically I narrow my searches down, or how broad I make them, I get no results, or very little

I don't really know how to put it other than that. I use the date before/after function, as well as specifying a forum, and using user name and words from thread titles that I can remember. Not sure what else I can do?

Thanks Tak,

Q-

Here are a few basic tips:

- it's best to search for words or phrases in the thread titles. For this to work, you have to select "Search Titles Only" from the drop-down menu below the Key Word(s) field before submitting your query. If you leave the default "Search Entire Posts", you will get too many misleading results.

- try to limit your search to a certain forum + sub-forums, like Gaming or Systems, the more precise, the better. Select the corresponding main forum, then activate "Also search in child forums". This is important if you want to search for very common terms like "KoF" or "Samurai". For example, if you want to find gameplay-related posts about KoF99, it would be suicide to search for "KoF99" in all open forums, even more so when searching complete posts (see previous paragraph).

- if you want to unearth a specific thread where you posted in but don't remember any useful key words, narrow-down the post date, select the appropriate forum, then enter your screen name in "Search by User Name", select "Find Posts by User" in the drop-down menu below and submit your query. Of course this also works with other user names - if you only remember one of the posters' names and the time the thread was active, it's all you need to find the thread in a heartbeat.

I'm going to back Tak on this, I've had no problems with the Search function.

Then again I have to use extremely complicated search engines for WestLaw and Lexis-Nexis so comparatively speaking the forum search isn't too bad. I also use the methods Tak uses.

The only real problem is with truly old material (especially from pre-VBulletin).

Bobak said:

The only real problem is with truly old material (especially from pre-VBulletin).

Click to expand...

Yeah but then again those threads are almost unreadable because of all the code changes.

Well, guess it's just me then.

I do all of those things, and search in all different types of manners. I'm also familiar with Lexis to a point, but this site's search function still gives me headaches.

Thanks for the help anyways guys,

Q-