Search Fields

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

I am sure this must be on the webmasters’ wish list – if it’s not then please could it be added?  I for one would find it most useful!

 

When looking for information on a forum one can input a ‘search word’ on a particular forum topic – or in ‘all topics’ – BUT the search word can only look in the “Thread Title’ of a particular topic.  You may be looking for a particular piece of information which you know is somewhere, you’ve possibly read it in the past and now want to return to it, but cannot find it because what you want is not in the thread title but in the text.  Somewhere!

 

If the search word could also look in the ‘Body of a thread text” as an alternative to the ‘Thread title’, then the search become far more inclusive and searching.  The drop down selection ‘button’ is there, but the option isn’t at the moment.  Perhaps it is in hand and I am being too previous and impatient!  

 

I do realise this isn’t probably as easy as it sounds to organise, but it would be jolly good if it were possible.

 

ChrisH 

 

 

 

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

[ken heppenerParticipant @kenheppener64998]

Hi All…..I too would like the above feature….I was looking for soming the other day and it took me over an hour to locate it….If, as chris says this feature was enabled it would be great….My Penny worth….Regards Ken.

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

A search facility for images would be useful as well!

 

Neil

[EdwardParticipant @edward]

DEAR EDITOR & DEAR WEBMASTER

Sadly,
the forum search feature is, IMHO, pathetic. Restricting searches to
Thread Title is like a library full of reference books without indices –
lots of content but no way of finding the relevant pages, or for that
matter the authors of those pages.

 

Almost all
of the other online forums allow searching not only by thread title, but
also by thread content, name of member/poster, and date range.

 

Trying
to find threads or posts in model-engineer.co.uk is, by comparison,
like wading through treacle.

 

Please,
PLEASE, P L E A S E, could we have a proper search facility?

 

 

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Please can we have a proper forum supported by a proper BBS engine so that searches postings images etc etc etc can all be easily managed and not this clunky pathetic attempt at a forum.

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

No you can’t.

We tried this and it returned so many entries it was of no use.

regards david

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

No you can’t.

We tried this and it returned so many entries it was of no use.

regards david

[EdwardParticipant @edward]

Posted by David Clark 1 on 08/07/2011 21:37:52:

Hi There

No you can’t.

We tried this and it returned so many entries it was of no use.

regards david

 

If that is the case, then how do all the other forums mange to make it work satisfactorily?

 

Perhaps a change to professional and widely used forum software, such as vBulletin, or SMF or phpBB would improve the user experience, increase the footfall, and generate more advertising/clickthru revenue.

[Harold Hall 1Participant @haroldhall1]

This may be of help

 

Go to Google advanced search and in the
domain field enter

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums

And then enter the word you are looking
for.

I entered Rust, and as David says, the
list can be long, in this case at least 100 forum entries

I then tried EW Lathe and was given 10.

So if you are looking for something not
that common you may find this useful.

If you look at Google’s Cached pages,
rather that the forum page direct, the word will even be highlighted.

Of course, if the item being searched
is very recent Google may not yet have found it.

On my PC the Advanced search facility
only becomes available after first doing a web wide search, but that
can be ignored.

I use this method to search my MEW
index on the web that runs to about 100 pages. I again searched for
EW lathe and it came up once in the lathe reviews pages.

The index is at
http://www.homews-mew-index.co.uk

Harold

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Posted by David Clark 1 on 08/07/2011 21:37:52:

Hi There

No you can’t.

We tried this and it returned so many entries it was of no use.

regards david

 

Dear David

 

When I first saw your reply its tone made me hopping mad. It seemed very curt and dismissive and not a very polite way of informing the person that you thought his request was unreasonable.

 

I’ve mellowed now, and looking at ‘Coalburners’ question again cannot decide which aspect of his enquiry the ‘No you can’t’ referred to. If it was regarding having a ‘proper forum’ then I can only assume that as this forum is only an adjunct to the paper magazine it importance does not rate very highly in MEW’s management.

 

As an addicted PC and forum user, if I compare the features and operation of this forum with many of the others I subscribe to it comes very low on the list of useability. As ‘Edward’ commented earlier there are quite a few ready made forum handing programmes and I would imagine that incorporating one of those into this website (which is otherwise brilliant) would make the management of the site easier and cheaper for your company.

