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Pooh-Bah
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Every time I perform a WS search I get hundreds if not thousands of hits that don't even contain the keywords
What am I doing wrong
Thanks all
dalehileman
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Carpal Tunnel
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okay, first of all, what do you mean by a WS search? there are two searches available up on the top of the page: the top one, in the white area, I would call the Wordsmith search -- it enables you to search the whole site, even including a Google search. the second one, in the gray area, is the forum search. here you need to fill the form out properly for what you want; but, if you were to leave everything at the default values except for putting the word "keyword" in the keyword field, you should come up with your post here.
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old hand
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old hand
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> the second one, in the gray area, is the forum search.
The search function works pretty well I think, though it is annoying that you have to change the settings every time. The presets should be different, IMO.
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Pooh-Bah
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Frm the one search I seldom get any hits at all, even when I'm sure I should
From the other I always get huge numbers of hits, few of which even contain the keyword
bell: Obviously you understand something about the algoithm I don't. However I agree about the settings, and furthermore it gripes me that when I return to the search page all the entries have been deleted
We have to be forgiving, however, as I find that many sites of this sort have less-than-perfect search and editing algorithms, but there's not much the Admins can do about it because they're all at the mercy of Bill Gates' numskull programmers
Last edited by dalehileman; 06/01/06 02:53 PM.
dalehileman
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old hand
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>Frm the one search I seldom get any hits at all, even when I'm sure I should
That's the one I'm talking about. Make sure you set the time range and then change your search scope to suit on the left (assuming you want to - if not leave it as 'All forums'). You can restrict the forum searches really well with the keywords (eg., by using the 'advanced search tips'), so just pick 'Newer than 3 years' or something and maybe up the results format to 50 so you don't have to sift through hundreds of pages - bob's yer uncle.
> it gripes me that when I return to the search page all the entries have been deleted
That's a feature, didn't you know:-) Most browsers are set to cache field input so that you need only to type the first letter letter of the word. That doesn't help for pages with radio buttons and the like though.
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Pooh-Bah
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bell: The top search, from which I never get any hits, has three windows, the bottom one being a Google search, and no time-range provision. I typed "then change your search scope" in all three windows and as usual I got no hits whatever from any of them
Using the lower search I typed "belligerent time range" and in addition to this thread I got 22 hits, most of which didn't contain all three keywords, but only one, "time"
PS: I don't see an "advanced search tips" link in either search page; perhaps because at age 75 I suffer a form of ADD and possibly early symptoms of Alzheimer's
I'm bamboozled
Thank you nevertheless, and I will keep at it
Last edited by dalehileman; 06/01/06 07:10 PM.
dalehileman
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dale, this can be found right above the keyword entry box: Keyword search terms ( Advanced search tips) the bit I've shown in blue is clickable. edit: so, putting [time +range] into the keywords search and belligerentyouth into the username search I get this.
Last edited by tsuwm; 06/01/06 07:25 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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How did I know, without first looking, that a thread with the word "algorithm" in it would have been initiated by Dale?
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tsu:thanks I will look for it but the blue wasn't clickable
The red was clickable, but again I didn't need 23 hits. The algorithm (or whatever it's called) picked out only the word, "time", ignoring the other two. Like I said, this isn't like Google and there's something strange about it
father: I could use some synonyms; pref neologisms, and slang is acceptable--thanks
dalehileman
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dale, here is a pointer to the search page; note the "Advanced search tips" in blue (which turns red when I move the mouse pointer over it) -- that's the bit that is clickable! http://wordsmith.org/board/search.php?Cat=0again, putting [time +range] into the keywords search and belligerentyouth into the username search should get you 1 match, i.e. this thread!!
Last edited by tsuwm; 06/02/06 08:02 PM.
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