Forum Tips - Search

[C clearly]

For background about Forum Tips, see here. This thread will be devoted to understanding the Search function of the forum. Please post any questions or corrections below, and I'll update this post to include them.

There is a Search button on the top right of the blue banner across the top. We’ll explain searches in several different posts – the basic and advanced searches in the forum software, and then how to search with your browser, for example using Google.

Basic forum search

Click on the Search link to get the basic window:

1. Enter some key search words that you expect to find in the post. If you then click Search you will get a long list of posts that include your words. The search algorithms are mysterious to most of us, and often the results are not quite what you hoped to get. So, there are refinements…
2. On that basic window you can choose to Search titles only. This gives you relevant threads instead of individual posts. (Wouldn’t it be great if everyone gave a title to their threads that is informative and searchable.) If you click on the question mark (?) beside “Search title only” you will learn that by checking “Search titles only”, you will also get threads that have been tagged with the key words you enter, even if the title did not include those words. Tags will be discussed separately.
3. You can then simply click Search and enjoy the results.

For a discussion of Advanced search, go to the next post in this thread…

 

[C clearly]

Advanced Search

To continue our discussion of the Search feature on the forum, click on Advanced search (dark blue in the image in the post above). I recently discovered some useful features, after only 14 years on the forum. Here is what you will see:

1. Along the blue bar at the top, at the left, Search everything is the default/first choice and the search window is shown above. Here, you can enter some criteria related to dates. Many people prefer to see the results in order of Date (newest to oldest) instead of the default Relevance (decided by the software), so consider changing this.
2. Back to the blue bar at the top, Search threads is lurking unnoticed just to the right of “Search everything.” This is where the excitement lies. Click on "Search threads"! As shown in the image below, you have much more control over your search! This is how you can search, for example, for the tag “landmarks” or “side trips” on the Camino Frances forum. You can choose at the bottom to get results as threads rather than individual posts.
3. Skip over to the far right on the blue bar (click on the arrow >) and find Search tags. Here you can see all of the allowed tags – not just the most popular 50 or so that are displayed on the Home page.

 

[Yoyo]

Thank you, @C clearly for taking the time to create these forum user guides!
In relation with the search function I would like to make the following observation:

The other day I wanted to re-read some posts by [name removed by moderator] to save some of his tips on several topics to my "camino info library" so to speak. Unfortunately, as he is not a member any more, it seems no longer possible to search specifically for his (or any other ex-member's) contributions which means I have to search for "backpack" or "tent" or "foot care" etc. and scroll through many different threads to get to his.
Is there any way, older posts could still be archived and displayed under the ex-members' forum names?

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Is there any way, older posts could still be archived and displayed under the ex-members' forum names?

There is a trick you can use that might help out. Members are associated with both a name and a number. For example my profile can be gotten to with the URL https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/members/rick-of-rick-and-peg.51912/

To find [his] posts you need to know his number and that is 67185. So in the keyword search add the words "Deleted member 67185" but without the quotation marks (which seems to doom the search). Sometimes you get lucky and other (most) times not. You only will find links to threads though, not to posts.

This search will work better in Google with its site: feature. This time put "Deleted member 67185" in quotations. An example search is

"Deleted member 67185" compeed site:caminodesantiago.me

This also will only find threads.

 

[Yoyo]

Thank you very much, @Rick of Rick and Peg , that is very helpful!