 

For the first time yesterday I uploaded some pictures to an album I created, it was only later in the afternoon I realised how difficult it is for others to find the pictures. I then saw this topic which is so completly relevant.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Ian Phillips

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Come on David

The forum is impossible to search, which puts it in a league of its own. I know there are postings in there I want to find but short of spending hours randomly and fruitlessly diving in and out of likely-looking threads, there's no way of finding them. I can't even search by author. I challenge you to find a posting unless you already know exactly where to look for it.

If the search returns too many results, then the normal reaction is to make the search more specific. That's how they work and therein lies the power of the search tool.

Would there be any harm in having the search facility available? If it's really that useless we could always not use it. It would be nice to have the choice.

Please enable the search function and let us decide whether to use it or not. It could only improve our experience of the forums.

Pretty please?

Murray

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

You can use googlie to search a site

site:http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums

just put your search terms on the end

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Your 2 posts before tonite

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

You can indeed use Google. But try searching for say "johnston", as if you were hoping to see what posts our good friend Andy has perpetrated recently. Sure enough, you'll get plenty of hits back but if you try to follow any of them, you won't have any luck unless said gent is responsible for the very last post on that page (try it) – not much use as a search tool really.

To search the web page quickly for a key word (in this case "johnston&quot, you can hit control+F and enter the key word in the box. Usually this comes up blank.

Perhaps I'm missing something?

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Pehaps it would help if people would use sensible titles for their topics that describe the content. On lots of forums it bugs me no end that people use topics like "Help", "Urgent. Noobie needs help" etc. On moderated forums and groups the admin will sit on one of these for a couple of days and still let it through. Daft. At least on here David will help by improving a title when asked so the search engine will find it one day.

Even the more experienced will still ask for information having not bothered to use google at all or expect people to use telepathy to identify their lathe and what the problem really is from their garbled description.

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

Posted by David Clark 1 on 08/07/2011 21:37:51:

We tried this and it returned so many entries it was of no use.

 

I imagine that depends a lot on what was being searched for and how the query was worded.

Whatever, if this is the only reason for not implementing a full message body search could you not do what many other forums do – have a drop-down that lets a user select whether the search will be "Full" or "Subject Only"?. That way if he/she wants to take the trouble with many hits it's up to him/her.

At least then they couldn't complain at you

Edited By Sid Herbage on 29/02/2012 18:22:43

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

I made a posting about a Hudswell Clark Diesel Shunter D604 – googled for more info on this engine the next day and got my posting!

Neil

[Eddy CurrParticipant @eddycurr38053]

I wanted to find somethng on MEW today and in short order came to the realization there is scant native Search capability available within the forum itself.

This astounds someone such as myself, a longtime proficient user of tools like vBulletin's Advanced Search for scalpel-like precision knowledge retrieval from BBS database archives.

I was going to start a thread to ask for direction, thinking it was just a matter of infamiliarity with the site tool location. But first decided to see what results the rudimentary capability might deliver.

"Search Forum" … nothing

"Forum search" … nothing

"Search" … 35 results

35? Really ?

** ==================== **

I post these observations to the tail of a ten-year-old thread to emphasize that nothing regarding forum search deficiencies appears to have changed in a decade.

Yes, I've seen the advice directing people to utilize Google. Thanks, but no thanks.

I do not know who David Clark is, but suppose him to be a stakeholder of some sort in MEW and I find his contribution(s) to this thread to be illuminating.

Bewildering state of affairs here.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Unfortunately things won't change anytime soon. If you are not willing to use Google then maybe think again as entering "search" brings up 10,600 results on the forum rather than your rather low 35.

David Clark is ex Editor of ME and MEW mags

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Eddy,

Give us a clue … What is it that you want to find ?

MichaelG.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I seem to remember David was instrumental in getting the google search box limited to this web site installed on the home screen, google has a powerful set of Boolean and other tools to focus a search. If you are averse to google that is of course your choice. There are few places you can go on the Internet where they are not collecting something about you and now Siri, Alexa etc. Are certainly listening.

Mike

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

A quick (google) search suggests Neil was the instigator of getting the Google search on the home page.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

My apologies to Neil, I should not try and use my memory.

Mike

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by JasonB on 12/02/2019 19:59:46:

A quick (google) search suggests Neil was the instigator of getting the Google search on the home page.

.

This may be worth a look: **LINK**

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=67139

MichaelG.

[Author]

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