Search techniques for this phpBB installation

[ChrisGreaves]

I am not a great fan of the phpBB search mechanism, or any BBS search mechanism for that matter.

A BBS is a storage area of knowledge, the data donated by members of the forum population.
Some of the data is good; some of the advice offered by beginners like me is simply awful!
A blind and simple search for “size: or “len:” is as likely to waste our time by having us wade through poor data as by not bothering to search at all and just experimenting.

David Carpenter is well known for his positive response to questions, and encouragement of suggestions. A natural consequence is that Everything improves monthly. Advice given on “size: or “len:” two years ago was given out for version 1.4, and may well be irrelevant to version 5. And just how long is it since we used version 732? (I made up that last number, but I know I saw a version in the 700s earlier today)

I do not expect phpBB to add an SQL-like search to its software, which leaves us with what we have got.

I find a technique of searching by Topic helps me to focus on significant posts. To see this, use Advanced Search and check ON both “Topics” buttons.

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If nothing else this will cut out those “Help!” topics. As well it will put more data per square inch of screen so that your (very fast) eye-brain combination can get more information faster.

Today I am interested in learning about the latest version, and so still in the Advanced Search panel:

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I have elected to examine posts only in the Everything 1.5 board and as well I have asked for topics only in the past year.
Which is a shame. I would prefer to go back two years or better yet to Fri Mar 12, 2021

In the meantime I solicit ideas on techniques to improve our own searching techniques, especially if it means we can locate answers from our collectively owned shared data, and release the bright ones amongst us to spend more time developing better searching strategies (grin!). And coincidentally helping beginners like me. :selfish:

Thanks, Chris

[void]

I'm going to start compiling all the Everything 1.5 help here:

Everything 1.5 Help

This page will offer the most up-to-date help.
This page will also open with the F1 key in the Everything 1.5 alpha.



Please try adjusting your phpbb search URL for more control:

Code: Select all

https://www.voidtools.com/forum/search.php?keywords=foo+bar&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=365&ch=300&t=0&
submit=Search

where:
keywords=foo+bar is the "keyword search" (+ means AND).
sc=1 is "search children" (1=yes, 0=no)
sf=all is the "search within" (all = Post subjects and message text, msgonly, titleonly or firstpost)
sr=posts is the "show results as" (posts or topics)
sk=t is the "sort type" (a=author, t=time, f=title, s=subject)
sd=d is the "sort order" (d=descending, a=ascending)
st=730 is the "limit of how olds posts can be in days" (730=2 years)
ch=300 is the "number of characters to show for each post".

[ChrisGreaves]

I'm going to start compiling all the Everything 1.5 help here:

Thank you David.
This new source would then be the "first stop" in terms of reference material? That is, I should make this new help set my Primary Source?

Please try adjusting your phpbb search URL for more control:
st=730 is the "limit of how olds posts can be in days" (730=2 years)

Thanks too for this. This technique means that I construct my own URL rather than use the Advanced Search form? I can do that and the parameter I have highlighted lets me get over that "one year" cutoff point.
Elsewhere I have used a bit of javascript for date calculations, so I can tweak that on-the-fly from a bookmark in Firefox, so your suggestion is especially valuable.
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

... I construct my own URL rather than use the Advanced Search form?

Later:
After a morning's use I have found that my searches are not that complicated. Here I am, hunting for anything at all on "diacritics:" and please note that colon!
(1) In Advanced Search I key in the search term “diacritics:”, Search in all forums, Subjects and text; display as Topics, and timespan All.
(2) Result: “Search found 124 matches: diacritics:”
(3) 124 matches is too much for me to digest, so I (browser back-arrow) return to the search page and set and timespan One Year.
(4) Result: “Search found 25 matches: diacritics:”
(5) 25 matches is digestible. I start by looking at the first result, the most-recent posting (usually by void) which lets me skip any historical debate going back to 2011 or thereabouts[1].

Some material is very thinly debated. For that I want/need to trawl back as far as I can. For common material the past 12 months is going to suffice.
I no longer feel the need to customize my url with javascript.
Cheers, Chris
[1] The earliest post by void is dated "Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:16 pm "

[ChrisGreaves]

I'm going to start compiling all the Everything 1.5 help here: Everything 1.5 Help

Thanks Void.
This new Help looks a little different from the current Support wiki at https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/
A quick Question:-
Should I use this new Help, possibly incomplete, as my exhaustive/definitive description structure of the help for Everything 1.5?

Or are you just covering features that are new/changed in Everything 1.5 (as distinct from 1.4)?
Thanks.

[void]

Should I use this new Help, possibly incomplete, as my exhaustive/definitive description structure of the help for Everything 1.5?

Yes, please.

For now, I am just covering the new features in Everything 1.5.

I will merge this help into the existing support wiki at https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/ when I am closer to a release.